The small-town values that I sought when moving to Central Illinois in 1990 are being slowly replaced by Chicago values.  We need to reverse this and bring small-town values to the city of Chicago.  The conservative agenda in this campaign is designed to appeal to all Illinoisans including the people of Chicago.  For too long, the Republican Party has been playing defense.  Our representatives are casting meaningless "no" votes rather than going on offense and taking a conservative message to those most in need of one.  The 107th district has been designated as a safe seat by the Democrats.  I intend to use this against the Democrats by making this seat the focal point of a restoration of Republican rule in Illinois.

I am an engineer who has spent the last thirty-five years working in various industrial plants solving problems and making the plants run better.  I intend to take this problem-solving experience to solve the problems of Illinois.

My wife, Debbie, and I moved to Central Illinois in 1990 and are currently living in Mount Zion.  Both of our daughters were born in Decatur, as well as one of our grandsons.  My wife and I are not originally from this area, nor did we have any family ties here before 1990.  We chose to make Central Illinois our home.

I am an engineer, not a politician.  I earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Michigan Technological University and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Illinois at Springfield.  I've worked thirty-five years in various plants as a supervisor, department manager, project engineer, and process controls engineer.  I have worn a uniform every day to work just like any other factory worker.  

Present a conservative vision that appeals to all Illinois residents and use it as a basis to retake the Illinois House and Senate.

The most important common factor of high job-growth states is that none of them have a state income tax.  This is true for both Red states and Blue states.  Job creators have a choice as to which state to start their business in.  Removing the state income tax will improve the business climate in Illinois and attract future entrepreneurs to locate their businesses here.

The Constitution doesn't allow taxing goods from other states but is silent on whether states can tax goods manufactured in foreign countries.  In general, we want to raise taxes on what we want less of and lower taxes on what we want more of.  Either outcome is considered a win by the government.  In the case of this new sales tax, the state of Illinois will either gain additional revenue or there will be less imported goods sold due to the higher selling price.  The higher selling price - driven by this tax - will increase local jobs by making it easier for Illinois businesses to compete against countries immune from American safety and environmental regulations as well as our minimum wage laws.  This tax will also incentivize foreign companies to invest in factories in Illinois. 

Appointed by the Speaker of the House, these political appointees would be accountable only to the Illinois General Assembly.  Their primary goal would be to investigate wasteful government spending.  They can fire anyone who blocks their efforts except for political appointees by the Governor.  Their sole qualification would be to have already been a whistleblower in some other business or organization not affiliated with Illinois state government.   

Illinois is surrounded by right-to-work states.  Keeping Illinois union-friendly could be a competitive advantage if the unions can be modernized to address today's issues and not the issues of Great Depression Era America.

Reforms to make unions better serve their membership

• All unions that participate in politics (i.e. make campaign donations) must have accounts for both major political parties and must allow each member to either pick which major party he or she wants to support or choose not to contribute to either party and instead receive a refund of that portion of their dues

• Make it easier to allow union members to call for a vote to decertify their existing union by lowering the petition requirement from 30% to 5%

The enemy is no longer the company, but rather the factories and businesses in neighboring states and foreign countries.  Unions must demonstrate that a unionized plant is the most productive plant by focusing on how to shape their membership to compete.  The ultimate measure of success is to have companies locate their plants in Illinois because they want Illinois union labor responsible for production in those plants.

Characteristics of a Value-Added Union

• Focus on job excellence

  • Union leaders hold their members to higher standards than the company - don't allow a bad apple to damage the union brand

  • Union leaders should be free of any history of disciplinary action

• Focus on the productivity of each member and not simply on maintaining or increasing headcount

  • Embracing automation efforts

  • Embracing common sense work rules

• Greater participation in operations and ownership of safety, quality, & production

  • Unions taking more responsibility for traditional first-line supervisor duties

  • Union leadership taking more responsibility for traditional HR duties

The vote is the ultimate survey of the public support of politicians and the government policies they represent.  However, for a survey to be accurate, every possible response must be provided.  For politicians running without an opponent, the "None of the Above" response option will allow voters to accurately show their support (or lack of support) for the candidate.  In the case where both Parties have a candidate running, the "None of the Above" response option will allow voters to show the lack of support for either Party. 

In general, we want to raise taxes on what we want less of and lower taxes on what we want more of.  Either outcome is considered a win by the government.  In the case of this new tax, the state of Illinois will either gain additional revenue or will reduce the fundraising advantage of incumbent politicians.  By leveling the fundraising playing field, challengers will be encouraged to run.  This tax would not apply to challengers.  For incumbents, each election would require that an additional percentage of their campaign contributions be transferred to the Illinois treasury.  Perhaps after twenty years in office, an incumbent politician's political contributions could be taxed as high as 90% while a challenger running for office for the first time against that incumbent will be taxed at 0%.   

The Senate districts would no longer have equal population.  Half would come from the high population density areas and half from low population density areas.  Two thirds of the population would be represented by 29 Senate districts that would be rather small geographically.  One third of the population would be represented by 29 Senate districts that would be rather large geographically.  The 59th Senator would be an "at large" seat representing the entire state.  The purpose would be to balance representation between rural and urban areas of Illinois, much like how the U.S. Senate balances power in the U.S. Congress for the small population states versus the U.S. House, which favors large population states.     

• To better reflect the sentiment of the voters on Election Day, the ballots would be modified to allow a voter to pick both a primary choice and a secondary choice for each office that has a third-party candidate.  If the primary choice doesn't win, then the ballots would be recounted with the secondary choice.  For example, a voter could have a Green Party candidate as primary and a Democrat candidate as secondary.  Or a voter could have a Libertarian candidate as primary and a Republican candidate as secondary.  This would allow some voters to "vote their heart" without fear that they would be supporting the opposing major political party.  

• Furthermore, to help promote even more third-party candidates, signature requirements would be changed to either match the numerical count requirement of the major parties or allow signature collection to go from 90 days to 365 days.       

Having trust in elections is a cornerstone of democracy.  Illinois can lead the nation by adopting the following measures to promote voting integrity.

• Paper ballots only - no voting machines

• Unique barcodes to be added to ballots at the time of voting that will allow voters to verify that their ballot was properly counted

• Ban the U.S. Postal Service from handling state ballots - can't have the federal government involved with state elections

• Independent auditors - like the use of high school students to recount ballots

• Video camera coverage of ballot-counting machines and where ballots are handed out

• No voting boxes  

The states are not responsible for immigration policy.  However, the states have historically had an unofficial responsibility to assimilate immigrants regardless of their legal standing.  A three-step process will be proposed to assimilate the illegal immigrants in Illinois.

• Red Card - for those who are BOTH actively enrolled in English lessons and have no crimes beyond being in the country illegally

• Red & White Card - for those who are BOTH actively enrolled in American history & values lessons and have demonstrated English competency 

• Red, White, & Blue Card - for those who have demonstrated BOTH English fluency and American history competency will now have official Illinois protection from deportation

Those who do not wish to participate in this program will be turned over to ICE for deportation.

Those who can't find a job in their major after five or more years since graduating from a state university would qualify for tuition reimbursement by the university.  Any university that does not comply will have the money deducted from state aid.  Universities will be required to report these reimbursements so that the information can be used by future students to warn them of potential pitfalls in choosing majors that have no job prospects.  Room and board will not be reimbursed to students because they actually did receive value for their money.  

By making all Illinois hospitals charge the same rate for all patients, then the self-employed person, the person without insurance, and the under-insured person all can benefit from the pricing power of the large employers in Illinois.  Currently, those with the most capacity to pay end up paying the least.  Those with the least capacity to pay end up paying the most.  This new policy would level the playing field.

A low minimum wage makes it difficult to make a living.  A high minimum wage makes it difficult for entry-level workers to get their first job.  A two-tiered minimum wage structure would solve both of these problems.  A lower entry-level wage makes it more affordable for employers to hire someone and train him or her on the job.  If that person stays on the job after two years, then the upper-level wage kicks in.  This reflects common sense, as the skills learned in the previous two years increase the productivity of the worker, thus enabling a higher level of wage.

The ultimate measure of success for a high school has traditionally been the performance of its students on standardized college entrance exams like the SAT or ACT.  But this is shortsighted.  A truer measure of success would be whether the high school graduates can get a job and be a productive member of society.  With that in mind, all high school graduates would be required to take a preemployment test that reflects typical requirements for new hires.  In addition, all high school graduates would also be required to take a drug & alcohol test, although the results would be non-binding and only reported by school and not by individual.  

If Illinois is to compete for high-paying manufacturing jobs, the state needs to have 100% of the high school grads qualified to take those jobs.  An EAT test will be developed jointly between Illinois employers and state government.  Students will only be required to TAKE the EAT test to obtain their diploma, not necessarily pass it.

• Mandate twenty years as a max length for home mortgage loans so that equity can build faster

• Cap interest rates based on the prime rate for any unsecured loans including credit cards and title loans

Under these policies, statistically, a typical worker who chooses a career in Illinois will become wealthier than if he or she had chosen a career in a surrounding state and potentially will be able to retire earlier.

In the 1930's, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created to protect the savings of Americans in the event of a bank collapse.  It is an insurance policy that now protects up to $250k in deposits per insured bank.  Nearly one hundred years later and with the demise of company pensions, Americans save their money in IRA and 401k accounts and not simple bank savings accounts.  Identity theft and other cybercrimes have replaced bank collapse as the most serious threat to retirement savings.  

To protect Illinois workers, the state of Illinois should set up a similar institution, the Illinois Deposit Insurance Corporation (ILDIC), for protecting savings; not from stock market losses, but from theft.  This new ILDIC will offer voluntary insurance coverage in exchange for a fee that reflects the anticipated cost of insuring the entire value of an IRA or 401k from theft.   

It is time to rethink the drinking age change done back in the early 1980's that raised the age to 21.  The federal government threatened to withhold highway funds in order to force the states into compliance.  Now, with legalized marijuana flaunting federal law, the time is right for change.  There were virtually no drunk driving laws when the drinking age was raised.  The government decided to ban alcohol rather than punish the offenders.  This is much like gun control laws that ban guns rather than punish criminals who use a gun.  Now there are a lot of laws against drunk driving.  All of Europe has survived with drinking ages as low as 16.  Illinois can survive with the drinking age restored back to 18.

Both carrying a gun and voting are Constitutional rights.  One Party wants low voter ID requirements and high gun owner ID requirements.  The other Party wants low gun owner ID requirements and high voter ID requirements.  Having the same identification requirements for both voting and carrying a gun is a good common-sense compromise.   In practical terms, requiring a FOID card to vote or eliminating the FOID card for gun owners would place equal requirements to execute these two Constitutional rights.  However, requiring something in between these two extremes would be the best way to achieve a balance that all sides can support.  

Perhaps the last chance to save public education.  While school choice is a common Republican policy, it most likely will destroy public education as argued by many Democrats.  A compromise would be to remove federal funding and the associated federal rules and mandates that come with the acceptance of federal dollars as a way to put public education back in the hands of local communities.

Illinois's shocking report card as reported by the Wall Street Journal (10/4/22):

"Statewide, in 2019, 36% of all third-grade students could read at grade level.  That's an F...  That number drops to 27% for Hispanic students and 22% for black students."

Possible changes this could bring about

• Focus on the three R's once again

  • Return physical education requirements back to 1 yr

  • Eliminate Common Core

  • End bilingual instruction in all public schools by requiring English only - if the student doesn't know English, he or she needs to go into a specialized crash course to learn English first, then once proficient, the student can return to the traditional program

• Focus more on vocational education under the Tuskegee Institute model

  • Tuskegee Institute focus

    • Industrial Education

      • Vocational training

      • Goal of economic independence

    • Self-Help, Discipline, Work Ethic

    • Social and Economic Participation

    • Teacher Training

• Promote non-education majors to run schools - look for retired engineers, nurses, accountants, private-sector managers, and other professionals to run schools

• Reduce the number of school administrators - want more teachers in the classroom teaching and less bureaucrats in offices snoozing

• Expand the summer break by requiring school to be out before Memorial Day and not to restart until after Labor Day

  • want to maximize family time during the summer break and increase focus on studies during the school year

• Studying should be five days a week, not four, as this would better prepare students to be productive citizens