They want your votes

Several local house seats are among those up for grabs Feb. 2

CHICAGO JOURNAL

By Micah Maidenberg, Editor
01/20/2010 10:00 PM

Congressman’s calculations impact the 10th

Late last year, incumbent 10th District Representative Annazette Collins was one of several elected officials who collected petitions for a run at the 7th District congressional seat — a position that Danny Davis had talked of abandoning to campaign for president of the Cook County board.

Instead, Davis switched his ambition, and is widely expected to win the 7th District primary next month and return to Washington for another two-year term after the general election this fall.

When Davis decided to remain congressman, Collins, Ald. Fioretti and Senator Hendon, among others, dropped out of the race.

The 10th District includes Bucktown and Wicker Park and a sliver of Lincoln Park on the east, chunks of the Near West Side and Humboldt Park in its middle and Garfield Park and the edge of Austin on the west.

Collins says she wants to go back to Springfield to represent the district’s low-income constituents.

“It’s about being fair about our district. A lot of things are happening in Springfield that we don’t have a voice in — the people in poor communities,” she said. “They don’t have a voice. I have to stay there to make sure our voice is heard, especially on issues that don’t affect the rich.”

Raising the income tax to plug a $13 billion budget gap in Springfield is unavoidable, according to Collins, and she said she would support an increase.

“When more and more people … need public services, the state needs to step up and give them those services,” she said. There’s nothing left to cut, Collins said, in the budget.

She cited her support of the statewide smoking ban and creating a Department of Juvenile Justice as accomplishments.

Collins accused her opponents in the primary of twisting her positions. “I’ve got challengers in the race mainly because I was going to run for Congress, and all these people got in the race,” she said.

Jonathan Goldman said he hadn’t considered running until learning that Collins would be going for Congress.

But when she dropped her Washington run to campaign again for Springfield, Goldman said it was an easy decision to stay in the mix — the longtime nonprofit director and environmental lobbyist claims Collins is failing as a leader.

“Her constituents never hear from her. I go out knocking on doors, talking to voters — 90 percent of the people I talk to have no idea who their state rep is,” Goldman said. “She doesn’t communicate with them. She’s not trying to involve constituents in the process.”

Goldman said he knows how Springfield works, having tracked and weighed in on legislation as the executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council.

“I’ve been around the legislative process for a long time, and I’ve built a strong track record from the outside,” he said.

Near West Side resident Eddie Winters is making his third run at elected office and his second for the 10th District. A Chicago police officer for 10 years and sergeant for five, Winters said he’s campaigning hard on education and public safety — an issue he knows well from his time with the police.

“This campaign is about bringing people together, empowering them, educating them, because that’s the only way you’re going to accomplish what needs to be accomplished,” Winters said.

He promised to support South Side State Sen. James Meeks’s educational funding reform bill and vote for gun control legislation.

Both Goldman and Winters said they want to start taxing services to expand the state’s tax base.

Joseph Sneed, a lifelong resident of the West Side, was skeptical of any tax increase to address the budget deficit.

“We need to start getting away from taxing and start progressing, building up our neighborhoods,” he said.

Asked for specifics, Sneed answered by calling for more homeownership and an increased focus on small businesses, generators of new jobs.

Sneed, 41, works as a supervisor in the city of Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Services. He ran unsuccessfully for 27th Ward alderman in 1995 and the 10th District rep seat in 2002.

The remaining candidates, Mable Taylor and Keith Muhammad, could not be reached for comment.

To download a PDF of the full article, click here.

Campaign News

Jonathan in the News

Upcoming Events