THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM
Unlike my opponent, I am running ON the party platform, and not away from it. The Illinois Republican Party, at its 2008 convention, adopted as its platform a clear vision for the future of Illinois. I am proud to endorse this platform and to run on it, and I encourage every Republican primary voter to read and adopt it as your own. You can find it here.
Taxation – Lack of taxes is not the reason we have a bad economy in Illinois, and more taxation isn’t the solution. But it’s not enough to oppose raising taxes as my opponent has (unsuccessfully) done. We must also oppose wasteful spending, and we must fight to reduce taxes. My primary opponent, in her two terms in the House, has shown no leadership on either of these important tasks. How many games would the Bears win if they only played defense? In the legislature, not only will I be a reliable vote against hitting you up for more money, I will look for ways to reduce your sales taxes, gas taxes, property taxes, and income taxes too.
Budget – In the seven years since the Democrats took over state government, revenues have increased greatly, but spending has increased even more. No one even knows how many programs the State of Illinois has. No one even knows how many bank accounts the State of Illinois writes checks from. The only way to get the budget under control is to make the budget process transparent to the people. Every dime of proposed spending should be put on-line, in realtime, so that you the voters and taxpayers, can review it yourselves. When that happens, when every line item might result in calls to legislative offices asking why we’re spending money on this or that wasteful project, then we’ll see real reform. In the meantime, I will not be one to go along to get along. My opponent has voted for almost every spending bill that’s come before her since she got to Springfield. I will be more willing to say no.
Highways and infrastructure – I’ve sometimes thought that Lake County must be Heaven, because we know that the road to Hell is paved! Our traffic problems in Lake County are awful. Even worse, businesses are less likely to bring more jobs to our area if they perceive that the roads and other infrastructure they need to operate aren’t here. A lot of work has been done to improve the situation, but much more remains to be done. Today, Lake County is paying for road improvements that the state should be paying for. My opponent has not delivered when it comes to bringing road improvement money to Lake County. I will be an active partner with our County Board, our legislative delegation and with local government entities to get us the roads we need and deserve to get to and from our jobs, wherever they may be.
Economic Growth – The only way to grow our economy to the point where everyone who wants a good job can get one, is to adopt policies that do not place unreasonable and onerous restrictions on the businesses, small and large, that provide those jobs.
Education – I support the right of parents to be the first educators of their children and to choose the manner in which their children will be educated. I support parental involvement in public schools, and will work to increase the influence of parents’ over their children’s public education, as well as supporting alternatives such as charter schools, private and parochial schools, and homeschooling. This sort of “all options” approach will strengthen every student’s opportunity for a good education.
Abortion and related Life issues – I think it’s obvious that life begins at conception. We are each endowed by our Creator with an inalienable right to life. This right to life must be respected in law in a just society to the fullest extent possible. Most people oppose most abortions. My opponent is not only pro-choice, she voted for a bill that would have repealed Illinois’ parental notification law, erased conscience protections for medical professionals who preferred not to provide abortion services, protected abortion providers from malpractice suits, eliminated requirements that abortion providers be physicians, ensured lawsuits from plaintiffs claiming their “right” to abortion was infringed, and mandated sex education beginning in kindergarten. I don’t know anyone, pro-choice or pro-life, who thinks these are good ideas. This bill hasn’t passed yet, but when these issues return, my opponent will be on the wrong side of them. She is in the pocket of the special interests that bankroll her campaign, Planned Parenthood and the very-pro-abortion Personal PAC.
Women deserve better than to be left to abortion. In the Legislature, I would work to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, and use that money to provide real social services for women in need, and to find common ground with pro-life legislators of both parties to reduce abortions in Illinois.
Marriage and family issues – Marriage is under assault in America today, and it has been for a long time. From no-fault divorce, to widespread acceptance of cheating spouses, to the current push for same-sex “marriage,” the institution that has served mankind so well for thousands of years is on the ropes. But it’s within marriage that children are brought safely into the world, and reared to be productive, contributing citizens. I oppose efforts to bring same-sex “marriage” to Illinois, or any arrangement that extends the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. Unlike my opponent, I will be a reliable vote in the House for the sanctity of marriage.
Gun rights – As guaranteed in the both the U.S. and Illinois Constitutions, the citizen has a right to keep and bear arms. I will work against restrictions on the rights of law-abiding citizens to exercise this right. I support concealed-carry legislation (such as are the law in 48 other states) that would allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons for their own protection and that of their families.
Immigration – As the grandson of immigrants on my father’s side, I’m for immigration. I believe that immigration is one of the proudest topics of American history. But I also have a lock on my front door. I believe that just as people have the right to control who enters their homes, so do nations have the right to regulate who, and how many, cross their borders. It’s possible that our federal immigration laws are in need of revision, but the enforcement of existing immigration laws should not be hampered by the states.
Bioethics issues – The State of Illinois has spent too much money on ethically-questionable embryo-destructive stem cell research, and inadequately regulates the use of embryos in laboratories. My opponent, in 2007, voted with Governor Blagojevich for a grant of $15,000,000 of Illinois taxpayers’ money for embryo-destructive research which has never yielded any useful results. Unlike my opponent, I will work for sensible ethical regulation of scientific research using human embryos.
