First, you start looking for new and exciting candidates and began rebuilding an opposition party that has, especially in the city of Chicago, become weak and resigned to losing elections. More than a dozen candidates for state office gathered at the Park Ridge South Park Recreation Center Thursday, February 16, at a candidate forum hosted by the Republican Women of Park Ridge, Illinois and the Maine Township Republican Women’s Club. The crowd wasn’t disappointed.
It was an old fashion political get together before a packed room and those attending heard a litany of complaints about what decades of one-party Democratic rule has wreaked upon the state of Illinois and what they, if they win elected office, plan to do about it. Needless to say, they are ALL good conservative Republicans.
Two of those attending are write-in candidates and need your attention. They each need 500 signatures to appear on the ballot for the March 20 primary. They are:
- Susan Sweeney, candidate for Illinois state representative in the 55th District.
- Greg Bedell, candidate for Illinois state representative in 15th District. His opponent is four-term Democrat John D’Amico.
“I want to go to Springfield and help repeal the 67% tax increase that Governor Pat Quinn and the Democrats
fostered upon the citizens of this state,” Bedell told the crowd. He is also a supporter of school vouchers.
Sweeney also nixed the Democrat’s huge increase and promised to work to reform the state’s Medicaid and entitlement programs to ensure future funding for those truly in need.
Other candidates were:
- Tim Wolfe, candidate for the 9th Congressional District. Wolfe also deserves special attention as he is running against Ultra-Lefty Jan Schakowsky, a seven-term Democrat who never met a tax increase or politically correct cause she wouldn’t embrace. She is a ferocious supporter of Barack Obama’s agenda to change the face of America.
- Dan Patlak, Cook County Board of Review
- Gayle Smolinski (current mayor of Roselle (IL), candidate for state senate 28th District. Her opponent is four-term Democrat Dan Kotowski.
- Jim O’Donnell, candidate for state senate 28th District.
- Rep. Michael McAuliffe, 20th District
- Rep. David Harris, 53rd District
We will quote Winston Churchill, who said “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
Either the Democratic Party never saw this quote or chooses to ignore it.
“Illinois is not a Democratic state,” said Rep. McAuliffe. “There are too many Democrats in Springfield. We must change the make-up of our government in the state capital.”
All those speaking agreed Democratic control of Illinois state government must end if Illinoisans hope to see fiscal responsibility return to the state.
“We must reverse the unfair economic policies that drove the state down to 48th in the nation in job creation in 2011,” Susan Sweeney told the audience. Helping to elect the men and women speaking here tonight will be a step in the right direction.”
The opportunity to change the political face of Illinois begins on March 20.
