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Issues
Jobs and the Economy
The Illinois economy suffers from two huge problems: high unemployment and a broken budget. These are the most urgent problems facing our state, and we must take immediate action to address them. I have a five-point plan for job creation for Illinois that includes investment in small business, technology, and education. My plan focuses on innovation and is rooted in the principles of efficiency, transparency, and sustainability.
Read more on the Illinois economy, including my five-point plan to create and retain good jobs.
Political Reform
Pay-to play-politics has a long, bipartisan history in Illinois. Rod Blagojevich turned our state into a national circus, furthering the collapse of public trust in government. While the state faces many problems that demand creative solutions, none is more pressing than political reform that will restore the public confidence in our government.
Read more on my plan for campaign finance reform, transparency, and other reforms.
Education
Illinois schools must prepare our children for the future. In a global economy, American competitiveness rests on providing each student with the best possible education. Improving Illinois's schools is my top priority. I will work tirelessly to ensure that our educational system is a model for the 21st century.
Health Care
As your State Representative, I will fight to fix our broken health care system. In particular, I will support efforts to provide health insurance coverage to all Illinoisans. Such an approach would protect peoples' rights to choose their own doctors and hospitals, free employers from skyrocketing health care costs, and use the administrative savings so created to cover the uninsured.
Environment
I am passionately committed to preserving a clean and healthy environment for this and future generations. Over the past 40 years, state and federal environmental laws have been very successful in improving our air and water quality, and in protecting valuable natural areas. Today, however, we face the largest environmental challenge in history, the threat of global warming. As your State Representative, I will work to ensure that Illinois is a leader in developing the policies and technologies needed to solve global warming and the other environmental challenges of our time.
Choice
Experience has taught us that the best way to keep abortion safe but rare is to combine pro-choice laws with broad reproductive health education programs. Unfortunately, both of these policies are currently under attack by right-wing organizations, threatening women's autonomy and physical well-being alike. I am acutely sensitive to this issue and I pledge to lead the fight in Springfield to protect women's reproductive freedom.
Read more on my plan to preserve a woman's right to choose and protect young women in Illinois.
Smart Growth
I believe that Illinois should invest in the health of existing communities, rather than subsidizing sprawling growth in largely undeveloped exurban areas. For too long, the state has used grants, tax incentives, and limited infrastructure funds to encourage businesses and people to move farther away from established communities. As a result, traditional downtowns have lost their vibrancy, transit has been neglected, open space and farmland has been paved over, and existing infrastructure has not been adequately maintained. As your State Representative, I will work to refocus the state's efforts toward promoting smart growth in the 17th District and throughout Illinois.
Civil Rights
Illinois is fortunate to have an expansive and progressive Constitution that lays out a variety of rights and protections for ordinary citizens. This document also provides a blueprint for how we will protect individual and civil rights in Illinois. As your State Representative, I will consistently work to pass laws that support and strengthen these rights and protections.
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