Jim Dodge refuses to take his eyes off the big picture where he views the preservation of Illinois to be concerned.
“This is a right track, wrong track election, one where we will have either a bright or bleak future,” Dodge, an Orland Park Republican running for state treasurer, told the Prairie State Wire. “Too much is on the line for us to allow ourselves to get sidetracked by other things.”
Dodge said he hasn’t heard rumblings that the Illinois GOP endorsement process may be “rigged” to favor Gov. Bruce Rauner and doesn’t believe them to be true.
In one recent instance, Republican leaders at a Palatine Township Republican Organization endorsement session charged that Chairman Aaron Del Mar, a longtime Rauner supporter and 2016 appointee of his to the Illinois International Port District, argued he wasn’t required to provide other group members with rules for the meeting.
Eyebrows were also raised when Rauner won the Cook County Republican endorsement over Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton), despite her winning 55 percent of the city vote.
“What I hear when I’m talking to voters is how do we stop this U-Haul Revolution where everyone is leaving the state because of everything that’s structurally wrong in Springfield,” Dodge said. “People want change and they’re demanding that we do it now.”
Dodge said the issues people most want to talk about are the state’s runaway tax system and how the bulk of the spiraling taxes stem from bad management.
“People understand this election is about reform and that Illinois’ future has to be about reforming income, property and state taxes,” he said. “They understand this fight to save the state is about taking it back from (House Speaker Mike) Madigan (D-Chicago).”
In the final weeks before the primary, Dodge said he plans to continue pressing forward, meeting and interacting with as many voters as he can to make sure they know what he stands for.
“We’re getting good response, but we know there is still work to do,” he said. “This election is too important to leave anything to chance.”
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