CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Cook County Democratic leaders are asking candidates seeking their endorsement to pledge loyalty to the party’s slate of hopeful and it’s ruffling some feathers.
The Cook County Democratic Party is requiring countywide candidates to sign a formal pledge that, if slated, they won’t endorse or support candidates who don’t get the nod.
Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, said that’s not new.
He said Cook County Democrats have always verbally asked candidates seeking the party’s endorsement to promise to support the entire slate. Simpson said what’s unusual now is that judicial candidates must promise not to run if they aren’t slated.
Some hopefuls said they won’t agree to the pledge.
What happens if candidates reject that demand? Party leaders would not help them with petitions, and might leave them off palm cards and other campaign materials. But, Simpson said, good candidates can win without being slated.
Simpson suggested the party’s trying to slow the trend of un-endorsed judicial candidates winning primaries.
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