SPRINGFIELD — Four years ago, candidates braved a mix of rain and snow. Two years ago, it was bone-chilling cold. But on Monday, the sun was shining with an Autumn crisp in the air as hundreds of candidates gathered in Springfield to file petitions for the primary election.

“Oh, my God, it’s like summer compared to the times that I had to be out here in the cold,” said state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, who’s running for the Illinois 7th Congressional District seat held by retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Danny Davis. “You needed to have triple layers. It’s pretty warm — and the lines are not as long as they used to be.”

The once-every-two-year spectacle is the formal kickoff to campaign season, with candidates for state, federal and judicial offices filing hundreds to thousands of signat

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