How did Obama manage to get his political opponants kicked off the Illinois state senate ballot in 1996?

Jonny Flash: How did Obama manage to get his political opponants kicked off the Illinois state senate ballot in 1996?
Somehow Barack Obama was able to get three people booted from the ballot, allowing Obama to run for the job unopposed.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Tekey
By playing “Hardball”.

Answer by patchouli4279
Yes at the last minute he contested the validity of enough signatures for his opponents nomination to get them knocked of the ballot.

Answer by Cuppa Jo
dirty politics….he was a community organizer trying to get out the vote, and in the end, only allowed people to have one choice…..him…does that sound like a change candidate to you?

Answer by Psycho Magnet
One of them was a long-time community friendly African-American woman who had represented that district for a long time

He used brute force legal tactics and challenged all the petitions and signatures.

He literally found every way possible to help him win,

Answer by Grady D
He challenged the signatures required to be on the ballot and neither of them had the required amount of legal signatures to get in the race. I don’t think exposing the fact that your competion is not within the rules can be considered brut force, or dirty politics. Just seems like good politics to me if you can’t collect th signatures needed you probably should not be in office.

Answer by bill t
lol he took off respectable people and if you look at what was said by his campaign they said they were “possibly corrupt” LOL hilarious i think Anderson Cooper lost alot of respect for him

Answer by D with R
It’s Chicago politics.

Answer by Cracker Jack
Obama vs. Ryan
As a result of the GOP and Democratic primaries, Democrat Barack Obama was pitted against Republican Jack Ryan.

Ryan trailed Obama in early polls, with Obama opening up a 22-point lead[6] after the media reported that Ryan had assigned Justin Warfel, a Ryan campaign worker, to track Obama’s appearances.[7] The tactic backfired when many people, including Ryan’s supporters, criticized this activity. Ryan’s spokesman apologized, and promised that Warfel would give Obama more space. Obama acknowledged that it is standard practice to film an opponent in public, and Obama said he was satisfied with Ryan’s decision to have Warfel back off.[7]

As the campaign progressed, the lawsuit brought by the Chicago Tribune to open child custody files from Ryan’s divorce was still continuing. Barack Obama’s backers emailed reporters about the divorce controversy, but refrained from on-the-record commentary about the divorce files.[8] On March 29, 2004, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider ruled that several of the Ryans’ divorce records should be opened to the public, and ruled that a court-appointed referee would later decide which custody files should remain sealed to protect the interests of Ryan’s young child.[9] A few days later, on April 2, 2004, Barack Obama changed his position about the Ryans’ soon-to-be-released divorce records, and called on Democrats to not inject them into the campaign.[8]

On June 22, 2004, after receiving the report from the court-appointed referee, the judge released the files that were deemed consistent with the interests of Ryan’s young child. In those files, Jeri Ryan alleged that Jack Ryan had taken her to sex clubs in several cities, intending for them to have sex in public.[10][11] The decision to release the files generated much controversy because it went against both parents’ direct request, and because it reversed the earlier decision to seal the papers in the best interest of the child. Jim Oberweis, Ryan’s defeated GOP opponent, commented that “these are allegations made in a divorce hearing, and we all know people tend to say things that aren’t necessarily true in divorce proceedings when there is money involved and custody of children involved.”[10]

Although their sensational nature made the revelations fodder for tabloid and television programs specializing in such stories, the files were also newsworthy because of questions about whether Ryan had accurately described the documents to GOP party leaders. Prior to release of the documents, Ryan had told leading Republicans that five percent of the divorce file could cause problems for his campaign.[12] But after the documents were released, GOP officials including state GOP Chair Judy Baar Topinka said they felt Ryan had misleadingly indicated the divorce records would not be embarrassing.[13] That charge of dishonesty led to intensifying calls for Ryan’s withdrawal, though Topinka said after the June 25 withdrawal that Ryan’s “decision was a personal one” and that the state GOP had not pressured Ryan to drop out.[14] Ryan’s campaign ended less than a week after the custody records were opened, and Ryan officially filed the documentation to withdraw on July 29, 2004. Obama was left without an opponent.

[edit] Obama vs. Keyes
Keyes, a conservative Republican from Maryland, faced an uphill battle. First, Keyes had few ties to Illinois political leaders. Second, during the time when Obama had no opponent, he had campaigned throughout the more conservative downstate regions to build up name recognition. Third, Keyes was seen as a carpetbagger, only establishing legal residency in Calumet City, Illinois days before running. The Chicago Tribune in an editorial, stated that “Mr. Keyes may have noticed a large body of water as he flew into O’Hare. That is called Lake Michigan.”[15]

Obama ran the most successful Senate campaign for a non-incumbent in 2004, and was so far ahead in polls that he soon began to campaign outside of Illinois in support of other Democratic candidates. He gave large sums of campaign funds to other candidates and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and sent many of his volunteers to work on other races, including that of now-Congresswoman Melissa Bean who defeated then-Congressman Phil Crane in that year’s election. Obama and Keyes differed on many issues including school vouchers and tax cuts, both of which Keyes supported and Obama opposed.[16]

Answer by maxmom
He played hard ball, Chicago style.

Like Truman said, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.

Answer by Java
By contesting the signatures for his opponents. From the actual signature themselves of the eligibility of the people collecting the signatures. If the person collecting the signatures was not registered all signatures that person collected did not count or if the signature was in print instead of cursive it was thrown out. His opponents fell short of the required signatures to run.

Answer by Jay C
The same way his supporters on Y/A get questions critical of B. Hussein Obama removed. He wined, cried, played the race card, and whined some more!

Answer by ladydragonstar26
I actually live in Illinois and I can tell you real easy.

Chicago and East St Louis.

Chicago runs Illinois practically and whatever they want they get. For anyone in Illinois to counter Chicago, literally all of the state South of Springfield has to unite against him

Hence East St Louis

Considering it is about 15 minutes from St Louis Missouri, essentially same principle applies. And it doesnt help matters any that for the last three elections They had to be investigated for Voter fraud.

So if Obama had any connections to these two cities as he so obviously does. Yeah realll easy to get dirt on others and get them out.