We’re working hard but we need your help.
For the past 20 years I have been proud to represent non-profit news organizations here in Chicago. I loved the work, being able to go out every day and do my small part in helping make a difference in people’s lives. Last week I had to step away from WBEZ Chicago because I made the decision to run for office. I didn’t want anyone to question the independent ideals of that great organization and I knew that I could make a greater difference in Springfield.
When I joined the Chicago Reader in 1999, it was the first job I ever had in an office. Every job I had before that was either working on my feet or with my hands. I started working for my dad’s small business when I was 12 years old. We’d cut grass in the summer, shovel snow in the winter, and clean office buildings at night. My dad would clean the bathrooms and my mom would vacuum. I would empty all of the trash cans in the building, go to sixth grade the next day, and then do it all over the next night. I never had a “snow day” when I was a kid because if it snowed I would be out at 5am shoveling with my dad.
When I was 16 I was a Teamster working as a helper on an RC Cola delivery truck. I lost that job during a strike when the company brought in scabs to replace us. After that I got a job working in a public works department for a town in the south suburbs. My foreman always knew he could ask me to work overtime because I was trying to save money for college. I was a public employee for five years and worked outside Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. All that work paid off when I finally got accepted to the University of Illinois. My co-workers gave me a lot of crap for leaving that job for college but I made a promise to my parents and myself.
None of this makes me unique. Similar stories are told by countless people living in this city every day. It doesn’t matter if your family came here from Poland, Puerto Rico, Mexico, or in the Great Migration, Chicago is a town of hard working people and they deserve representatives that work as hard as they do. All service workers deserve fair wages. All full-time workers deserve medical and retirement benefits. All small business owners deserve not be taxed to death by the state. And we all deserve to keep more of the profits produced from our work.
Other candidates in this race are going to have more money or more powerful allies but I promise you this, no one will outwork us. We are out there every day talking to people on their front porches and hearing what is important to them. That’s the job. Asking people what they need and then working hard every day to make that happen, but we can’t do it alone. We need your help.
We need your help gathering the thousands of signatures needed to get on the ballot. Please check out our Volunteer page for more information.
And if you can, we need your financial help so we can compete with the powerful groups and millionaires that are competing for this seat. Please give what you can.
Working together we can rebuild Illinois and put the needs of everyday people first.