Race of the Day — Illinois Senate special

Sen.
Roland Burris (D-Ill.) plans to press ahead with his effort to persuade
the U.S. Supreme Court to allow him to participate in a post-election
lame-duck Senate session.

An Illinois judge ruled in August that the state’s general-election
Senate candidates will also appear on the special-election ballot for
the remainder of President Obama’s Senate term. That means Democrat Alexi
Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk will be running in two races for
one seat, but Burris was excluded from participating because he didn’t
file as a general-election candidate.

{mosads}Burris — a former state attorney general — has filed a motion
asking justices to put him on the special-election ballot. The winner of
the special election will serve out the 60 days between Nov. 3 and Jan.
3, when a new Congress is inaugurated. An official with the Illinois
State Board of Elections said the results should be certified within the
week of Nov. 22, which would install the new senator in the middle of
the lame-duck session.

In June, an appeals court had ruled that the state violated the
Constitution by not holding a special election for the seat after
Burris’s interim appointment ends. A district court judge, John Grady,
subsequently ruled that only the general-election candidates — and not
Burris — would be eligible in the special election, which would be held
on the same day.

Burris said Grady is “off-base” by overstepping the 17th Amendment
to the Constitution, which established direct election of U.S. senators
by popular vote.

“We think the judge is definitely off-base when
he began to overstep the bounds of the 17th Amendment to the
Constitution and select candidates for the special election,” Burris
said.

“That’s what he’s doing. So we’ve filed a writ of certiorari with the
United States Supreme Court to say that the State Legislature under the
17th Amendment should be the body that would make the determination on
the election — not the judge.”

Burris said his lawyers have asked for an immediate ruling.

“What
we’re hoping that will do is take away that special election,” he said.
“Having two elections on Nov. 2 for Illinois’s Senate seat would be
unconscionable. … We’re trying to prevent the law from being
perverted. It’s about the principle of it. The judge does not have the
authority to select candidates for an election.”

— Sean J. Miller contributed to this post.