Joliet lawyer Jim Stevenson’s bid to unseat three-term 11th Congressional District Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) in November has won the backing of top labor and consumer groups.
In announcing their endorsement of the Democratic candidate, both the Illinois AFL-CIO and Citizen Action cited Stevenson’s strong labor background and longtime interest in addressing the concerns and needs of working families.
“The working families of the 11th District have been miserably represented by Congressman Weller,” said Margaret Blackshere, president of the state’s AFL-CIO. “Jim Stevenson, with his strong labor background [and] working-class values, on the other hand, understands the needs and concerns of working families and will provide the leadership to fight on their behalf.”
The 11th District encompasses several south and southwest suburbs in Cook County; parts of Will, Grundy, Kankakee and LaSalle Counties; and a portion of Chicago’s Southeast Side.
Lynda DeLaforgue, co-director of Citizen Action (formerly known as Illinois Public Action), said that among the issues that Stevenson is more likely than Weller to address in Congress are better schools, access to quality and affordable health care, workers’ rights and consumer protection.
According to Blackshere, Weller has a “horrendous” 18 percent lifetime rating when it comes to supporting legislation designed to benefit working families. The rating, she said, is based on his voting record on a variety of issues, including health care, education, international trade and workers’ rights.
Stevenson, who has a law practice in Joliet, is a former member of United Steelworkers of America Local 1010, a former police officer and a former prosecutor. His endorsement by the two groups comes as no surprise. The state’s most powerful labor group and the consumer organization historically have tended to endorse Democrats over Republicans.
The endorsements are a major boost for Stevenson, who faces an uphill battle against Weller’s high-profile, heavily financed campaign.
Protecting Old Glory: Stevenson may have a long way to go to gain entry to the congressional fraternity, but he isn’t shy about letting Congress know what it should do to discourage people from desecrating the American flag.
While addressing the Joliet Elks Club last Saturday, Stevenson proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would grant states the authority to pass laws protecting the American flag.
“People from throughout the world admire America’s freedom and look upon our flag as the symbol of that freedom,” Stevenson said. “It’s only fair and responsible that we legally protect the flag as a way to show our unfaltering commitment to maintaining freedom for all future generations to come.”
Stevenson said several versions of an amendment have been proposed, but he feels his is stronger and unique compared with the others because it explicitly grants states the authority to protect the flag.
Death tax: Weller this week is touting the U.S. House’s passage of a bill, which he co-sponsored, that would gradually eliminate estate taxes owed to Uncle Sam on family businesses and farms when the founder of the enterprise dies.
The Death Tax Elimination Act, if enacted by the Senate and signed by the president, would reduce the estate tax by 5 percent each year until 2010, when it would be eliminated.
Closed doors: Legislation sponsored by state Rep. Renee Kosel (R-New Lenox) that exempts boards of such public bodies as school districts and municipalities from the state’s Open Meetings Act so they may hold closed-door sessions to discuss security issues was signed into law recently by Gov. George Ryan.
Ryan also has signed a bill co-sponsored by state Sen. Larry Walsh (D-Joliet) that requires gasoline dealers to notify motorists when the gas they are buying contains more than 2 percent of the fuel additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether, more commonly called MTBE. Though the additive is meant to reduce emissions that create smog, it has been linked to ground water pollution. Walsh says the law will promote more use of ethanol in gasoline in Illinois, which should be good news to the state’s corn growers.
Speaking of gasoline, the Illinois congressional delegation, led by U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill), who represents portions of the southwest suburbs and Will County, is demanding that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigate why Illinois has the highest gasoline prices in the continental U.S.
Biggert also released a report from the General Accounting Office,Congress’ investigative arm, that revealed that the Chicago field office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service cannot account for 4,000 immigration cases that were in its files in 1997 and 1998. Biggert said the snafu occurred when the Chicago office transferred data from its computers to incompatible computers in Nebraska.
Biggert said that means there are a lot of people who applied for citizenship or for citizenship for children they adopted from foreign lands whose status is in limbo.
