State lawmaker faces renewed challenges over Calumet City mayoral election
SPRINGFIELD — State Rep. Thaddeus Jones, who was elected Calumet City mayor in April, is facing a challenge to his mayorship that is based on a municipal referendum that prohibits a Calumet City mayor from also serving as a state representative.
But Jones, a Calumet City Democrat, said a recently enacted state law ends any further challenges to his mayorship based on the referendum because a new law prevents local governments from requiring a member of the General Assembly to resign his or her office to seek elected office in that local government.
Calumet City Alderman James Patton and former Board of Police and Fire Commissioners member Mary Cox, in an open letter last week, asked Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx to remove Jones as mayor, pursuant to the referendum.
The referendum, which voters in Calumet City passed Nov. 3, bans a person from seeking mayoral office “if, at the time for filing nomination papers, that person also holds an elected, paid office created by the Constitution of the State of Illinois.”
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