Jan. 05--Illinois' role in the 2016 presidential nominating process began to take shape Monday, the first day of filing for White House aspirants and their all-important convention delegates to get their names on the state's March 15 primary ballot.
On the Republican side, businessman and reality TV show star Donald Trump, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio filed for the GOP presidential preference ballot when the doors to the State Board of Elections opened at 8 a.m.
All but Rubio also filed national convention delegate slates in the state's 18 congressional districts. Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Rubio campaign, said its delegate petitions were gathered entirely by volunteers and would be filed before the Wednesday deadline.
One apparent problem surfaced for the Trump and Christie campaigns when each camp filed the same person from Orland Park to run as a pledged delegate. That could leave either or both men at least one delegate shy of the full slate of 54 GOP delegates elected in Illinois -- three from each of the state's 18 congressional districts.
On the Democratic side, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Chicago native who grew up in Park Ridge, was among the first to file. Also filing presidential preference petitions was unsuccessful 2015 Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson, who has mounted a longshot bid for the Democratic nomination.
"We're fighting hard to earn the nomination with a coalition of Illinois voters who know Hillary Clinton has a proven track record of fighting for families and the toughness and experience to get things done," said Marlon Marshall, Clinton's director of state campaigns.
Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator, said they expect to file candidacy petitions for him and his delegate slate on the last day of filing Wednesday.
The filing of presidential preference and delegate petitions are viewed as a way to look at the organization and breadth of campaigns that are now focused on the Feb. 1 first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in Iowa, followed by the first-in-the-nation primaries in New Hampshire on Feb. 9.
For Republican candidates, the real key is to come up with supporters to run as delegates. Illinois' March GOP presidential preference primary is largely what is known as a "beauty contest" with no direct bearing on delegates who are elected separately in each congressional district.
"I am proud of the strong ground organization we have built in Illinois and across the country for the long haul," Bush said in a statement after filing his full slate of delegates. Bush added he was "looking forward to competing hard in Illinois on March 15."
