“The Democratic Party is fond of kicking Greens and other challengers off the ballot because we interfere with their usual strategy of being the not-Republican Party,” says Kalbfleisch. “I will force the Democratic primary winner to run on something more substantive than ‘Iraq is bad; I’m not the incumbent,’ and I will take [incumbent] Mark Kirk to task on how exactly it is conservative or fiscally responsible to finance half a trillion for a pointless invasion.“

The challenge is nothing more than an attempt to embarrass Kalbfleisch considering the 10th congressional district Green primary is uncontested. Regardless of the outcome of the challenge, Kalbfleisch will still be in the general election thanks to the 300,000+ people who in 2006 helped the Illinois Green Party gain “established party” status by voting for Green gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney. The established Green Party will simply slate Kalbfleisch into the general election if necessary.

“They’re just trying to convince people that I won’t be a factor in the race,” says Kalbfleisch. “Of course, if that were true, they wouldn’t bother challenging me in the first place.”

The chairperson of the Lake County Democrats is State Senator Terry Link, whose petition is also being challenged. The Democrats challenging Kalbfleisch is particularly hypocritical in light of Link’s recent comment that the challenge to Link’s petition amounts to “a bunch of Republican operatives trying to interfere in a Democratic primary.” Democrats are doing the same thing in a Green primary.