For the first time in 30 years, Whiteside County voters will elect a new state’s attorney.  It is an important decision, and experience and qualifications should guide voters. As a candidate for state’s attorney, I welcome the opportunity to introduce myself.  

I grew up on the west end of Sterling in a working-class neighborhood. My father, Jack Koehler, was an electrician at the local steel mill, and my mother, Carol Koehler, was a registered nurse.

Throughout junior and senior high school, I delivered newspapers, picked beans, babysat, worked retail, and did other odd jobs in order to pay my school tuition. I paid for college and law school by working various jobs ranging from waitressing to working in the local steel mill as a laborer.