My appointment to the Republican ticket as a candidate for the 5th Illinois Senate District was arranged before Sen. Edward Nedza was defeated in the primary. At the time I submitted my name, I believed that he, not del Valle, would be my opponent.
But that is beside the point. The presence of a Republican on the ballot provides the voters a choice between a liberal Democrat closely allied with Harold Washington and a conservative Republican. What needs explaining is not my presence on the ballot, but The Tribune`s apparent position that somehow the Republican Party has done a reprehensible thing by offering the citizens of the 5th District a choice. My candidacy offers the Hispanics who comprise 56.9 percent of the district`s population just that, a choice, as it does the 43.1 percent non-Hispanic population.
I do not personally believe that a majority of either segment of the district`s population agrees with The Tribune`s position that the compeition in American politics provided by the two-party system requires any
explanation, or by implication any justification.
