Judge reverses self, scratches candidate's name from ballot

CAIRO, Ill. -- The number of candidates seeking municipal office in Cairo's Feb. 27 primary is back down to 33. A candidate who had successfully sued to keep a ballot slot for the Cairo City Council lost his position in a second round of court tests.

But Charles Koen's back-and-forth battle to run for the Ward 3 council slot isn't over. He continued his effort Tuesday by filing an appeal with the Illinois 5th District Court of Appeals. He's challenging a ruling from Associate Circuit Judge Rodney Clutts, who reversed a previous ruling and barred Koen from the ballot.

The issue in Koen's case is whether a convicted felon can legally seek office in Illinois. Koen was convicted on six federal felony charges in 1991, serving a three-year sentence for theft of government funds, false statements and aiding and abetting arson, among other charges.

In his first ruling, Clutts ordered Koen's name restored to the ballot because the man who challenged his qualifications, Lorenzo Nelson, didn't appear at a city electoral board hearing. In that ruling, Clutts said the board did not have the authority to pursue the case on its own.

In his revised opinion, released last Wednesday, Clutts said he was convinced after further hearings that the board did not exceed its authority. Keeping Koen on the ballot, Clutts wrote "would jeopardize the integrity of that electoral process."

The electoral board "cannot be expected to proceed with the expertise of the court system" and the board acted "in substantial compliance with the statute and their own rules."

Cairo city attorney Patrick Cox said he sought the rehearing because Clutts had misapplied the law. There is no fundamental right to run for public office, Cox said. A fair election requires that all the candidates on the ballot be legally eligible for the office they seek, he added.

"If you have a candidate who is ineligible to take office, he is going to take votes away from a legitimate candidate," Cox said.

Cox praised Clutts for changing his decision. "It takes guts for a judge to say he got it wrong."

Koen said he was confident the appeals court will put him back on the ballot, and that he would win the primary. "The voters will repudiate the attempts of the mayor and Mr. Cox in this direction."

The decision leaves 23 candidates for six city council seats and 10 candidates for mayor in Cairo. Along with Clutts' reversal, a second candidate challenging his removal from the ballot, Phillip Mathews, also lost his second round in the courts. Judge William Thurston ruled Friday that he would not change an earlier ruling upholding Matthews removal from the ballot.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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