Munoz Will Get Thrown Off Ballot: Joliet Attorney

JOLIET, IL— On Friday morning, the Will County Republican chairman and his slate of candidates for the November election held a news conference calling for Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow's resignation. They accused Glasgow of abusing his authority by orchestrating a secret court hearing intended to remove Glasgow's challenger Rick Munoz from the ballot.

If Munoz's candidacy is rejected, Glasgow will run unopposed.

By Friday afternoon, Joliet attorney Scott Pyles notified Joliet Patch and other news media outlets he is representing Richard Girot, a Will County Republican voter who has filed a formal objection to Munoz's candidacy for Will County State's Attorney.

Pyles is a partner at Will County's largest law firm, Rathbun, Cservanyak & Kozol.

Pyles told Patch the election dispute may have a hearing at the courthouse late next week.

"This statement is in response to comments by the Republican County Chair regarding their recent appointment of Rick Munoz as a Republican candidate for State’s Attorney," Pyles wrote Patch. "It is undisputed that Rick Munoz voted in the 2020 Democratic primary. Under the Illinois Election code and settled case law, he is a qualified voter of the Democratic Party for this election cycle and cannot file the critical statement of candidacy for another established political party."

According to Pyles, Munoz filed a statement of candidacy on Monday, June 1 stating he was a qualified voter of the Republican Party. "As such, he filed a false statement of candidacy," Pyles wrote. "Under the election code, that statement of candidacy is void. He is ineligible to run as a Republican, and is ineligible to be elected as a Republican in this election cycle."

Pyles said a similar election controversy unfolded two years ago and the Republican Party ended up on the losing end of that election dispute.

"In 2018, the Republicans did exactly the same thing — they slated a candidate by the name of Christian Cairy as a Republican for county board after Cairy had voted as a Democrat in the 2018 primary," Pyles wrote Patch. "Faced with this fatal defect, Cairy’s candidacy was withdrawn. Munoz ‘s candidacy is void and Mr. Girot’s objection should be sustained."

At Friday morning's news conference outside the Will County Courthouse, County GOP Chairman George Pearson called for the Illinois State Board of Elections "to investigate certain actions of the Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow relative to a secret filing and a secret proceeding which was held on the morning of June 1st, 2020."

At that time, Pearson was not aware that a formal objection to Munoz's candidacy was on file.

"Up until the point we walked into the courtroom (today) still no objection had been filed against the petitions filed by the Will County Republican Central Committee, nominating Rick Munoz for State's Attorney, Anthony Granata for Clerk of Circuit Court and James Buiter for Auditor," Pearson told reporters.

On Monday, three lawyers who work full-time for Glasgow plus two members of the Will County Clerk's Office participated in a courthouse hearing surrounding the election controversy, court records reflect.

The purpose of the hearing was to inform Will County Chief Judge Richard Schoenstedt that they anticipated someone may challenge the legitimacy of Munoz's filing to oppose Glasgow's re-election bid in November, court transcripts show.

Pearson maintained the hearing involving both elected offices was improper because Munoz had not even submitted his petition signatures to be on the ballot yet.

"Not an objection," Pearson repeated. "But yet they went into court and then turned around and sealed it to prevent or to give the air that something inappropriate, some type of criminal activity, or impropriety, had been done.

"And this is the reason why we need a new State's Attorney in Will County because the people that we have continuously abuse our civil rights."

Pyles told Patch that Pearson is trying to deflect criticism that should be directed at himself.

"This is a dust storm to obscure the fact that the Republican chairman sent out his precinct committee people in the midst of a pandemic to get signatures for a Democrat. That's what all this is."

On Monday, Judge Schoenstedt agreed to appoint the Du Page County State's Attorney's Office in regard to the expected election candidacy dispute.

Glasgow is seeking his seventh term of office as a Democrat. Glasgow won his first two elections in the 1990s, but lost in the 2000 election to attorney Jeff Tomczak. In 2004, Glasgow came back and beat Tomczak and Glasgow has remained in office ever since.

In 2016, Glasgow ran unopposed.

Pearson, the Republican chairman of Will County, maintains the state election law is broad, and he pointed out it's known in election circles as the "sore loser law."

Pearson said the "obscure state law" was enacted many years ago to prevent candidates who lose in a Democrat or Republican primary race to then get back on the ballot for the November general election in a different party.

Munoz, however, did not run in the March 2020 primary, Pearson said.

More importantly, Pearson said, his nomination appointment by the Will County Republican Party Central Committee had unanimous support.

Munoz's recent effort to run for the Will County State's Attorney as the Republican candidate marks his first attempt at running for election, Munoz told Patch last week.

Pearson said Munoz obtained more than 1,300 petition signatures from Republican voters in recent days. He needed to obtain 597 in order to be on the November ballot, Pearson said.