PEORIA, IL -- With the Illinois primary set for March 18, politics is getting more interesting. A battle for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 13th Congressional District promises to be a race to follow.
A Democratic candidate, David Green, 63, met on Jan. 11 with the Peoria chapter of Progressive Democrats of America to discuss the issues and ask for support. The 13th District does not include Peoria, but as we all know, the Illinois Congressional delegation matters to all of us.
A progressive, Democrat Dr. David Gill, nearly won the seat in 2012, and the district is considered a swing district. Green is running against the Democratic establishment's pick, Ann Callis, a former Madison County judge, and George Gollin, a physics professor at the University of Illinois.
The Republican incumbent, Rodney Davis, also has two challengers.
Anything can happen in a low turnout race. Of 500,000 eligible voters, only 30,000 voted in the Democratic primary last time, Green said
As the most progressive candidate in the race, he's running a low profile campaign, hoping to reach voters who agree with his progressive economic views. All the Democrats agree on social issues, he said, and are pro-choice and pro-gay. But economics is the dividing line, he said.
Green is anti-war, anti- interventionist in other nations, and supports "a just peace in Israel and Palestine." He's Jewish, and supports the views of Jewish Voice for Peace, he said.
Green holds a doctorate in educational policy, and works at the University of Illinois in Urbana. He favors single payer medical coverage, jobs with living wages, and says only the federal government can stand up to the big corporations, as they have captured state governments or play the states off against each other.
"We should have had single payer in this state," he said. Gov. Quinn was once for it until he became governor, he said.
He wants to stop blaming teachers and lack of educational skills for labor issues, and instead reform the economic system to get rid of surplus labor. "If profits are to be made," people will be hired and trained accordingly, he said.
Green is an impressive speaker and well up on the issues. He follows Dean Baker's blog, Beat the Press,and deserves support from progressives. The group he spoke to endorsed him, and will send out information on him, his website and Facebook page.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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