2022 Voter Guide

Candidate Q&A

Why are you running?

When the pandemic hit, our country was subjected to an instant lack of knowledge of what the future would hold. This of course is a good reason for people to become afraid and anxious. In some cases people were legitimately afraid, and in others people became opportunists of this uncertainty and capitalized on the frailties of others. Those that were opportunists convinced others to ban together and revolt in many ways – not so unusual for a time of physical strife. But the opportunists prevailed to a large degree and caused a significant Populous to become literally unhinged. Many civil, mild-mannered people started rebelling hard – in the streets, on social media, in grocery stores, on zoom, on top of statues and just about anywhere and everywhere. And the media fueled their flame with proverbial gasoline. The flock were madder than heck, took up their cross of choice and began blaming the police, our President, supreme court justices, and many others who were once respected or revered. Never in our recent history had we treated Americans this badly.

The “normal,” stable and mainstream people with strong traditional values were attacked. Catholic priests were being reprimanded for their conservative beliefs by Bishops and other church leaders that seemed to turn their back on traditional tenants of Catholicism. Sheer pandemonium.  We continued calling each other names and taking up shields on polar opposite sides of one another until we became 2 distinct groups fighting constantly against one another. For this reason, I felt a strong calling to run. I am a normal citizen, and have no experience in politics, however, I am doing what our founding fathers intended, and stepping up to protect our sovereignty. I knew I could use my individual talents to help America heal and become a strong nation once again. My skills are many, and have been learned over a lifetime based on living a great American family life as well as honed in my past 30+ years in Corporate America, and include negotiations, collaboration, and critical listening, and many others. I plan to use these skills to unite people on both sides, and catapult us out of this social enigma, and into to a better America.

What does this office do well, and what needs fixing?

What this office does well: many committees and subcommittees do outstanding work. For instance, Jim Banks has lead several initiatives on the Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems (CITI) with issues that affect stealing our secret technology and innovation in things like military weapons and intelligence. The Republican Study Committee is working on ending research funding in China.

Even so, it’s almost impossible to get anything positive and consequential done currently in Congress. There has formed a “super pack” of the Progressive wing of the Democratic party within Congress and under Joe Biden, and it’s too hard for Republicans (and moderate Democrats) to combat the sheer number of leftist Congressmen and women, and be able to focus on the hard issues pressing our nation; ones that are detrimental to our sovereignty and also our safety. The radical left focuses on the wrong things – new textbooks with not-so-accurate history, stepping over the rights of of parents, abortion laws going back to the states, Woke ideology, repealing Title 42, and the list goes on and on. And to add to that, “President Joe Biden on Wednesday escalated his rhetorical attacks on the Republican Party and rebuked former President Donald Trump’s enduring grip on the GOP. “This MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that’s existed in American history, in recent American history,” Biden told reporters at the White House, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” }“, movement (Politico, internet, 5/4/2022)  In contrast to that statement, I feel that this administration and other Democrats now in government are the extremists in my opinion. This oppositional atmosphere is palpable. Continuing in this environment much longer will destroy our nation.

The following needs fixing: our economy, inflation, our culture, our border crisis, our foreign policy, our extreme deficit, our national safety. That’s a pretty good start.

What is the most pressing issue facing your constituents and how do you plan on addressing it?

There are several important issues that face the 11th district, and I know about them from talking to voters directly. I spend countless hours on the streets each day asking people what they need us to do in Congress. Education is critically important to our district. As you know, I have very little to do with education, because rightfully so, this power remains with the state of Illinois. But I will make sure to provide support from a federal level where needed, and do my best to eliminate federal education programs today, as well as avoid additional government programs in the future to keep the federal deficit from expanding even more. Another huge problem in the 11th is taxes. Illinois state taxes are definitely on the high side (7.3%).

Our property taxes are some of the highest in the nation, and the reasons are many but industry is a significant one – we need more industry and agriculture in the 11th to offset personal property taxes – the likes of which are completely out of control. In my suburb, Geneva, our average property tax on a home worth approx. $400,000 is $11,219.50. And Burlington, Aurora, Blackberry and Batavia it’s even higher. People are moving out of Illinois, (over 1 million recently, and we lost one House of Representatives seat) mostly because of high taxes and ultimately the high inflation caused by this administration, where costs are going up at a rate 6.5% higher than salaries are going up. Mainstream Midwesterners cannot afford to live here anymore. Our Illinois budget is hugely inflated. On a federal front, I can help in several ways. I will again utilize my 30+ years in business to fix our inflation problem, by getting our country back to work, sure-up the supply chain, increase products made in the USA, increase domestic oil production, drastically cut federal spending, and do a myriad of actions that get us back on course, and directly benefit the 11th district.

What specific steps would you take to ensure your office is accessible and responsive to your constituents?

The most important change I will make is to open my office. The last time I checked, Bill Foster’s office was closed, and citing COVID precautions. Our country is open now, and that office should also be open, allowing citizens to come in for appointments and to talk directly with the Congressman and his staff. Next, I plan to have bi-weekly and monthly zoom calls (probably weekly at first) to both address the citizens of the 11th district on current issues and briefings, and also to allow citizens to pose questions and issues for themselves.

I know that Lauren Underwood does this (mostly around election time) but not nearly enough, and my experience and opinion when I sat in on one in 2020, was that it was a “Trump-bashing” and basically conservative idea-squashing session with citizen guests that also in my opinion seemed hand-selected and prepped before they called in to again bash the President. I will be non-partisan in my approach, as I want to hear unsolicited comments from the people of the 11th district, so that I can take those to the Hill and make forward progress. And lastly, I will spend the majority of my time in Illinois catering to the needs of the people in the 11th district, talking with as many people as I can to keep a pulse on our issues. I sincerely vow that outside of required work commitments in Washington D.C. (and other cities), I promise not to spend exorbitant time in nor to hob knob extensively at parties and events in New York, Washington, or other elite haunts. I feel this type of behavior is not at all what our founding fathers intended on how we act in elected federal positions. I will spend the most time I can in Illinois to serve the people of this district.