GOP candidates for top countywide offices AWOL

Republicans scouring the November ballot for GOP candidates for Cook County’s top elected offices will be out of luck.

The deadline for mounting opposition against entrenched Democrats holding countywide office has passed for the Cook County Republican Party.

The final day for party officials to submit candidate petitions was Monday, according to the Cook County Clerk’s office.

Though no Republican stepped forward to run for the top countywide offices during the March primary, the party still had the opportunity to put its preferred candidates on the ballot if Republicans gathered at least 2,710 petition signatures.

The county party had recruited three candidates: Tondalaya Maria Nelson, for clerk; Antonio Mannings, for treasurer; and Robert Foss, for assessor . Party leaders could find no one to run for County Board president.

And in the end, GOP officials failed to submit the 2,710 signatures needed to place the three candidates they did recruit on the ballot, according to the clerk’s office.

None of the candidates could be reached for comment.

In a May posting on the Cook County Republican Party’s website, party leaders asked for help gathering more signatures.

“The Democrats in Cook County have grown complacent, thinking they own our county. We have three candidates who have stepped up to take on the Democrat machine. They need our help to get on the ballot!” the posting stated.

When reached by phone, Cook County GOP Chairman Aaron Del Mar said he couldn’t comment.

Republicans vying for county office on the November ballot will essentially be limited to various county commissioner and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District commissioner seats.

Meanwhile, a city Republican organization, Chicago GOP, trumpeted the fact that they slated five candidates for U.S. Congress, state senator and state representative, according to a release from the group.

Signature requirements are different for each office and district. But those candidates — who are all running in districts that lay largely inside Chicago’s boundaries — each managed to clear their signature requirements by significant margins, the release said.

The group is led by Chris Cleveland, who challenged Del Mar’s party chairmanship and lost in March.

Candidates wanting to run as an independents have still have until June 23 to file their nominating petitions, though independents face a much higher 25,000 signature hurdle, the clerk’s office said.