Posts tagged ‘Illinois’
by Dennis Anderson for Congress, posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2014 at 8:12 pm
Baker Community Center is Site for Open Public Forum on Tuesday, June 3
Dennis Anderson, Democratic Candidate for Illinois‘14th U.S. Congressional District, will hold a public town hall forum on June 3rd from 7:15 to 8:30 PM at The Baker Community Center, 101 S. 2nd Street. All constituents in the Tri-Cities are invited to attend and encouraged to bring questions for the candidate.
The Anderson Campaign is observing
the time-honored American tradition of the open political town hall forum as a highly effective way for candidates to directly talk to constituents regardless of party affiliation. The St. Charles Town Hall is open to all and scheduled in the evening to meet the needs of working constituents. The campaign will hold town hall meetings throughout the District for the entire the campaign season.
Throughout the country – including here in the Illinois 14th – we’ve seen a reluctance on the part of incumbents to participate in unscripted public forums with constituents, particularly in joint forums with their challengers. The Anderson Campaign believes that town halls are a valuable opportunity for candidates and constituents to meet and to hear from one another.
Upcoming town hall tour stops include Sandwich, Antioch, Warrenville, Elburn, Gurnee and Plainfield. For more on future town hall dates, go to: http://www.dennisanderson14.com/calendar_of_events
A resident of Gurnee, Illinois, Dennis Anderson is the Democratic candidate for the United States Congress for Il-14, a seat currently held by Republican Randy Hultgren.
Tags: 2014 elections, IL-14, Illinois, Kane County, Randy Hultgren, St Charles IL, U. S. House
Posted in The Union List | No Comments »
by John Laesch, posted on Friday, November 29th, 2013 at 8:20 am
About 35-40 activists braved the cold on Thanksgiving evening at the Walmart on the corner of Butterfield Rd. and Kirk Rd. in Aurora, IL. Thanks to the Northern Illinois Light Brigade (NILB), we had beautiful, lighted signs that shoppers and ongoing traffic could see. The signs read, “Living Wage Now!” and “Fight for $15” You can check out some of the photos that will eventually be loaded to the
NILB Facebook page.
The action was peaceful and our really cool lighted signs earned a number of honks from holiday travelers. There was a bit of controversy when we approached the Walmart store. A number of security guards attempted to stop us from taking up a spot in front of the store and told us that “we had to leave now or they would call the police.” We stayed for 3-5 minutes and chanted, “Low Pay is not OK” and “hey-hey, ho-ho, the poverty wages have to go!”
(more…)
Tags: Aurora IL, Illinois, Kane County, living wage, Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice, northern illinois light brigade, Occupy Elgin, Occupy Naperville, Occupy Rockford, Walmart
Posted in The Front Page | No Comments »
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 at 8:41 pm
Okay Union leaders, Union members, Everybody and Anybody else who cares about Illinois families, get out of your comfort zone and get to work. The time for sitting on the sidelines is over.
We need to endorse another candidate to run for Governor. Quinn/Vallas would be a disaster. A Republican would be a disaster. We can no longer fear what traditional Democrats will think–or what traditional Republicans will think–if we ‘rebel’ against our ‘traditional’ party lines. They have both abandoned us in support of a corporate-driven tax loophole culture which is cannibalizing our schools and our state. We need to think of our children and their future in Illinois. Our kids are counting on us.
All of us who care about the education of our children, our tax burden, and the maintenance and structure of our beautiful state’s infrastructure need to open our eyes. We have a real crisis brewing and we cannot live in denial any longer.
(more…)
Tags: 2014 elections, Democrats, education, Governor, Illinois, Lieutenant Governor, Pat Quinn, Paul Vallas, Ralph Martire, Republicans, unions
Posted in The Front Page | No Comments »
by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, November 9th, 2013 at 5:40 pm
Who will you vote for on Nov. 5, 2014 if you are given the choice between voting for a Republican (pick one) and a Republican (Paul Vallas)? Yep, Pat Quinn picked a Republican as his running mate, further alienating working people, minorities and women from the Democratic Party.
Four years ago, Vallas told host Jeff Berkowitz on the Public Affairs cable TV show that he’s now a Republican.
VALLAS: “I would take a Republican primary ballot.”
BERKOWITZ: “Do you think of yourself as a Republican?”
VALLAS: “I’m more of a Republican than a Democrat.”
BERKOWITZ: “If you run again for office you’d be running as a Republican?”
VALLAS: “I would, yes, yes.”
It gets better
(more…)
Tags: 2014 elections, Democrats, Governor, IL-Gov, Illinois, Lieutenant Governor, Pat Quinn, Paul Vallas, Republicans
Posted in The Front Page | No Comments »
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Wednesday, October 16th, 2013 at 8:00 am
Looks like Randy Hultgren is finally trying to make good on some of the promises and agendas he offered at an Oswego Town Hall Meeting the summer of 2012 when he said “I’m not planning on Social Security. Most people my age aren’t planning on Social Security.” At the time, Hultgren actually paused a few moments and looked around for cheers which did not come forth. His pronouncements fell on dumbfounded ears–people could hardly believe he was attacking Social Security.
But now, over a year later, Hultgren has found about fifty other like-minded people in the House of Representatives. After joining the Suicide Caucus in August to shut down our government in their effort to defund Obamacare, Hultgren has additionally joined with fifty other Republican House members to demand Boehner use the government shutdown to negotiate Social Security reductions.
In a letter drafted by Wisconsin Representative Reid Ribble, and signed by Hultgren and 49 other House Representatives, the signers demand Boehner use the “ongoing fiscal discussions” and “this window of opportunity” (i.e. government shutdown), to address the “long-term viability of Social Security.” The letter has four demands, three which would clearly lower retiree benefits. Hultgren, Ribble and the rest, call for upping the retirement age, cutting retiree benefits by changing calculations, and for using ‘means testing’ for recipients.
(more…)
Tags: 2014 elections, conservatives, IL-14, Illinois, Randy Hultgren, Reid Ribble, Republicans, Social security, Tea Party
Posted in The Front Page | 2 Comments »
by Joni Lindgren, posted on Sunday, October 13th, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Just when I thought Illinois politics couldn’t get any worse than what it has been, it did. I am referring to an upcoming vote against Governor Quinn’s veto on HB 2454 which prevents citizens from petitioning voters to get advisory questions on a ballot in the future.
Last summer, there were 14 petitioners who spent 6 months collecting signatures from Kane County voters for an advisory question for the 2012 November ballot. That collection took place at the Gail Bordon and St. Charles Libraries, faires, festivals, Geneva’s French Market and the DMV in Elgin. The question asked if the voters thought the Constitution should be amended to limit all the money that is now part of our political process….thanks to the Supreme Court’s disastrous 2010 decision on Citizens United. Last November, it was ultimately passed by 74% of ALL Kane County voters who said they wanted to get rid of all this unlimited, secret and unregulated money that continues to pour into our elections and used to pay off politicians for their yes vote for favors. I believe this is still called bribery and it is the number one reason citizens have such low opinions of those we elect to speak on our behalf. The truth is, you just don’t have enough money to influence the legislators.
(more…)
Tags: election law, HB 2454, Illinois, Illinois General Assembly, Kane County, Pat Quinn
Posted in The Union List | No Comments »
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Saturday, October 12th, 2013 at 6:25 pm
By now, it is quite clear Randy Hultgren has aligned himself with the far right wing Republican contingent responsible for shutting down our government and threatening the debt ceiling crisis. Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer has actually termed Hultgren and his contingent of about 79 other representatives as the “suicide caucus.”
Hultgren and the rest of the Republican politicians known as the “suicide caucus” are called that because they signed Republican Mark Meadows’ letter, known as The Meadows Letter, which demands that House Speaker Boehner pass legislation to defund the Patient’s Rights and Affordability Care Act (ACA–Obamacare) and to commit to defund the ACA by using the continuing resolution to fund the government. In other words, shut down our government.
(more…)
Tags: 2014 elections, ACA, Affordable Care Act, conservatives, Heritage Action, IL-14, Illinois, Mark Meadows, Obamacare, Randy Hultgren, Republicans, shut down, Tea Party, Ted Cruz, The Meadows Letter
Posted in The Front Page | No Comments »
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Saturday, August 24th, 2013 at 11:57 am
For a politician claiming to value fiscal responsibility, 14th Congressional Representative Randy Hultgren certainly has wasted a lot of our money.
Hultgren has voted with the rest of his Tea Party coalition to repeal Obamacare 40 times. According to a recent CBS study, each Republican vote to repeal costs all of us American taxpayers $1.45 million—for a total of about $58 million.
Question: Why would Hultgren be so focused on wasting our money to repeal a law voted in by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court?
Answer: Hultgren’s largest campaign donors come from the Securities and Investment (i.e. Insurance) industry. Check it out at OpenSecrets.org. Hultgren is protecting Insurance CEO’s paychecks at the same time he is attempting to take insurance coverage away from those who need it and billing American taxpayers millions for his efforts.
Question: So what’s so bad about Obamacare that the financial services industry wants to repeal it? After all, Obamacare just delivered millions more people into their coffers.
Answer: Obamacare restricts the profit insurance companies can make.
(more…)
Tags: 2014 elections, Aetna, Angela Braly, Cigna, David Cordani, executive compensation, Health Care Service Corp, Humana, IL-14, Illinois, insurance industry, Mark Bertoline, Michael McCallister, Obamacare, Patricia Hemingway Hall, Randy Hultgren, Stephen Hemsley, U. S. House, United Health Group, Wellpoint
Posted in The Front Page | No Comments »
by jstupec, posted on Saturday, August 24th, 2013 at 7:41 am
I attended the Anderson Announcement:
For the past two years we in the IL14 congressional district have had a do-nothing Republican Tea Partier as our representative in the US Congress. Due to gerrymandering, the district stretches from almost the Wisconsin border south to Yorkville, Il. On the east there’s the Fox River and the district bulges to the west occasionally but it’s a difficult district to campaign in because of the time consuming distances necessary to meet as many constituents as possible. In the 2012 election, Dennis Anderson came from out of nowhere to take 41% of the vote from a well-funded Republican (Randy Hultgren). Anyone who has been watching this useless House of Representatives knows exactly what his voting record is. This country must change the balance of power in the House and we have a truly superb candidate that will work hard for District 14 and, ultimately, all of the people of America.
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.
(more…)
Tags: 2014 elections, Dennis Anderson, IL-14, Illinois, Randy Hultgren, U. S. House
Posted in The Front Page | No Comments »
by John Laesch, posted on Monday, April 8th, 2013 at 7:13 pm
I first heard Pat Herrmann, a retired art teacher from Wheaton, Illinois, ask the question, “when did it become acceptable to take money from old people?” during a public pension discussion hosted by the
DuPage Coffeehouse. Herrmann is a deep-thinking activist. The multiple messages on her signs reflect her ability to conduct careful research and see the bigger picture. Her question about taking money from old people reflects her ability to see the human impact; something lawmakers don’t see.
As the Illinois General Assembly debates how much money they will strip from Illinois teachers’ pensions and President Obama puts deep cuts to Social Security on the table, I was reminded of Hermman’s important question. If you have not signed the petition to tell President Obama to take Social Security cuts off of the table, now would be a good time to do it by following this link.
Of course those reaching into the pockets of old people don’t want to talk about how this will impact living, breathing human beings. They want to talk about numbers, budgets and other inhuman things. Consider Tom Cross’s recent letter to the Chicago Tribune that makes this all sound like a tragic math problem. Cross, after 20 years in Springfield, takes no responsibility for the state’s past 40+ years of delinquency. I am not giving Democrats a free pass on this either. The primary drivers of pension reform in Springfield are Mike Madigan, Pat Quinn, Elaine Nekritz and Dan Biss (all Democrats). All of them, Democrats and Republicans, are singing from the same sheet of music. Watch the video of Bernie Sanders below the fold.
(more…)
Tags: Bernie Sanders, chained cpi, dan biss, Dupage Coffeehouse, Elaine Nekritz, Illinois, Illinois General Assembly, legislation, Mike Madigan, pat herrmann, Pat Quinn, social security cuts, Tom Cross
Posted in The Front Page | No Comments »
