Cunningham considering independent run

Signs declaring Jack Cunningham as an invalid candidate in the 11th Congressional District race greeted voters at the polls Tuesday night. But that may not be the case come November. Cunningham could be a third party spoiler in a general election that already has an enticing contest between two Congressional veterans — Democrat Bill Foster and Republican Judy Biggert.

The full number of votes cast for Cunningham despite the warning signs might never be publicly known since they were all immediately invalidated. But the Kane County clerk said Wednesday he beat Biggert in Kane County and got a third of the vote in both Will and Kendall counties. At that end of the day, that still means he lost. Appealing the appellate court ruling that tossed him off the ballot for invalid nominating petitions would only be an exercise in getting absolute clarity on how to properly notarize petitions. Cunningham said he still might seek that clarity in an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. However, the larger decision will be about running as an independent.

Since Cunningham wasn’t a valid candidate Tuesday, he didn’t technically lose a race already. So he could still run as an independent.

“For not being able to be on the ballot and not being able to campaign, I think we did pretty good,” Cunningham said. “But this game is about winning or losing. And moving ahead, last night’s vote was not a bad poll to have in making my decision. I’m still in my process of deciding what to do.”

Cunningham must make a decision by June 24. To run as an independent candidate, he’ll need to gather about 5,000 valid nominating petitions in the next three months.