DuPage judge's ruling scuttles House candidate's campaign

DuPage County Democrats are calling for an investigation into the DuPage Election Commission after a Wednesday ruling that effectively eliminates their House District 41 candidate from contention in the Nov. 6 election.

According to court records, DuPage Judge Bonnie Wheaton ordered the commission to correct a "coding error" that incorrectly placed the apartment building where Valerie Montgomery lives on the 1600 block of Country Lakes Drive in Naperville in the 41st House District, which includes parts of Naperville, Warrenville and Aurora.

According to Wheaton's ruling, Montgomery actually lives in the state's 49th House District, which includes parts of Naperville, Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles and Wayne.

Montgomery ran unopposed in the April primary election as the lone Democratic candidate in the 41st House District.

As a result of the ruling, DuPage Election Commission attorney Pat Bond said Montgomery still will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot but she will be unable to vote for herself and would be unable to serve even if she wins because her residency makes her ineligible to hold the office. State election law requires candidates to live in their district for two years before running for elected office.

Montgomery did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment.

Wheaton's ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed Monday by incumbent Rep. Grant Wehrli of Naperville, which pointed out the error.

"Fair and accurate elections are the cornerstone to our democracy. The DuPage Election Commission clearly made a mistake by placing an entire apartment building in the wrong legislative district. This morning they admitted their mistake, blaming it on a coding error and settled the case," Wehrli, a Republican, said Wednesday afternoon. "I will continue to advocate for the drawing of fair maps that are free from partisan gerrymandering as the wildly irregularly shaped map that may have led to this confusion."

DuPage Democratic Chairman Robert Pieckert called the mistake "uncalled for" and blamed DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin for hiring his "friends" to serve on the commission, rather than election "experts."

"(The commissioners) are the ones who authorized (Montgomery) to be on the ballot and approved her petitions saying she was eligible in that district. This incompetence needs to be investigated," Pieckert said. "People on the election commission board have absolutely no idea what election commissioners do. Thankfully the commission is going into the clerk's office soon."

But Bond said candidates for state office file with their petitions with the state board of elections and not the DuPage body. "We cannot take any action to determine eligibility for statewide offices," he said.

Cronin declined to comment.

Pieckert said he's never been involved in a situation like this before and needs to talk to lawyers before deciding how to proceed.

"We need to see what we can do, if anything, to get somebody back in that race," he said. "I just don't know what our options are at this point."