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11th District Candidates Hold Differing Views
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Carol Henrichs
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Crete Record
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10.23.08
One of the most watched congressional races in the country is taking place in the 11th congressional district where three candidates are vying for an open seat.
This year, the traditional two-party race has been expanded, due to the double-digit showing by Green Party candidate Rich Whitney in the 2006 gubernatorial race.
The three contenders include Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, the Illinois Senate Majority Leader; Marty Ozinga, III, R-Homer Glen, the president of Ozinga Bros., a family owned business; and Jason Wallace, G-Normal, an Iraqi War veteran and a recent graduate with honors from Illinois State University.
The three congressional hopefuls are seeking the soon-to-be vacated seat of U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, who announced a year ago that he would not seek another term in congress.
-Debbie Halvorson: Halvorson began her political career when she was asked to run for Crete Township Clerk. She quickly rose through the government ranks. In her first state-wide election in 1997, she defeated longtime state senator, the late Aldo DeAngelis. In 2005, she was named Senate Majority Leader, making her the first female to be named to a leadership role. She continues to represent the 40th district, bringing a high level of experience in Springfield to her campaign for a seat in congress.
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One of Halvorson's main interests in her campaign has been health care. She calls for quality, affordable health care for the 1.7 million people in Illinois who are uninsured. She cites 47 million Americans who have no health insurance.
Halvorson wants to see the system reformed. She recently offered her support to a proposal by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin - the Small Business Health Option Program (SHOP) - that would pool small business resources in an effort to make health insurance affordable and accessible to 1.8 million employees of small businesses, as well as 500,000 workers who are self-employed. Not only would SHOP provide a variety of health plans to small businesses, but it would add an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 for each employee if the employer pays 60 percent of the premiums.
While serving in the state legislature, Halvorson has been a strong advocate for education and awareness related to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer. Diagnosed with the virus herself, she sponsored a bill that has been signed into law to enable women to receive HPV vaccinations at no cost after 2011, to require health examinations for all students entering the sixth grade and to provide educational materials to sixth grade female students showing HPV's link to cervical cancer.
Halvorson favors bringing troops home from Iraq swiftly and through a responsible exit strategy.
On the country's financial crisis, Halvorson urged caution, but said if she had been in congress when it came time to vote on the $810 billion bailout bill, she would have voted against it. She questioned the rush to a vote, stating that more must be done to keep people in their homes.
Halvorson said she supports earmarks, the controversial additions members of congress add surreptitiously to spending bills to fund special projects in their districts.
Halvorson opposes the Canadian National Railroad's intention to buy the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad based on traffic congestion and safety concerns. She says the plan could threaten property values and the quality of life of working families.
-Martin Ozinga III: Ozinga boasts that he is no politician, but explains he is running for office because he believes a change is needed in Washington.
Instead, he says, he is an example of the kind of traditional American values that his father passed on to him and that he is passing on to his six sons.
Ozinga is the president of Ozinga Bros., the Mokena based, family-owned concrete company started by his father Marty Jr. 45 years ago. The company had 80 employees then, but has since grown to about 1,200.
Ozinga believes what his father taught him, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. He has turned that into practice as he makes donations to help others that are less fortunate. Ozinga owns and helped found the Dr. Luca Medical Center in Romania. He serves as a Trustee of the new Russian-American Christian University in Moscow. It is a standard business practice of Ozinga Bros. to donate a significant portion of its annual profits to charitable organizations.
Ozinga says he is no politician, but promises that if elected, he would serve the people of the 11th district with integrity, commitment, and gratitude.
One of Ozinga's biggest concerns is the cost of energy. This summer he pumped gas at a Mokena gas station in a show of solidarity with residents who share the frustration of paying more at the pump.
Ozinga differs from his opponents as a supporter of drilling for oil and natural gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also favors off-shore drilling.
Ozinga offered early support for the EJ&E acquisition but has recently tempered his view, for which he has taken some heat from Halvorson. Despite the benefit to his business, Ozinga said he cannot support the plan until the issues that negatively affect the communities involved are resolved, especially with regard to underpasses or overpasses.
He is also a supporter of green energy. He wants to promote making ethanol from non-food sources.
Ozinga supports pro-growth tax cuts. To help spur the economy, Ozinga would provide incentives for small business investment in new jobs and equipment. He would cut the corporate tax rate and make Bush's tax cuts for business permanent. He would lower corporate tax rates. And he would repeal the alternative minimum tax (AMT), which is an extra tax on top of income tax that was designed to target very high incomes. It has since become more widespread, affecting more people. Ozinga would also eliminate the death or inheritance tax.
Ozinga joins his party in the call for a one year moratorium on congressional earmarks. He says transparency is necessary.
Ozinga favors bringing the troops home from Iraq, but not until Iraq can govern itself.
-Jason Wallace: While the party favorites in the 11th congressional district race duke it out with the hope of being the last one standing, they ignore the man with the message that resonates with anyone who is tired of the same old thing.
Wallace, the Green Party candidate, brings a fresh approach to the campaign for congress. He isn't trying to outspend his opponents, nor is he trying to throw so much mud on them that they become non-recognizable. He is taking campaigning back hundreds of years, doing it the way our forefathers' forefathers did it - from the grass roots.
He has mounted a campaign, void of Political Action Committees and special interest groups with deep pockets. He has vowed he will spend no more than $10,000. That is why he has established himself on the Internet - on Facebook and MySpace - asking his friends to simply spread the word and to vote for him on November 4.
Wallace is an Air Force veteran and veterans' advocate who strives to be a public servant and statesman for the district.
Wallace has pointed out that the Republicans were in charge, but when Democrats earned a majority in congress, they did nothing to change the direction of the country. He wants to bring foresight and accountability to Washington, in hopes of steering America in the right direction.
Wallace takes a different approach to the issues as well, since he has no established party line to follow. He doesn't have to worry about offending someone higher on the ticket, or speaking out of turn. He is his own man and speaks his own mind.
For example, while Halvorson and Ozinga bicker over governance of an airport at Peotone, Wallace is the only candidate in the race who simply opposes the project. At a recent political forum at Kankakee Community College, Wallace said he would work to kill the project. He said he would end the political nightmare that has endured for 20 years. Wallace suggested that it would be a better plan to expand the Greater Kankakee Municipal Airport.
Wallace says that as long as there are no funding provisions in the plan to purchase the EJ&E Railroad, he opposes the CN plan.
Wallace would seek to improve the care and support for veterans, including mental health care, health care, and full funding. He said education and full funding of VA needs to be implemented at once.
Wallace supports renewable and sustainable energy sources and would encourage this country to take a leadership role in making the entire planet a better place to live, economically as well as environmentally.
Restoring the civil liberties and rights that have diminished in recent years is of strong concern to him. "Justice means equality for everyone under the rule of law," he said, adding that giving up our constitutionally protected rights in the name of national security simply compromises that for which America stands.
Wallace supports universal, comprehensive, national single-payer health care and increased funding for public education. Wallace favors doing away with earmark spending. Wallace, an Air Force veteran, favors bringing the troops home immediately.
Between Halvorson and Ozinga, the race remains tight, even though Halvorson took an early lead.
Contention has surrounded it, beginning with Weller's decision to leave office. In Sept. 2007, when Weller announced that he wanted to spend more time with his family, many had questions. Amid talk of ethics legislation, Weller refused to answer charges related to his wife's financial dealings, as well as his own po-tential violations related to real estate holdings in South America. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C. labeled Weller "one of the 22 most corrupt congressmen in America."
Almost immediately, potential candidates arose from all reaches of the district. One of the first was Halvorson, who initially declined. But following a visit to Washington, a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a promise of funds from congressional sources such as the Democratic National Committee and Emily's List, which is known for bolstering the chances for women in congress, Halvorson decided to run. Democrats who had been interested in the post stepped aside, leaving Halvorson to run unopposed in the February 5 primary.
The frontrunner from the Republican side was Tim Baldermann, the mayor of New Lenox and police chief of Chicago Ridge. Even Weller supported him. Baldermann beat out two others in the primary. But just days after his victory over two other contenders, Baldermann dropped out of the race. He cited time constraints.
It wasn't until April that Ozinga was named as the Republican candidate for congress in the 11th district.
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