Action by the Illinois General Assembly to move the 2008 general primary election to Feb. 5 from the third Tuesday in March means that nominating petitions can be circulated starting Aug. 7.

The earlier primary moves the filing period for nominating petitions for Macon County offices to 8 a.m. Oct. 29 to 5 p.m. Nov. 5 in the county clerk's office, 141 S. Main St.

County Clerk Steve Bean said another interesting wrinkle in this year's petitions deals with the low number of signatures required to get on the ballot, especially for anyone wanting to run on the Green Party ticket or as a Republican.

The number of required signatures is based on the candidate for each party who received the highest number of votes in the county during the 2006 general election.

The antipathy shown by voters in the governor's race toward incumbent Rod Blagojevich, the Democrat, and Judy Baar Topinka, the Republican, allowed Green Party candidate Rich Whitney to garner 10 percent of the vote. That was a victory of sorts for the Green Party because it needed only 5 percent of the total vote to become an "established party" under Illinois law.

Green Party candidates now qualify for the same privileges to get on the ballot next year as Republicans and Democrats.

"We could get all kinds of people running for office with the signature requirements on nominating petitions so low," Bean said.

For example, anyone wanting to run on the Green Party ticket for county board would need only two signatures in board districts 1, 2 and 3; three signatures in District 4; four signatures in districts 5 and 6; and five signatures in District 7. Any Green candidate for the countywide offices of auditor, circuit clerk, coroner, recorder or state's attorney would need only 20 signatures on petitions to enter the primary.

Republicans also have lower than normal signature requirements because their petition totals are based on the vote for Topinka, which was not up to local standards for the GOP, Bean said. Any Republican seeking countywide office needs only 82 signatures, compared to 155 for a Democrat, he said.

The maximum number of signatures required among the county board districts is 25 in District 6, with the others requiring fewer petition signers.

Candidates who have changed their names within the last three years prior to the last day for filing nominating petitions, either by a statutory or common law procedure in Illinois or any other state, must place on their nominating petitions "formerly known as" and list their previous name.

The affidavit each candidate is required to file with the petitions must state the candidate's previous name and the date it was changed. Failure to do so will be grounds for removing the candidate from the Feb. 5 primary ballot.

The requirement does not apply to name changes resulting from adoption to assume an adoptive parent's surname, marriage to assume a spouse's surname or dissolution of marriage or declaration of invalidity of marriage to assume a former surname.

If the name change is required, the former name will be listed on the primary ballot along with the candidate's current name.

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State Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Greenville, recently was presented with a meritorious service award by the Illinois Veterans of Foreign Wars at a ceremony in Peoria in appreciation of his work in the state legislature on behalf of veterans.

Stephens is a Vietnam War veteran and recipient of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals for his service in the Army from 1969 to 1971.

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The Illinois State Republican Party has a new feature on its Web site, WeAreIllinois.org, that is a compilation of negative press about Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Folks can go directly to BloggingOnBlagoBlog.com without accessing the GOP Web site, but they can't really leave their thoughts on the governor or the state Republicans' attacks on him in true blog fashion.

Ron Ingram can be reached at ringram@herald-review.com or 421-7973 and Mike Frazier can be reached at mfrazier@herald-review.com or 421-7985.