The Community Word

With less than a week before the balloons, the confetti, the smiles, and the cheers, one candidate will be in the center of it all.

The reason she’s running is clear: to be the next Congresswoman representing the 18th District of Illinois. Should congressional candidate Colleen Callahan win the fast-approaching November election, she would become the first Democrat to take the House seat since the end of the First World War. And that’s something to strive for. Callahan received ample encouragement from what she terms “the absolute ground swell of support from the public,” and was not at all discouraged by the flattering front-page headlines and runaway win of her young Republican rival just after the primaries. When asked about her competition last winter, Callahan’s reply was all but dubious: “If I didn’t think I could win, I wouldn’t be in the race.”

Apparently, Green Party opponent Sheldon Schafer feels the same. “I realize winning this election is a long shot,” Schafer told The Community Word last summer. “But (if I win the election), there will be two big stories nationwide. One would be the election of a president. The other would be this story: the first Green elected to Congress in an 80 percent Republican district.”

And then there’s State Representative Aaron Schock who set off like a whirlwind to begin his campaign no sooner than Republican Congressman Ray LaHood announced his retirement in August of last year. And—no surprise—Schock’s been working hard ever since. Promising a split from what he describes as “endless political posturing and inaction,” the 27-year-old has spent the last four years as the Republican state representative of a 60 percent Democrat district fully engaged in meeting the needs of his constituents. Rather than attempting to play the “perfect” candidate, Schock has positioned himself as a positive strength in government relying on actions rather than words to tell his story.

A Force for Change

After serving two terms in the General Assembly, Schock is well versed in the concerns of his constituents and well educated in ways to resolve them. He has guided over twenty bills he sponsored to House passage, including HB 3678 that reforms the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and was labeled a “landmark education reform” as it was signed into law. He also sponsored the first bill of its kind to combat high tech identity theft, also labeled “a landmark reform.” Schock, in all his ardent tenacity, has worked to instigate change in Springfield and plans to run with his vision to Washington D.C. to help build a better nation.

And he’ll begin with the economy. Even before the Dow Jones plummeted 777 points—its largest drop in a single day since it’s 684-point plunge on the first trading day following September 11, 2001—the looming economic crisis was foremost on voters’ minds. “I think (the stock market fall) is a thermostat as far as an indicator of our economic health,” says Schock. “With the right leaders merely at the federal level, we can get our economy back on track and going again.”

The representative believes the current “financial meltdown” is the result of vice that has proven detrimental to the nation’s economy. “(The economic collapse) was in part due to greed, corruption, and basically not adhering to fundamental financial guidelines due to investing,” he says.

Schock believes the country’s economic outcome will depend in part on what is accomplished in the next year. “We need low monthly tax rates and low capital gain rates to allow capital to stay in the markets, which ultimately creates more jobs,” he says.

Reducing and eventually eliminating the amount of money invested in foreign oil is another priority. The Republican candidate is highly in favor of drilling offshore as well as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)—thought to be the nation’s largest oil reserve containing an estimated 17 billion barrels of oil and 34 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—to institute American energy independence. Schock advocates not only drilling but harvesting sources of energy across the board from hydroelectric energy to the building of more oil refineries and clean coal power plants in order to enable the country to transition to hydrogen, geothermal, solar, and wind power. Schock also supports an increase in the blend of ethanol in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 and then 20 percent—a blend that does not require vehicle engine modifications.

In addition to reducing foreign imports, Schock proposes keeping healthcare policies focused on individuals rather than connecting health insurance with employers in order to prevent people from falling out of the system. He says the more competition that’s in the healthcare system, the better off the product will be. “If I as a consumer am more aware of what healthcare is costing, I’m going to be more aware of controlling the costs,” he says. “Competition will drive excellence within the healthcare system.”

The Republican is also a proponent of Member earmarks in legislation claiming that earmarks will help him to know more about his district’s needs. “Many earmarks are earmarking money already in the budget,” he says. “They account for only less than 1 percent of the national budget, and Congress has used the process in an appropriate way.”

From Radio to Politics

A Milford native well-versed in radio and TV farm broadcasting, Callahan has proven to be no stranger to political issues, holding her own against her opponents in debates across the district. Supporters across party lines have flocked to her side, anxious to elect the first candidate to represent their party since 1917 and to hear her voice regarding topics of concern to the voters.

With a record-setting federal deficit, Callahan acknowledges that the current economy “simply does not work for Middle America.” “(The stock market’s decline) is a quandary but also an exclamation point based upon the policies (Bush’s) administration has implemented over the past several years,” she says.

Callahan believes Americans should consider how the country’s economy arrived at such dire straights and says that it is difficult for the nation’s people to chart their course without knowing their history. “What got us to where we are is the deregulation, the mindset, the philosophy of our government, and our leadership,” she says. “On 9/11, we were told: ‘Go shopping.’ For many, that didn’t sound like an appropriate directive. We started spending. We have sold our financial soul to other countries. We took our cue from our government. Our government gave us permission to spend beyond our means.”

The Democrat recognizes that the war overseas has played a large role in downgrading the economy. “I traveled to Iraq in November of 2003,” says Callahan. “To have been there and seen the visuals of the expenditures—(the war) is a prime example of what got us into this (economic) quandary. It has cost us not only $12 billion a month but about 4,000 lives.”

Callahan believes energy independence is key to helping restore the nation’s economy and lower the federal deficit. “We have an 11-point plan based on the concept of 25:25—25 percent energy independent by 2025,” Callahan says.

Finding alternatives to oil in the Middle East and Venezuela can be accomplished, Callahan believes, by substituting ethanol for oil and supporting what she terms “an all-out federal effort” to locate clean, renewable energy sources.

“Renewable energy brings us financial stability and independence and confidence in ourselves,” she says. “The presence of ethanol plants in Illinois has meant jobs and that means employment. We will take a complete plate of options to energy independence, including solar and wind energy. We will also reduce the carbon footprint using clean-burning coal. “

Along with providing a plan for efficient use of domestic energy, Callahan promises not to back down on lowering healthcare costs, citing that the two million residents left without healthcare coverage under the current system is “inexcusable.”

“Americans need quality, affordable, portable healthcare coverage,” said Callahan. “We need leaders in Washington who will make it not just a talking point but also a priority.”

Incentive is a much-needed provision in the healthcare system. “Healthcare should have incentives with pre-existing conditions,” she says. Callahan also advocates reallocation of how individuals spend money in the healthcare system.

In addition to healthcare reform, Callahan believes there should be a system in place to allow Congressmen and women to bring money back to their district for infrastructure and other projects. She therefore advocates congressional Members’ use of earmarks on legislation, with certain stipulations. “There has to be accountability—Members should put their name on it—and transparency,” she says.

An Independent Voice

An Astronomy instructor at Bradley University and Planetarium Director at the Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences, Schafer founded the Peoria Area Green Party in December of 2000 and is dedicated to “return(ing) the voice of the individual to Washington” by exercising environmentally-friendly principles. Basing his platform on practical idealism and common sense, Schafer runs as “an independent voice speaking for each citizen, not for money, and not for special interests.”

Given the reduced state of the economy for the past several years, Schafer believes the biggest drop in the stock market since the 2001 terrorist attacks “suggests some new direction is needed (in Washington).”

“‘Business as usual’ isn’t the best way to go about (fixing the economy),” he says.

Schafer proposes government take a look at the combination of money spent on Homeland Security, Defense, and Veterans’ Benefits. “Certainly, I wouldn’t propose cutting benefits for veterans,” he says. “But with Homeland Security, if we spend twice as much on Homeland Security, we wouldn’t be twice as safe. We need to be vigilant, smart (about how we spent our money).”

The other half of Schafer’s plan to institute economic growth involves moving into Green energy efficiency. Striving to eliminate the preponderance of foreign energy dependence, he claims Green energy “offers the first chance to get some net return.”

“We need to be weaning ourselves from (drilling),” Schafer says. “It’s holding us back.”

Schafer calls drilling in the Arctic a red herring, and a “no-win situation” claiming that the effects of climate change and the loss of permafrost will eventually necessitate the rebuilding of the Alaskan pipeline, thus increasing capital cost.

“We need to look more at conservation,” he says. “Conservation-wise, the Europeans have half the (carbon) footprint that we have. And the greatest thing about conservation is there’s no capital cost.”

Schafer says the federal government must move to wind and solar energy “until we’re 50 percent of each” and must also pick up the pace when it comes to moving toward hybrid vehicles. “If you want to change the system, you have to introduce efficiency into the system,” he says.

When it comes to healthcare, Schafer believes the best way to act efficiently is to consider single-payer universal healthcare. “The current system drives people to enter healthcare when conditions are expensive,” says Schafer. “We’re using the system inefficiently. When people get sick, they go to emergency rooms, and that increases costs.”

Schafer says the challenge is becoming more efficient without pumping money into special interests, such as CEO salaries and drug companies. “Sweetheart deals like these have the potential for bankrupting our existing system,” he says.

Schafer believes earmarks should be restricted to education and infrastructure. “We need to create a system of budgeting earmarks over a three- to four-year cycle,” he says. “We need to set aside a sum to be spent and divide it by 435. That’s the common sense approach. With budgeting, nothing gets slipped in that way.”

Election Day is November 4th. Support your candidate, and help America remain a “force for good” in the world.