To the Editor:
In order for our state government to be more accountable, citizens will have to be involved.
The difficult task for each citizen is to determine the truth of what politicians tell them. Too often this is the biggest problem to overcome in deciding who to support on Election Day.
I can tell you that the clear choice for Governor of Illinois is Jeanne Ives. But, let me give you a little insight into her opponent and his campaign tactics that insult rather than inform Illinois voters.
Adding difficulty to a voter’s decision-making process are the successful but deceitful politicians who know that telling a big lie, with loads of advertising dollars to bombard people, is an effective strategy.
For example, two years ago, millions of dollars of TV ads and mail pieces convinced voters who didn’t know me that I was a “Chicago Madigan-”style guy.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
When I returned to the Senate after losing the Congressional race, my Democrat colleagues laughed in amazement. Of all the people in the Illinois State Senate, I was the one who opposed Madigan and Chicago Democrats on every issue, and I did so loudly. One of the people running my opponent’s campaign made a statement later admitting, “The one thing I learned in this campaign is that negative works.”
Well, telling a big lie is an effective strategy for winning, only if you don’t have a conscience and lack integrity.
Now, this playbook is being followed again, by the very same people in the Governor’s lie-filled campaign against Representative Jeanne Ives.
The claims in the Governor’s campaign ads could not be further from the truth. Like me, Rep. Jeanne Ives is one of the few lawmakers that routinely leads the charge in the legislature against Speaker Madigan and his Chicago policies that have wrecked our state. Few legislators, other than Jeanne Ives, have the courage to stand up. Jeanne is tough. She’s a West Point graduate attending West Point as a member of only the second class of women accepted. She was most definitely hazed and she survived. Jeanne continued to achieve. She’s served our country in the U.S. Army, as a local city council member and now State Representative. Her biggest responsibility is as a married mom raising five kids. Jeanne is a true public servant. She articulates the tough medicine our state needs to recover from the corruption and decay that both political parties have created – most recently with our current “not in charge” Governor Bruce “Pinocchio” Rauner.
Rauner has millions of dollars to push big lies but his integrity can’t be found with a microscope. The state’s hope for a more prosperous future is electing Jeanne Ives. Gov. Rauner is not only a loser as a person, he will be a loser in the general election IF he survives the primary. If he does survive, I believe there is a possibility of a pro-life, pro-gun, pro-labor candidate who will jump in as an independent candidate. If that happens, the Governor will lose any conservative support that’s left and a Democrat will win. Right now, the only legitimate alternative to a Rauner Repeat is Rep. Jeanne Ives.
Jeanne is the kind of leader that our state can be proud, instead of hiding from the embarrassments of the past.
Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon)
Illinois State Senator