Sources: Teachers Union Engineered Niemerg Removal from Ballot
Rep. Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich)
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Multiple sources tell The Illinoize the political arm of the Illinois Education Association, one of the state’s powerful teachers’ unions, engineered a challenge to the nominating petitions of conservative Rep. Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) and are actively recruiting a candidate to challenge Niemerg in a write-in race.
We’re told it was the IEA who recruited former Vermilion County Democratic Party chair Germaine Light, a retired teacher and longtime IEA activist, to challenge Niemerg’s petitions. He failed to notarize his Statement of Candidacy document and was removed from the ballot last week.
Niemerg is a member of the politically conservative “Freedom Caucus,” which has been antagonistic to Republicans who have received support from teachers unions.
IEA’s political staff has been working to recruit a candidate to oppose Niemerg, mostly in the northern half of the district, which runs from Danville to Lawrenceville along the Indiana line. Multiple Republicans have been approached, but none have jumped into the race yet.
Neither an IEA representative or Niemerg responded to our request for comment Tuesday.
Niemerg issued a statement Wednesday blaiming “far left Democrats” for his removal from the ballot.
“We filed well more than double the number of signatures but a technicality on some of the paperwork was challenged which means I now have to run as a write-in candidate,” Niemerg said. “The same far-left organizations behind the ballot objection may also fund a write-in candidate. These are Springfield Democrats playing dirty politics in south east Illinois.”
The deadline to file as a write-in candidate in the March primary is Thursday.
The IEA is also said to be “all in” to defeat Rep. Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City). Matt Hall of Vandalia is running against Wilhour, and we’re told IEA and AFSCME have plans to get in heavily for the challenger, though there hasn’t been any funding yet.