Explore our content

All types | All dates | All authors
Bobby Schilling
Quick Hit
by Aricka Flowers
12:10am
Fri Nov 9, 2012

Freeport Sensata Employees Rally For Job Creation, Full Severance

Freeport workers at the Bain Capital-owned Sensata Technologies rallied today as part of a national movement calling on politicians to focus on job creation, not cuts to social services and education. The workers say the outcome of the election, which saw Democrat Cheri Bustos beat incumbent, Tea Party-backed Republican Bobby Schilling in the 17th congressional district where the Sensata factory lies, shows that voters are ready to see their elected officials work for them, not against them.

For months, the Sensata workers called on U.S. Rep. Schilling and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to address the issue of the 170 U.S. jobs being outsourced to China. But their calls fell on deaf ears, with neither Schilling nor Romney ever taking the time to meet with the workers or address the issue. 

“Politicians who turned their back on workers, like Bobby Schilling and Mitt Romney, were rejected by voters,” said Tom Gaulrapp, who has worked at the plant for 33 years. “Our elected leaders need to stand up for good jobs, not job-killing budget cuts.”

Read more »

Quick Hit
by Steven Ross Johnson
8:57pm
Tue Nov 6, 2012

Bustos Pushes For Votes On Election Day In The 17th Congressional District

In a race where local issues have taken on national significance, 17th congressional district Democratic challenger Cheri Bustos spent Election Day travelling throughout the region in a last ditch effort to encourage more voter turnout in her bid to unseat first-term, Tea Party-backed incumbent U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling.

In one of the state’s largest districts geographically, Bustos, a former journalist and alderwoman of East Moline, spent the early morning hours of the day in the city of Rockford, meeting with voters at several stops before driving across the state to the Quad Cities in order to cast her own vote.

Read more »

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
8:18pm
Mon Nov 5, 2012

Illinois Republicans Rake In Super PAC Cash, Dark Money

If tomorrow’s six extremely close (see recent polls here and our voter guide here) Illinois congressional races were solely determined by outside spending, that is money poured into the races that the candidates themselves did not raise, the Republican candidates would win by a landslide.

In the 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 17th district Congressional races, Republicans are getting millions of dollars more from Super Political Action Committees and “dark money” groups. Read more »

PI Original
by Bob Skolnik
11:12am
Fri Nov 2, 2012

Getting To Know Eric Reyes, 17th Congressional District Write-In Candidate

Election 2012

Eric Reyes, a 33 year-old attorney from Rock Island, is running as an independent write-in candidate for Congress in the northwest Illinois 17th Congressional District. Reyes, who first planned to run as a Democrat, says he is tired of partisanship. But he knows that his effort is quixotic because the 17th District race between Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling and Democratic challenger Cheri Bustos is a high-profile race with national implications. We talk to the candidiate about the overall race and his platform.

PI Original
by Matthew Blake
11:23am
Wed Oct 24, 2012

Freeport Sensata Layoffs Spark National Debate On Outsourcing

Election 2012

Employees at the Sensata Technologies manufacturing plant in Freeport have failed to prevent the outsourcing of their jobs to China. Bu they have succeeded at helping to spark a national election season conversation about outsourcing, one that has dominated Illinois’ 17th congressional district race and emerged in the presidential campaign.

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
4:39pm
Mon Oct 22, 2012

Local Issues Marginal in Walsh-Duckworth Race

The old expression “all politics is local” seems not applicable to the high-profile 8th congressional district race between U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-McHenry) and Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth.

Unlike in the 17th congressional district race in western Illinois or even the neighboring 10th district contest, there is little in the 8th district race that is of exclusive interest to those particular voters. The battle between Walsh and Duckworth instead has focused on major national issues such as Medicare and Social Security, with Chicago and national media attention often covering the money being funneled into the race or the latest histrionics of Walsh, including his outrageous comments last Thursday on abortion. Read more »

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
3:57pm
Thu Oct 4, 2012

How The Thomson Prison Sale Went Down

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and assistant Senate majority leader, announced Tuesday that the Obama administration will purchase the unused Thomson prison from the state of Illinois for $165 million.

Durbin hailed the acquisition as an instance of collaboration between Gov. Pat Quinn and the U.S. Justice Department Federal Bureau of Prisons. “This historic action will lead to the creation of hundreds of construction jobs and over 1,000 permanent jobs at this facility,” Durbin said in a statement.

Cheri Bustos, the Democratic nominee in the 17th congressional district that includes the village of Thomson, said the sale was “great news because there should be no higher priority than putting people in our district back to work,” in an e-mailed statement.

While the agreement might indeed prove a boon to an economically troubled region, it emerged out of exasperation with U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Virginia), chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that controls the Justice Department budget. Read more »

PI Original
by Matthew Blake
7:12pm
Tue Oct 2, 2012
1 comment

Climate Change On The Election Backburner

Election 2012

Climate change is now a peripheral issue in American politics, mentioned elliptically by President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney in their calls for clean energy investments. Meanwhile, the issue is almost nonexistent in the competitive Illinois races for Congress.