By most accounts, Andy Martin has an uphill fight if
he hopes to become the Republican Party’s nominee for governor. But
even if he somehow manages to win his party’s nod and the general
election, he may not be eligible to hold office, according to an Ohio
lawyer. On Dec. 29, Canton, Ohio-based attorney Craig T.
Conley asked the Illinois State Board of Elections to determine whether
Martin actually is a resident of the state of Illinois. Conley says he made the request after trying to serve
Martin with legal documents at what he presumed was Martin’s
residential address, in downtown Chicago. His certified letter was returned
“unclaimed” on Dec. 16, bearing a sticker that reads:
“New address is PO Box 1851 New York, NY 10150-1851.” An Internet search of the address leads to a Web site
for a group called First Responders for Military Families, which lists
Martin as its executive director. The state Constitution dictates that a person must
live in Illinois for at least three years before his or her election to be
eligible to hold the office of governor. Though Conley missed the deadline to file a formal
objection to Martin’s petition to place his name on March’s
primary ballot, he has asked Attorney General Lisa Madigan to investigate
Martin for fraud for soliciting campaign contributions. Conley’s
argument: Martin should know that he does not meet the residency
requirements and can’t legally become governor in 2006. Asked about Conley’s objection, Martin
responded by e-mail, calling the question “asinine and
unprofessional.” He added, “We are preparing to file a lawsuit
against the crackpot who wrote to the State Board of Elections.” Martin’s threat of a lawsuit, though news to
Conley, wasn’t at all surprising to him. He and Martin are suing each
other in Ohio. In addition, Martin has filed hundreds of lawsuits
over the past three decades in Connecticut, New York, Florida, and
Illinois. In January 2000, the Florida Supreme Court called
Martin, whose real name is Anthony Robert Martin-Trigona, one the
state’s “most active, as well as abusive” litigants for
filing nearly 30 petitions in courts there in the Sunshine State. “Everybody’s a ‘crackpot,’
” Conley says in response to Martin’s threat, “and
everything is a ‘conspiracy’ — usually headed by
Jews.” Over the years, many courts have commented on
Martin’s anti-Semitism. In 1982, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals
noted that Martin used legal pleadings to “launch vicious attacks
upon persons of Jewish heritage.” “This guy’s not on the same planet as
us,” Conley says.
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2006.
