It's Decision Time In Illinois

It’s decision time in Illinois. Tuesday is the day when we get to decide who our candidates will be for the 11th Congressional District. We know that the Republicans will choose Judy Biggert because she’s the only candidate running, since her opposition was disqualified. On the Democratic side we have three candidates:  Bill Foster, Juan Thomas, and James Hickey.

As anyone who has read my blog knows, I support Juan Thomas. To help explain why I support him, I’d like to refer to the tone of the Republican Presidential campaign.  If you’ve paid any attention at all, you’ve no doubt seen the candidates move farther and farther to the right. At this point they’re having a debate as to who is the most radically conservative. Because of this, we’ve been able to see their position on a number of issues.

We’ve seen their strong opposition to programs that support women’s health, programs than benefit the needy, programs that benefit retired people. We’ve seen callous disregard for the poor and the sick, a strong opposition to any health plan that brings more people under insurance coverage.  We’ve seen opposition to agencies dedicated to protecting the health and safety of citizens, our environment, and our financial security. Instead, we’ve seen support for the creation of intrusive social legislation, laws that severely threaten women’s health, laws that remove regulations from the very businesses that caused the financial crisis in 2008, etc.  Plus, we’ve seen documentation that their so-called economic plans will actually increase the national debt significantly.

Frankly, I don’t know how Foster or Hickey would vote if the Republicans actually brought some of their intrusive legislation to the floor, but I’m sure that Juan Thomas would oppose it. Juan Thomas is the only candidate who has gone on record as fully supporting women. He believes that women’s health should NOT be subject to federal law and will fight to support women.  He firmly supports both Social Security and Medicare and will fight attempts to privatize or otherwise limit Medicare. While he fully supports small business and jobs creation, and will diligently work to improve both, he does not believe that it makes sense to remove all regulations and give big business another opportunity to damage the economy and the American people. We’ve seen what big business and investment bankers do, and it’s clear that they cannot be trusted to behave ethically.  Juan Thomas supports unions and believes in fair pay for work and that employees should be treated fairly and honestly.  He believes that more should be done to help those who have lost their homes due to the mortgage crisis and will work to accomplish that. Finally, Juan Thomas supports the Dream Act and wants to help those young people become valuable American citizens.

In short, Juan Thomas puts people first. His goal is to meet the needs of the people in the 11th District, and I mean the entire district, including Aurora, Joliet, and all areas outside of Du Page County. If you want to have a voice in Washington, then Juan Thomas is your choice. Vote for him on Tuesday.