Quick Hits – February 26, 2016

Quick Hits – February 26, 2016

We don’t do endorsements these days, but…

With all the candidates gracious enough to come on Left, Right and You, making endorsements doesn’t make sense anymore. The entire point of those hour-long radio forums is to give you, the voter, all the information you need to make an informed decision.

But I am going to make an exception here and endorse 18th District Kane County Board Member Drew Frasz.

FraszDrew truly represents his constituents, he attends a slew of committee and community meetings, and, most of all, he understands that a 24 person board has to work in concert to get anything done.

Meanwhile, his opponent, Jim MacRunnels, is an abject bully who’s never quite made it past the third grade. He has no clue what teamwork is, he has no idea what it takes to effectively run a county, and his brand of “fiscal conservatism” would cost the County millions more than we’re spending now.

But why listen to me? Simply read MacRunnel’s responses to the Kane County Chronicle’s endorsement interview and you’ll see exactly what kind of bleep he really is. And as my favorite TV judge likes to say, “If this is how you behave in the court of public opinion, I can only imagine how you behave when no one’s looking.”

The truly sad thing about all of this is MacRunnel’s once called himself Drew’s friend.

To make matters even worse, MacRunnels is being backed by Oswego political operative John Reeves, whose sole purpose is to seek political payback for Frasz’s failure to support his wife’s State Rep run. The irony there is, Keith Wheeler won that race in large part because this Reeves wholeheartedly supported him two years earlier.

The bottom line is, Frasz is an exponentially better county board choice. So please send Mr. MacRunnels back under the rock from which he occasionally crawls out from under.

I wouldn’t wanna be Keith Wheeler right now

Because he – or should I say his legislative aides – are taking all kinds of telephone heat for an ill-conceived bill that our intrepid State Rep half-heartedly signed onto.

HB6064, the brain child of GOP State Rep John Cavaletto, proposes that, “…if the unmarried mother cannot or refuses to name the child’s father, either a father must be conclusively established by DNA evidence or a family member’s name, a birth certificate will not be issued and the mother will be ineligible for financial aid from the State for support of the child.”

In other words, if the single mother can’t or won’t finger the father, the blameless child will be damned for life. No birth certificate means no education, no job, no pretty much anything. Didn’t Nathaniel Hawthorne write a book about something like this?

WheelerSo while I certainly agree with the notion of holding fathers responsible for their progeny, this is not the way to do it. In fact, this bill is the kind of silly misogynistic Republican effort that keeps them from winning Illinois elections.

And what makes this inevitable collateral damage so much worse is that Donald Trump has a better chance of being invited to a quinceanera than this bill has of making it through the Democratic General Assembly

Thankfully, Representative Wheeler, who really isn’t a bad guy, paid heed to his capable advisors and is in the process of withdrawing his name from this misguided bill. Good for him!

But as far as Mr. Cavaletto goes, just when you thought that Illinois Republicans couldn’t possibly make it worse from themselves, they do. It takes real talent to be able to shoot yourself in the foot on such a consistent basis!

Hope springs eternal!

Sometimes, even in Springfield!

Though you’d never know it because the local papers, once again, completely missed the story. And by “story” I mean the joint statement issued by 43rd District State Rep Anna Moeller and 65th State Rep Steve Andersson calling for a return to Springfield budgetary sanity.

To paraphrase:

“We acknowledge the dysfunction that has gripped our state government and the collateral damage it is inflicting on the citizens of this state. As new State Representatives representing both side of the aisle, we want to see an enactment of a fair and balanced budget. We know we can do this through bi-partisan cooperation, and indeed acknowledge that the best outcome will only come through genuine compromise.”

They conclude:

“We commit to ensuring all members of the legislature are part of a meaningful dialogue on solving the state budget problem. We stand ready to work together.”

This is how it starts folks! Now your best bet is to call your own legislators and insist they join Anna and Steve in this eminently constructive effort.

As far as my part of this goes, both State Reps will be in-studio for the Monday, February 29, 9 a.m. edition of Right and You on WRMN AM1410. And I gotta tell ya, the mere thought of that show is making me kinda giddy!

 

Quick Hits

0 thoughts on “Quick Hits – February 26, 2016

  1. I am very proud that Rep. Moeller and Rep Andersson are working together in the best interests of their constituents and the residents of the City of Elgin. They as always have my support.

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