I attended the Anderson Announcement:
I could try to paraphrase Dennis’ very impressive biography and where he stands on issues but that wouldn’t do him justice so I’m going to take the easy way out and let you read the good news. The speech was delivered on August 18th, 2013.
To donate, go to the Anderson Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dennisanderson.IL14 and click the ActBlue (AB) button or email the campaign at andersonforcongress14@gmail.com. You know the drill, volunteering and donations to help him fight for us. Dennis gives us the chance to change Congress.
DENNIS ANDERSON BIO
Dennis offers residents of IL-14 the opportunity to support a candidate committed to better government and the interests of average Americans. Dennis spent roughly half of his career working in public health with the Wisconsin Division of Health in Madison. He began in 1978 by directing a short-term project in school-based child health screening, after which he moved on to work as a budget and management analyst and a program and management policy advisor. For several years he was a member of the team leading the State’s planning for and management of its awards under the Federal Maternal and Child Health Block Grant and the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant, and worked closely with city and county health departments and not-for-profit health and social service agencies throughout the State. Dennis also managed State programs in Adult Health, the Rural Mammography, Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Refugee and Immigrant Health, and Disease Cluster Investigation. While with the Division of Health, he served on such bodies as the Division’s Affirmative Action/Civil Rights Compliance Committee, as Liaison between the Division and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and as a member of the Association of State and Territorial Chronic Disease Program Directors.
The latter half of Dennis’ career was spent working with cancer research faculty at the University of Wisconsin’s Comprehensive Cancer Center in Madison and later at Loyola University Chicago’s Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, where he served as the Center’s Assistant Director for Research Support.
Anderson has been retired since 2010. Dennis believes in the value to the community of citizen involvement, and has committed himself to such involvement in a number of volunteer capacities. Key among these have been service as a member of:the Board of Directors of the Dane County (Wisconsin) Human Society City of Madison (Wisconsin) Ethics Board, Mayoral Appointee U-CARE (HMO) Grievance Committee, Madison WI the Board of Directors, Southern Wisconsin Foodbank, Inc.the Board of Directors, International Breast Cancer Research Foundation the Board of Directors, Literacy Volunteers of Lake County Illinois the Board of Gurnee Rotary Dennis is currently on the boards of the International Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Literacy Volunteers of Lake County, and is a volunteer with the Friends of the Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee. Dennis Graduated with Distinction from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Economics and Political Science. He also attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Public Administration and at Loyola University Chicago in Theology.Dennis believes strongly that public service, whether as an occupation or in a volunteer capacity, is an honorable undertaking, and will serve as a member of Congress with the same strong commitment to Illinois’ 14th Congressional District as he has made to the community over the years.Education Info Grad School: Loyola Chicago- Theology , Public Administration College: University of Wisconsin–Madison: Economics, Political Science High School: Marshall High School Marshall, Wisconsin Activities Board of Directors, International Breast Cancer Research Foundation Member, Gurnee Rotary Club Board of Directors, Literacy Volunteers of Lake County
Andersons’ Announcement speech -8/18/13:
Let me start by thanking Mark Guethle and the other county chairs for making this event happen. We also owe our gratitude to the owners and workers here at the Filling Station for offering this great venue. Thanks also to all of you for attending, and remember that you are a Democrat, and tip big if you are able.So here we are. We the people. We the people. Who are we the people? We’re men, we’re women, we’re families, we’re children. We’re white, black, Latino, Asian. We’re urban, suburban, we’re rural. We’re small businessmen, we’re farmers. We’re doctors, lawyers, teachers and laborers. We work at Fermilab and we work in hospitals and nursing homes, we work at WalMart. We’re unemployed, we’re retired. We’ve got two PhDs, and we never finished high school. We’re rich, middle class, and we’re poor. We’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist. We’re unaffiliated and we’re atheist. We’re gay, straight, bisexual and transgendered. We are all in this together, and cannot be divided into makers and takers, into 53 percent and 47 percent, As was the case two years ago, we have a Congress that doesn’t work.
The House, in particular, is broken. Our opponents are people who, if faced with only two choices in reducing the deficit, either to ask a little more of those who have much or to take from those who have little, they will choose the latter. As we used to say back in the late 60s, “if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” And our current representative is clearly not part of the solution. He was all but invisible during the last election, and appears to be taking that same path now, holding “mobile office” meetings that are so poorly advertised and so poorly scheduled that in some cases no one appeared but some of us in this room. He apparently held a telephone town hall this week, but only some select constituents knew of it in advance. He has voted against women, labor and the environment. His chief legislative interests seem to be in abstinence-only sex education, as evidenced by his introduction of a bill to spend $500 million on it; and in making it safer for banks to engage in the sort of risky trading that nearly brought the economy down just a few years ago. His solution to the jobs shortage seems to be his suggestion that if every small business would just hire one more person, problem solved. He says constantly that he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and seems to believe that any problems with the current health care system can be solved by simply allowing more insurance companies to sell their policies across state lines.
His priorities are not those of the people of this district.We have serious problems in the country, and they require serious discussion. Where is the Congressional debate on poverty? Where is the discussion of the fact that middle and working class wages have been stagnant or falling for decades while those at the top have seen their share of the Nation’s wealth grow explosively? Where is the Congressional outrage over the many efforts in states around the country to make voting and women’s access to health care ever more difficult? We need to fight for labor. These issues, I would argue are more critical to the Nation’s future than teen abstinence.This is an important race. I am running to represent the people of the Illinois 14th district in the U.S. House, and I need your support. I need you to volunteer to help me and other Democrats throughout the District. I need your contribution, be it $5 or $2,500. Most of all, I need you to promise me that you talk about this race, and that you will get out and vote and that you will convince your friends and neighbors to get out and vote. Together, and only together, we can make this happen
Tags: 2014 elections, Dennis Anderson, IL-14, Illinois, Randy Hultgren, U. S. House
