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TAPROOT: Christmas Candidate Forum

December 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tonight I attended the TAPROOT Christmas event and listened to 15 Republican state-wide and DuPage County candidates all of whom came to address those gathered at the Hilton in Lisle to hear them speak. From Gubernatorial candidates, Senate candidates, judges and local county folks to… is it right to say Lt. Gubernatorial candidates? If so, it sounds odd… anyway, it was a whirlwind session of candidates and a good time was had by all.

If it could be said that there was a theme of the day then it had to be jobs and the economy. Every candidate had something to say about the subject that weighs so heavily on all of us.

15 candidates is a lot of folks to hear from and each got about 5 or 10 minutes to lay out their case and then a few minutes for questions. We were pleased to hear from two candidates for governor and there were quite a lot of candidates for Lt. Governor, as well, three in all. Three Senate candidates appeared, two Comptroller candidates, one Sec. of State candidate, one Congressional candidate, two judges and a DuPage County commission candidate.

Appearing in order were:

I know, phew!

Starting out we heard from Jason Plummer of downstate, Illinois who wants to be our next Lt. Governor. The lanky Mr. Plummer reminded us that the office is vacant right now and told us how it has no constitutional duties and because of that he says he’ll “take a new vision to the office.” He told us that the office “clearly” doesn’t have an overwhelming work flow so he wants to focus on something that is not traditionally in the Lt. Guvs purview. He wants to use the office to focus on job creation. He told us that he’s the only candidate in the race with public sector experience (more of that later with Mr. White’s presentation) and will focus on jobs. He also says he doesn’t want to be a professional politician and will be a Lt. Gov. that will call the Gov. himself on any transgression should he stray from the right path. “I don’t need to be in Springfield. 20 years from now I’ll still be in the Navy and I’ll still be in business. My end all is not a political career.” (Which is a good attitude when running for Lt. Governor in my opinion!)

Next up was candidate for Governor, Dan Proft. As always, Mr. Proft was a proficient speaker without the common stammers and ums and aws you might hear from the less able speaker and his stump speech is well established. And, as always, his sharp sense of humor was in evidence. After the applause, for instance, Proft dryly asked us to “contain yourselves.” Proft began by addressing what was wrong with the current Republican Party. He quoted former Senator from Wyoming Malcolm Wallop who retired in disgust from the Senate in 1993. As Proft had it, when asked why he quit, Wallop said, “Well, let me put it this way: If the Democrats in Congress introduced a bill to burn down the US Capitol, Republicans would compromise and agree to phase it in over three years.” Proft went on to say that this is “essentially the same thing going on in this state.” Proft railed against Republicans that facilitate Chicago Democrat’s horrible policies and “that’s been the problem,” he told us. Proft thinks the solution is to “turn Springfield upside down.” Proft wants a “complete rethinking” of all the “big ticket” policies of government and a “policy revolution.” Proft says we need to cut State income tax in half, cut the corporate tax in half and eliminate the estate tax. His prescription is, “statutory spending caps. Freeze state spending at its current level, only offer year over year growth equal to population growth plus inflation.” And he reminds us that tax cuts “only work every time they are tried.” Proft offered up with a promise that he’d be our street fighter because the Dems never give an inch. Lastly one of Proft’s questions was about concealed carry and he affirmed that he supported it.

Then we heard from candidate for Comptroller, Jim Dodge. Dodge started by wishing us a Merry Christmas because as Republicans we can say that. “I’m an optimist,” Dodge said, “Because I know as Republicans we’ve got a great shot at making this state better in 2010.” He warned us that, while we have a lot of candidates to chose from, we “have to pick the candidate that can win.” He said we have $90 billion in unfunded pension benefits, those pensions are over generous, and they have not been properly funded. He told us he wants to institute more transparency by reporting to the people what shape the state’s finances are in. Dodge also said, “I want to be the one to stand up and say no when it’s appropriate.” He promised us that when it’s “fiscal insanity” he will say no to the spending. Dodge said he’s the only conservative candidate for Comptroller that can win. And he left us saying that the structure of the state pensions are unsustainable and he wants to move it in the direction of a 401K style plan.

Dodge was followed by Kirk Dillard, candidate for Governor. Dillard is a local favorite, of course, seeing as how he is a DuPage homeboy since his State Senate District is here. And I have to say, I was a bit more impressed by Mr. Dillard this time around than the last few times I saw him speak. In the past all he gave on the stump was an extended resume as a speech, but this time he had some more specifics. Still, I have to say he repeated himself a bit too much when answering questions. Dillard began with the news that had recently put him on a new TV commercial where he received the endorsement of former governor Jim Edgar. He told us that as he worked for Gov. Edgar, they inherited a “mountain of debt in a recession and eliminated it,” but when they left office they left a billion and a half surplus. Dillard said that he knows how to grow jobs and lamented that we have one of the worst jobs climate in the country. He says he’s “the one conservative that can win.” He said he recently introduced “Dillard’s Destination Economy,” which consists of three parts. It begins with a private sector jobs creation program by reducing taxes and fees on businesses. He has “Project Green Tape” which is a program to speed up the regulatory process and will also tailor the regulatory process for small and medium sized businesses “the backbone of our economy.” Dillard then went into his education policy ideas. His “Best in Class Education” goes hand-in-glove with his “Destination Economy” policies he told us. He’ll stress reading, science, math and technology “because that’s the future of where jobs are.” He wound it all up with the ethics question saying that our state ethics problem is one of the reasons that our economy is so bad. He promised to stop raising campaign cash the second he’s elected and will “spend every waking moment governing and not fundraising.” He said he’s the only middle class guy with young children at home so he’s more vested in the state’s success than some of the other candidates. He won’t raise taxes and will grow jobs.

During the questions he was asked what his reaction was to the fact that he had such a poor showing in the latest Chicago Trib. poll that showed him at a dismal 9 percent. Dillard said it was early and that the poll was based only on name recognition. But he felt that he was in a good place to surge ahead as people begin to pay attention to the election as the new year begins and name recognition becomes less of a factor. Finally, he was right to point out that the big winner of that poll was “undecided” which shows that there’s a lot of movement that can happen in this race. Another question was Dillard’s stance on concealed carry and he told us that he sponsored such a bill several years back and almost won the fight so he does strongly support it. A last question was about school vouchers. Dillard informed us that because of a “constitutional problem” we cannot say “vouchers” in Illinois but can use the idea of tuition tax credits.

We were next regaled by the stentorian voice of John Arrignton, candidate for U.S. Senate. Mr. Arrington is an inspiring speaker and his voice easily fills a room. If you don’t come away from an Arrington address with your ears perked up you aren’t paying attention. Mr. Arrington let us know that when he first ran for Senate in 2006 he was the pro-life, pro-second Amendment, pro-traditional marriage candidate. He said that the State GOP made a blunder when it passed him by and went for Alan Keyes and this time we have the chance to remedy that situation. He mentioned that when he first entered public service, Barack Obama helped train him as a community organizer but as he trained with Obama he became troubled by what he saw. “My values were challenged every day,” when he worked as a community organizer. Arrington told us that his parents instilled in him the values of the self-made man as his father built up a buss company by starting without even owning a buss. He put himself through school and has started his own business. He wants to make sure we have the “freedoms that made this country great.” Arrington was asked about how the minority community was taking him and he told us that he was seeing a great openness to his candidacy. “People want a conservative candidate,” he said. During the questions Arrington told us that he is scared of the healthcare plans coming out of Washington. Another question asked if he supported the Dream Act that would fund illegal alien’s education. He said absolutely not. Arrington also said that soon he had a jobs program policy idea coming out because this “jobless recovery” is not working.

Animation was the word for our next speaker, Andy Martin who was looking for our support for his candidacy for Senate. “We all know what the challenge is,” Martin began, “it isn’t cranking out position papers and it isn’t speaking to conservative groups… it is who is going to be capable to beat the “conservative who’s been a liberal for 8 years, Mark Kirk.” Martin told us that candidates that “sell the sizzle because they don’t have any steak” are not the prescription for this election. He says he exposed a “major scandal” with Obama’s Secretary of Education (Arne Duncan) who “is under investigation for possible financial fraud in Chicago.” Martin tells us he’s the only candidate that has proven he can fight corruption. Martin says that one of his opponents woke up one day on his 40th birthday and said “ya know, today I want to be a Senator,” and Martin scoffed at this candidate’s news of his trip to Washington. Martin says that he’s sent a letter to Chicago’s Catholic Cardinal George and demanded to know why he’s allowed Dick Durbin to take communion since he’s been a leading abortion advocate. Martin also said that this tough fighter’s spirit will serve him well as Senator. He scoffed at all those candidates that say they are Reagan conservatives. “We are all Reagan conservatives,” he thundered. “On Dec. 28th, I’m going to turn this party upside down,” Martin soared. “Until we do away with the hypocrisy and the two-faced politics and all the mumbo jumbo that makes Mark Kirk a leading candidate we are not capable of beating the Democrats.” Martin says that he feels that the State Party is trying to fix the outcome of the Senate Primary by supporting Kirk behind the scenes. He also mentioned he’s a supporter of SB600, the bill that would return the members of the central committee to the trust of the voters instead of being appointed by the local state GOP committeemen.

Following Martin came another candidate for Senate, businessman Patrick Hughes. Hughes is obviously a serious man. There was no goofing around and no wild propositions from Hughes for sure. Certainly it was a bit shocking to hear him say that his opponent Andy Martin is “crazy,” and he didn’t mean it in a fun way. “This is the most serious time in the history of our country at least in my lifetime,” he said. “We have got trillion dollar deficits facing us, a government that is growing beyond anything any of us could have imagined. Our traditional social values are being flushed away as our country moves more and more and more left.” Hughes lamented that Mark Kirk does not “stand with us” on any major policy initiative but stands with the far left and the Obama Administration. Hughes singled out cap and trade, Kirk’s shaky military policies, his support for partial-birth abortion, hate crime laws, and his radical stance against our Second Amendment rights. He says we need to be serious and what we heard from Martin wasn’t serious. Hughes says he’s built a large, professional campaign and placed his offices in 18 sectors all across the state and has the serious ground game to win this election. Hughes assured us he was the only “serious candidate” in this election that can beat Mark Kirk (and polls might tend to support that conclusion even if Hughes falls far short of Kirk’s current numbers). Hughes railed against Martin for calling him, Hughes, a racist. “Why did he call me a racist? Because he’s crazy,” Hughes told us. Hughes also says he’s supported by all pro-life advocates of importance in the state. He wrapped up with this: “I promise you that if you send me to Washington I will embody your values and the values of this party because they are my values. And I will speak with your voice because it’s my voice. Together we can make our party, and this state and our nation great again.” During the questions Hughes told us that he is consulting with Senator Jim DeMint and attempting to get his support and that he will be going back to D.C. to meet with DeMint again and all the other large national groups like the NRA. Hughes was asked about SB600 and he reminded us that as a federal Senator he would have no real hand in that effort but that he supported it nonetheless.

Then we heard from the Honduras-born Robert Enriquez who wants to be the next Secretary of State. Enriquez says that incumbent Sec. of State White has “given up on Illinois.” Enriquez said that he will spearhead a transparency movement and put all spending and business dealings on line for all to see. Enriquez also pointed out that Jesse White sent the manufacturing of our state license plates to a company in Canada. He’ll bring that manufacturing back to Illinois he told us. Then he also quipped that there are “one of two former governors that can make them for us in federal prison.” Enriquez told us that he came to this country from Honduras at age 13 and worked hard in this “land of milk and honey” to improve himself. He told us that he joined the Marines and became a 2nd Lt. there. He said that he saw the socialist states in South America first hand and that they had created a “camouflage network” to hide the failures of socialism. He said that this is what is happening in this state right now with its lack of transparency, that Jesse White and the Democrats are trying to hide their failures. He’ll expose that by putting all financial information on line. Enriquez left the Marines and began working in the private economy and he says this background can serve him well. During the questions Enriquez was pressed on how he felt about making English the official state language. He felt that English is in no danger at all. After all, he reminded us, English is spoken all over the world and is the language of international business. Enriquez reminded us all that the newest largest minority in this state are Spanish speakers and there is no reason to needlessly attack them in the US. As to his role of Sec. of State, he said he’d support the continued printing of our driving rules in various languages so that foreign immigrants will be able to learn the rules of the road for safety’s sake.

Also appearing was Debra Olson who is running for DuPage County Board Chair. Sorry to say I did not get a chance to hear Olson’s presentation as I was drawn away when her turn came up. So, I apologize for that but her website is noted.

And then it was Comptroller candidate William Kelly’s turn to address us. Kelly started by praising Dave Diersen for all his hard work arranging the event for us and after a round of applause, he went on with his presentation. “I’ve been an activist since 1992,” Kelly told us, and he wants to make the Comptroller’s office an “activist’s” office. “We cannot take anything for granted,” he said. Kelly told us that he’s a businessman and that his experience will help him as Comptroller. Kelly said that current Comptroller has been key to destroying this state. “The Comptroller is there to represent the taxpayers,” said Kelly. He insisted that he would not be a rubber stamp for the Governor and Legislature and would say no when the time is right. He said he’d use his position as Comptroller to rebuild Illinois and the Illinois GOP. During the questions he was asked what would happen if the Comptroller didn’t sign onto a bad fiscal policy, if the gov. or legislature would just go over his head. Kelly said that isn’t the case. The Comptroller MUST sign off on spending.

We moved on to Congressional candidate Randy Hultgren, with his two young sons in tow, who wants our nod to take the seat for the 14th Congressional District. Mr. Hultgren seemed like the nicest of fellows and he brought along his two young sons, “my young Republicans and best supporters, Caden and Cole.” (I hope I spelled the names right) He said his family is the reason he’s running for Congress. He’s one of the top rated conservatives, was endorsed by the Ill. Citizens for Life and the Ill. Federation for Right to Life Committee, was chairman of the pro-life caucus in the State Senate and the House, has a 100% rating with the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and received the Champion of Commerce award. “I am running because I cannot stand having Bill Foster as my Congressman. He is an absolute shill for Nancy Pelosi. He will do anything she tells him to do and yet he will not respond to any of his constituents. We call up we ask him to respond to something and he won’t even return that call.” Hultgren notes that of the two candidates in his race he’s the only one that has ever held any office. He says he’s fighting back the trial lawyers against medical malpractice in Illinois and notes that Foster has gone the wrong way on that in Congress. He says that the Democrats “think we live too well” and he disagrees. He notes that the Democrats are going to raise the federal debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion which is “$11,000 for each and every citizen” of the country. “We’ve got to take our country back,” he insists. During the questions Hultgren was asked about Newt Gingrich coming here to support the young Ethan Hastert. “I have respected Newt, but the message we send is that WE decide who our Congressman will be.” A second question was about healthcare. Hultgren says that we need accountability and he rejects the expansion of Medicare and the takeover of our healthcare by the federal government.

Then we had two Lt. Gov. candidates in a row, the first of which was Don Tracy. Mr. Tracy began by retracing his business failures. He told us that he failed in some business ventures but after several years he climbed out of his debt by his own efforts, “by hard work,” and is proud of his success in restoring his standing in the business community. He thinks that this is what the state needs to do, climb out of its mess through hard work. Tracy reminded us that the fiscal mess is so bad that even if we fired every state employee it would not save the state. He told us he had a Christmas wish list for the state. He wished that all our state offices would be filled by Republicans and that concealed carry would be passed “not just for the bad guys but for everybody.” He wanted worker’s comp reform, drug reform, and a balanced budget without a tax increase was also on the list. He also wants to reverse Rove v Wade (though I don’t know how he expects to do that as an ill. Lt. Gov!) and finally wants jobs for everyone that wants to work. Here Randy White, the third Lt. Gov. candidate we were about to hear from, asked Tracy to retrace his business career and Tracy did so noting that he started several businesses that were successful.

The second Lt. Gov. candidate was Pastor Randy White who gave us a powerful and gracious speech. White started off actually helping Tracy in a way and here is where I hinted in my earlier recounting of Jason Plummer’s presentation that White had something to say about Plummer’s assertions. White said that he had to ask Tracy about his business history because Plummer “lied” about being the only one with business experience. “Between the two of us,” White told Tracy and the crowd, “We’ve started and closed more businesses than Junior saw. That’s just plain simple fact.” (By “Junior,” White means Mr. Plummer who is well known as the son of long-time, Madison County Republican powerman Robert Plummer) Pastor White ticked off the seven things that the Lt. Gov. affects by state statute in contravention to Plummer’s assertion that the Lt. Gov. doesn’t do much. (The River Council, Rural Affairs, Business Opportunities, Telecommunications, the Green Govt’ Council, Military Family Relief, and Community health made up the list.) White points out that the Lt. Governor’s office only controls a $1.3 million budget and notes that he controls far more than that in his county budget that he oversees now. And in his best preacher’s style, White went on: “Here’s what you don’t hear of the Lt. Governor’s position. It can effect, it can effect, it can effect $1.5 billion of the budget with those seven things” that the Lt. Gov. does. White told us that if we elect him we’ll have a fighter. “You have two candidates in this race with real, hardcore experience, and I’m tired of just praying. The gloves are coming off. You want a fighter you got a fighter on your hands. You have a pastor on your hands that’s tired of the lies.” White informed us that he has 20 years of pro-life activism in his background, but that “daddy’s money” bought the pro-life vote for Jason Plummer. He went on to tell us that all the big money is going to the worst candidates such as Mark Kirk. White says that in his travels in the state he’s had people tell him, “show us a candidate that will be honest with integrity, we’ll vote for that person.” White then went on to say that about 300,000 people have stood up to support John Arrington for Senate and that he, Randy White, was standing right there beside him. He said that the people want conservative leadership and he represents that.

Now I am not in the two judge’s district myself and was not familiar with them before tonight, but they both seemed like fine candidates. Particularly Judge Ann Jorgensen who spoke eloquently on drug rehab programs as the right means to cut recidivism rates for the drug abusers that come before her bench. Judge Jorgensen is currently a pioneer in Illinois with these sorts of programs and I have to say that it has always amazed me that these programs are not more widely spread in this country. There is so much research that definitively proves that such programs really do work and we should really pursue them more. I applaud judge Jorgensen for her efforts here and she is a fine candidate. Finally judge Brian McKillip spoke and he also seemed like a knowledgeable candidate deserving of our support.

Noticeably absent was Bob Schillerstrom, candidate for governor. Odd because this event was in DuPage County and Bob is the County Chairman there. Perhaps he was campaigning elsewhere, or perhaps the conservatives of TAPROOT aren’t his kind of folks? Let hope it’s the former not the later!

Finally, one more candidate was in attendance but it seems that she had to leave early so unfortunately we did not get a chance to hear from her. It was Rosana Pulido, Congressional candidate for the 5th District. Granted the folks attending the TAPROOT event are not in the 5th District, still it was good to see her out.

Well, it was all a bit exhausting, but we got to hear from a large number of candidates. I want to thank David Diersen of the famous GOPUSA Illinois daily email report on all things Illinois Republican politics for his mighty efforts arranging this forum. Mr. Diersen let us know that Kirk Dillard and Mr. Diersen’s lovely wife brought us the snacks, too, so thanks to them for that.

Remember, folks, the primary election is an early, early, early one this year. It is on Feb. 2nd, Groundhog Day as Judge Jorgensen so amusingly reminded us. So get out there, tell your friends, family and neighbors about these candidates and let’s vote… if not early and often at least on time.
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.

He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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