If you are dissatisfied with politicians who give lip service to Green issues and then forget their commitments once in office, you now have alternatives. You can vote for Green candidates in Tuesday's primary election by requesting a Green Party primary ballot.
These are people who have been active in Green causes such as air quality, renewable energy, peace, social justice, global warming, sustainable economics, conservation, and natural resources. Here is a list for voters living in the North Side Greens' service area.
In some cases we have endorsed more than one candidate for the same office. We make sure they're for real, but leave the ultimate choice to the voters.
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United States Senator
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Lealan M. Jones
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Governor
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Rich Whitney
Rich Whitney is a civil rights attorney with a successful practice in southern Illinois. When the Shawnee National Forest was threatened by powerful timber interests intent on clear-cutting Whitney went to work to stop them. He led the court battles which halted the project.
Whitney seeks to put Illinois on a sound financial footing. A strong economy, he believes, must be based on energy independence. Renewable energy is the only approach which, it seems to him, which has any future. Whitney is a nationwide leader in the struggle for renewable energy. He lives with his wife in Carbondale, Illinois.
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Lieutenant Governor
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Don W. Crawford
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Attorney General
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David F. Black
When David Black first came to Illinois, the state's most powerful politician was a man named "Shoebox" Paul Powell.
Powell got the moniker because of his habit of stuffing cash in shoeboxes. No one knows for sure how much Powell took. Black was attracted to the Green Party because of its policy of refusing corporate funds.
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Secretary of State
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Adrian Frost
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Comptroller
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R. Erika Schafer
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Treasurer
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Scott K. Summers
Scott Summers is a practicing attorney who also holds an MBA. He has served on the board of his local junior college.
He is a strong believer in fiscal sustainability.
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Representative Illinois 4th Congressional District
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Robert J. Burns
Robert J. Burns is an economist. He has done PhD studies at the University of Massachusetts. He has been involved in labor organizing (UAW), and community organizing. He is a former President of the South Loop Neighbors Association.
Burns wants to return the United States to the principles on which the Founding Fathers built it. The power of the corporations, something which Thomas Jefferson warned against, is now unchecked. Government serves the interests of the few.
The United States was once admired world wide. Burns wants to return American to its foundational values.
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Representative Illinois 5th Congressional District
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Matthew Reichel
Matt Reichel is a peace activist with a record of commitment to Green and other progressive causes, and a keen sense of the critical role economics plays in national policy issues.
Reichel grew up in Chicago's north side Rogers Park neighborhood. He showed promise at an early age, attending Whitney Young magnet school.
After earning his bachelor's in political science (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Reichel did graduate studies in Europe.
He became fluently bi-lingual in French. Reichel was active in progressive causes in Europe. This political involvement combined with Reichel's linguistic fluency, gave him a learning opportunity few Americans have had.
Americans too often don't understand, Reichel says, how our actions are viewed by citizens of other nations, and they don't understand the political consequences when American power is misused.
Reichel wants an immediate end to the mideast war. He want Congress to de-fund military operations in the region. In addition he wants US sponsored mercenaries to be removed. He believes full sovereignty should be returned to the Iraqi and Afghan parliaments.
Reichel opposes the administration's privatized health care proposal. He backs HR676 instead. HR676, Medicare for All, is the bill written by Representative John Conyers.
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Terence A. Gilhooly
Terry Gilhooly worked as a planner for the Chicago Department of Aviation, part of a larger regional authority which operates O'Hare International Airport.
Gilhooly had been active for many years, in Democratic politics, a skilled insider in an era in which idealists and would-be reformers were cautioned to "work from within." In a move which proved surprising to many, on the day Gilhooly retired, he joined the Green movement.
A story circulating about Gilhooly has it that he was forced into retirement after he floated a proposal to make the region's airports into hubs for high speed rail.
Gilhooly denies the story, saying that he never did any such thing. But as one listens to him describe the potential of his proposal, as he ticks off the steps that would need to be taken to implement the plan, talking with the practiced skill of a professional planner, one wonders what the impact of his proposal must have been, had he indeed put it forward.
Gilhooly's proposal was thoroughly heretical. It would have changed the face of commercial aviation, eventually paving the way for its demise. The Obama administration is proposing high speed rail now, but the administration's proposal is far different than Gilhooly's.
The administration wants to revitalize downtown rail terminals. The problem is, these terminals don't connect with anything. Gilhooly's proposal would have had high speed rail links leaving directly from the region's major airports, cutting into the short and medium haul connecting flights.
In an age of global warming, the Gilhooly plan would saved enormous tonnages of carbon emissions.
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Representative Illinois 9th Congressional District
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Morris "Moe" Shanfield
Moe Shanfield's political roots go back to the Depression. He was a peace activist in the run-up to Pearl Harbor. Afterward, he supported the war effort. Later, during the Korean War, he served in the Army. He was an opponent of McCarthyism at a time when this could involve considerable personal risk.
His life since then has revolved around environmental, anti-nuclear, and social justice issues. Having lived through the Depression, he is acutely aware of the importance of sustainable economic policies.
Shanfield is concerned about energy. He believes that most of the economic growth of the 20th Century was fueled by abundant energy resources in the form of cheap oil and natural gas. Now those days are coming to an end, he says, and the economic boom built on them appears also to have ended.
World production of conventional oil peaked in 2005, and the industry is now struggling to find substitutes. That's why oil prices have remained high, he notes, and why there is little hope for a return to the old days. In any event, concerns about global warming rule out continued reliance on fossil fuels. Shanfield believes it's time to take action.
We need desperately, he says, to build the infrastructure necessary to shift to renewable energy. Without progress on this front, it will not be possible to put the US economy back on track. He points out that at one point during the boom years, the US was spending on the order of $750 billion on imported oil. That pattern was unsustainable because the massive cash outflows financing oil imports were not - could not be - balanced by cash earnings from exports.
The conundrum facing the US now, he says, is that globalization itself is likely to founder on high oil prices, dooming hopes of resurgent exports. Shanfield advocates instead an all-out program to build renewable alternatives here in the US. He points out that the US was in the midst of the Great Depression when World War II started. The situation did not seem promising, yet Roosevelt set goals for production, and he mobilized the country to meet those goals. At war's end, the Depression had ended and unemployment was less than 1%.
Moe Shanfield attended Roosevelt University, majoring in philosophy. He wrote for Roosevelt's student newspaper. Eventually this led him into a career in journalism. He is now retired.
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Simon Ribeiro
Simon Ribeiro is a nephew of a maverick Republican, former US Senator Alphonse D'Amato, who often crossed party and ideological lines in order to serve constituents or enact changes he felt were necessary.
Ribeiro, who says he was torn between economics and political science during his undergraduate years, believes over reliance by consumers on debt damages the structure of our society. He would like to see financial mechanisms put in place to encourage payment of debts and to encourage savings.
Ribeiro would like to implement a ban on overdraft fees. The proposal would be palatable with voters, according to Ribeiro, making it relatively easy to implement. There would be an important economic side benefit, however, says Ribeiro. Without fees, banks will begin to restrict ATM "overdrafts."
Senator D'Amato campaigned for reform of the US banking system. D'Amato was blocked by the powerful banking lobby, and eventually forced out of politics.
Now D'Amato's nephew is advocating reforms in the banking system. He is especially critical of the Federal Reserve.
Ribeiro earned a degree in Political Science at Northeastern University. He is now getting his feet wet politically.
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Cook County Board President
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Thomas Tresser
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Cook County Assessor
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Robert C. Grota
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Cook County Sheriff
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Marshall Lewis
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Cook County Commissioner, District 09
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Brock Merck
Brock Merck is a veteran of Afghanistan. He has a remarkable service record. Brock is serving now on the Chicago Police Force, where he's also involved with the union.
Merck is very concerned about the health and environmental consequences of controlled burns on Forest Preserve property. Given that the burn sites are completely surrounded by residential neighborhoods, we should all be concerned.
Merck has also raised concerns about the Forest Preserve District's use of the toxic herbicide Roundup. He believes the health of Community residents, District employees, and volunteers is at risk. Further, he has charged that EPA guidelines are being ignored. Guidelines prohibit the use of Roundup in watersheds.
Merck has a degree in Business Administration.
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Cook County, Metropolitan Water Rec District
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Diana Horton
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Cook County, Metropolitan Water Rec District
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Nadine Bopp
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Cook County, Metropolitan Water Rec District
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Jack Ailey
