Candidates offer fixes for state, nation: Two dozen on ballot in February attend voter fair at Sauk

DIXON – Two dozen candidates in the Feb. 2 primary election, for offices ranging from county board to U.S. Senate, converged on the Sauk Valley Community College’s east mall Sunday.

About 100 area residents came to hear the candidates speak for about 5 minutes each, then talk to potential voters and hand out campaign material in the first Sauk Valley Voter Education Fair.

The event was organized by a group of self-described nonpartisan grass-roots activists, many of whom work with the Illinois tea parties.

The message among national candidates was clear: The economy stinks, and health care is broken. Plans on how to solve both problems formed the main talking points.

Here are some comments that capture the tone of Sunday’s talk:

■ Randy Huntgren, a Wheaton-based Republican candidate for the 14th Congressional District seat, said smaller government is the key to rebuilding the economy. He has put in 12 years in the Illinois General Assembly.

“It really scares me when the only thing that is growing is the government,” Hultgren said. “We cannot sustain ourselves when government is growing faster than the private sector.”

■ Will Boyd, a Greenville Democrat running as an independent for U.S. Senate, is pitching the Boyd Doctrine, which includes massive reinvestment in blighted communities and vocational training for out-of-work manufacturers.

“I want to work in small communities ... and give small business a chance to compete with foreign trade,” Boyd said. “This is a national office, but it’s important to remember the people of Illinois.”

■ Robert Marshall, a Berwyn physician and Harvard Medical School graduate who served two tours as a field doctor in Vietnam, is running for the same Senate seat on the Democratic ticket.

“He’s sorely disappointed with the [health care] bill coming out of the House of Representatives,” said Tom Aitken, Marshall’s campaign spokesman. Marshall would push for a public option, constraints on insurance companies “that have a stranglehold on Illinois,” and the return of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The message from state-level candidates also was clear: Springfield is dysfunctional, and they want to fix it.

■ Jim Dodge, an Orland Park Republican running for comptroller, called the office “a bully pulpit,” which he would use to highlight financial shenanigans and call attention to overspending.