Out Police Sergeant Pam Cap’s name will appear on absentee ballots for the Democratic primary in Calumet City, Ill. However, whether she will stay on the regular ballot or not remains to be seen.

Cap, who hopes to unseat mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush, is fighting to stay on the ballot after an electoral board decision disallowed her from running. Previously, Cap’s attorneys had filed a challenge in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, stating that the Calumet City electoral board gave too broad of an interpretation of the limits of police involvement in politics.

The Times reports:

Cook County Judge Susan Fox Gillis on Monday issued a stay that prohibits Calumet City officials from enforcing the electoral board order that bumped Cap from the Feb. 24 Democratic primary ballot on grounds that her duties as a police officer made her ineligible to run for a municipal office.

Without that stay, those wishing to vote early in the city’s Democratic primary would only have the option of casting ballots for Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush. Should a court ultimately remove Cap from the ballot, any early ballots cast for her will not be counted.

Attorneys for both Cap and Calumet City used a 20-minute hearing in Gillis’ courtroom at the Daley Center to establish a schedule by which both sides will file legal briefs in support of their cases. Attorneys for both sides then will get to file written responses to those legal briefs. This process is expected to take up the rest of this week.

“This means I’ll be a busy reader this weekend,” Gillis said.

Actual oral arguments in Cap’s appeal will be heard Feb. 3 before Gillis.

Among the documents that Cap’s attorneys plan to file to support their case is a copy of a legal brief in support of a police officer in west suburban Cicero.

That officer’s attorney is James Nally, who also is the attorney who argued before the electoral board in Calumet City earlier this month to get Cap removed from the ballot.

Openly lesbian Police Sergeant Pam Cap is fighting to stay on the ballot for mayor in this year’s election in Calumet City, Ill. According to the The Times, Cap’s attorneys filed a challenge in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, stating that the Calumet City electoral board gave too broad of an interpretation of the limits of police involvement in politics.

The Times reports that some statutes prohibit police officers from becoming mayors because they are municipal employees, possibly presenting a conflict of interest on votes.

If Cap’s petition is unsuccessful, incumbent Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush will run unopposed. Cap says community members have encouraged her to still pursue her bid for public office.

The Times reports:

“Many people have told me I am doing the right thing (by continuing to campaign), so that is why I am moving forward,” said Cap, who also has received encouragement from the Fraternal Order of Police.

She says the president of the Illinois chapter of the police union has assured her that her candidacy for mayor is on sound legal ground, despite the claims of Calumet City officials that police cannot seek political office.

Illinois FOP state President Ted Street previously told The Times that state law would prevent Cap from doing campaign work while in police uniform or on duty, and that she would have to resign her police post prior to taking office.

Cap has said she will resign her police post if she wins the mayoral election, and that she uses vacation to create blocs of time in which to do campaign work. Calumet City officials previously said Cap should have taken a leave of absence from her post to avoid the appearance of conflicts.

Cap, who is not currently a Victory Fund endorsee, received support from The Times in an editorial entitled “Well, That’s One Way to Win an Election.”

If officials in Calumet City are serious about getting rid of thugs in the city, maybe they should start with City Hall.

It’s a harsh word, but I don’t think it’s out of line to describe what lawyers and the city’s electoral board did to police Sgt. Pam Cap, who wanted to run again for mayor in February and again take on incumbent Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush.

The three-member board voted Thursday, on the advice of attorney Burt Odelson, to deny Cap that chance.

Now Qualkinbush runs unopposed, and the $1.5 million Cap says Odelson’s law firm collects annually from the current administration for legal services is safe.

…

It’s happened before, and not only with Cap and McHenry. The 50-member Chicago City Council at one time had at least three city police officers as aldermen, and one — Pat O’Connor of the 40th Ward — is still an alderman. They are required to take a leave of absence in order to avoid a conflict.

I smell a conflict too. Only it has more to do with $1.5 million than it does with Cap.