DeKalb Township supervisor candidate hopeful Jim Luebke won’t be listed on ballot after lawsuit dismissal

DeKALB TOWNSHIP – A DeKalb Township supervisor candidate whose candidacy was thrown out over a paperwork error will not have his name on the ballot for the upcoming consolidated election after all, following a county judge’s ruling Thursday.

DeKalb County Judge Bradley Waller ruled to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning in case an emergency appeal needs to be filed, after a nearly four-hour emergency hearing Thursday at the DeKalb County Courthouse in light of the April 6 ballot certification deadline.

Waller said there was no dispute that supervisor candidate Jim Luebke did not submit a receipt for his statement of economic interest with the township during the filing deadline, although he filed his actual statement on time with the county, and Waller ruled the law is clear that not filing the receipt is detrimental to the county clerk’s ability to certify a candidate to the ballot.

“As much as it pains me, I am mandated to follow the law,” Waller said, noting that the hearing provided compelling discussion. “I believe I’m following the law [and] the emergency petition for Writ of Mandamus and … prohibition is denied.”

Anna Wilhelmi, Luebke’s Aurora-based lawyer, said it feels unfair that voters are going to be denied a choice on the township supervisor since, with Luebke not being named, only one candidate will be listed on the ballot. She said she disagrees that the township clerk has the apparent authority to throw out candidacy papers for “a minuscule receipt” when, in this particular case, no one filed any objections to Luebke’s candidacy petition during the proper filing period.

“Frankly, it should’ve been an electoral board when an objection is filed,” Wilhelmi said.

The ruling comes after weeks of back-and-forth regarding whether Luebke’s candidacy papers would be certified since township officials said he did not submit one of three necessary filing documents required by law to earn ballot approval. In response, Luebke filed a lawsuit in DeKalb County court Tuesday against the DeKalb Township, DeKalb Township Supervisor Nancy Tegoda, and DeKalb Township Clerk Kevin Flavin.

Luebke, who chaired the DeKalb County Democratic Party until recently, is no stranger to DeKalb County politics. He’s held elected office on the DeKalb County Board and served as a DeKalb Township trustee in 2009.

Luebke said during his witness testimony Thursday that he heard about the error through the grapevine and eventually filed the receipt with the township more than a month after the December filing period.

“I freely admit it was an omission that I had missed,” Luebke said. “I obviously meant to take it down and I would usually do these things, and I missed it at that time.”

Former DeKalb Township Clerk Lynne Kunde wrote in her Jan. 4 resignation letter that Luebke’s receipt from his statement of economic interest – a disclosure document detailing who’s employed by whom, where a candidate gets their paycheck and how they spend it, or any professional or personal ties to entities that could denote a conflict of interest financially, according to the Illinois Government Ethics Act – was omitted from his candidate packet he filed in December. Days later, on Jan. 6, she decided to certify it anyway, she said in the letter, based on knowledge she’d confirmed that Luebke had filed his statement of economic interest with the DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder’s Office on Dec. 16 and was simply missing the receipt.

In her professional day job, Kunde also works as deputy clerk and election judge coordinator in the county clerk’s office.

Before her resignation, Kunde alleged, she got the impression after talking with township executive administrative assistant Karen Gumino, who Kunde named in Thursday’s hearing, that members of the newly formed Barb City United Party – a political party formed by several members of the township board of trustees and others seeking reelection to get on the ballot as a joint newly formed party instead of individually – had threatened to sue her if she certified Luebke’s petition.

The Daily Chronicle was not able to verify whether any threat of lawsuit was actually made by anyone affiliated with the party, as members of the party did not respond to requests for comment. Crystal Lake-based attorney Brad Stewart denied any allegations of a lawsuit on behalf of the township.

“I felt like there were steps being taken into bullying me to make a decision I was not happy with,” Kunde said during her witness testimony in court Thursday.

When pressed during her witness testimony, Kunde said she did not and does not know which member of the party had given the impression that there was a threat of a lawsuit.

Gumino, who had initially dated and stamped Luebke’s township candidacy documents in December, said during her own witness testimony Thursday she had asked Kunde if the township could be subjected to a lawsuit if Luebke’s petition was filed without the receipt. She said she never made a statement to Kunde about members of the Barb City United Party possibly threatening a lawsuit.

“I don’t know where that came from,” Gumino said.

There remains just one person, DeKalb Township Trustee Mary Hess, running for township supervisor whose candidacy was certified for the ballot, township officials said.

According to documents obtained by the Daily Chronicle, Hess is part of the Barb City United Party, which filed a joint petition for the April consolidated election ballot. Also included are several current township trustees running for reelection: Chad McNett, Lisa King, Dale Thurman, Nancy Brodlo, Nicole Crespo, Rich Dyer and Craig Smith, among others.

Hess did not return a request for comment from the Daily Chronicle.

Township attorney Brad Stewart said he felt the judge made the proper decision in following election law and that was the township’s position all along. He said the filing process is an objective one and the same rules would apply for anyone else in similar circumstances as Luebke’s.

“We’re not against anybody running for office,” Stewart said.

Luebke said he was mainly “exhausted” after the Thursday hearing. He said there are other options going forward, including appealing Waller’s decision and filing as a write-in candidate for the township supervisor office – although running as a write-in candidate is not the preferred option for him.

“I want to take it up with my attorney and sleep on this,” Luebke said. “Take it overnight and look at options come morning.”

• Daily Chronicle editor Kelsey Rettke contributed to this report.