Eva-Dina Delgado, lllinois House 3rd District Democratic candidate profile

Candidate profile

Eva-Dina Delgado

Running for: Illinois House of Representative, 3rd District

Political/civic background: I’m a first time candidate and have never worked on campaigns in the past aside from financial support for friends.

Civically, I’m involved with the following organizations:

Lawyers Lend a Hand, Board member – Supported one on one mentorship for Chicago-area youth to improve their school performance.

Instituto del Progreso Latino, Board member – Support for immigrant families, education, job training and employment for immigrant families that encourages full participation in their communities while keeping their cultural identity.

Saint Anthony Hospital, Board member - Community hospital serving primarily Latino and African American populations on the west and south sides of the city of Chicago. As a board member, I ensured the hospital provided comprehensive, quality and affordable health care for the residents of the local community.

Occupation: State Representative

Education: Juris Doctor, DePaul College of Law; Bachelor of Arts, Wellesley College

Campaign website: www.delgadoforstaterep.com

Facebook: @EvaDina4Rep

Instagram: @EvaDina4StateRep

The Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board sent candidates for the Illinois House of Representatives a list of questions to find out their views on a range of important issues facing Illinois and their districts. Eva-Dina Delgado submitted the following responses:

Please tell us about your civic work in the last two years, whether it’s legislation you have sponsored or work you have done in other ways to improve your community.

I had the honor of serving on the Chicago Police Board for the past three years. I represented my community while serving as an independent voice, weighing in on police discipline cases. My responsibility was to serve as an impartial decision-maker after reviewing evidence presented at a disciplinary hearing. By holding true to the values of the Board: impartiality, due process and transparency; I served my community by promoting accountability for police misconduct and by helping to change the culture and building trust between the public and police officers.

Please list three concerns that are specific to your district, such as a project that should be undertaken or a state policy related to an important local issue that should be revised.

Affordable Housing - Work to pass a bill providing a property tax incentive for preserving or creating new affordable rental housing. Programs for local not for profit affordable housing organizations to purchase vacant or foreclosed property to encourage community involvement. Host town hall meetings to get local input from constituents on how to engage organizations such as Bickerdike, LUCHA, Northwest Side Housing and others to cooperate with developers to address vacant and foreclosed housing.

Well-Resourced Schools — Every child deserves access to a high quality public education. The state should provide adequate funding to neighborhood schools that serve as anchors in our communities. As the state representative, I will fight for funding to give students the skills they need to build a brighter future for themselves, their families, and our communities.

Jobs — Create or expand free vocational programs for youth and adults in partnership with corporations, unions, governments, and not-for-profits. These training programs will empower participants to become self-sufficient and offer them expanded career opportunities.

What are your other top legislative priorities?

Ethics reform, specifically creating a revolving door provision that requires a two year period to pass before state legislators can serve as lobbyists.

What is your position on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed graduated income tax? Please explain.

I support a graduated income tax because it’s one of the few ways that the state can increase revenue without worsening income inequality. A flat tax is regressive, forcing lower and middle income people to pay a larger proportion of their income in taxes. Imposing a graduated income tax will help alleviate the structural deficit within the General Fund and is a less regressive form of taxation.

Other states that have instituted a graduated income tax, such as Minnesota, have demonstrated that progressive taxes can create a strong economy and a good business climate.

Illinois continues to struggle financially, with a backlog of unpaid bills that tops $6 billion. In addition to a progressive state income tax — or in lieu of such a tax — what should the state do to pay its bills, meet its pension obligations and fund core services such as higher education?

The General Assembly passed a number of new revenue streams in the last legislative session, including expanded gaming and legalizing recreational marijuana. With these new revenue sources coming online, we should see some movement on the backlog.

As a state, we should continue to make our tax policy more progressive by broadening the base. Taxing services is one way to broaden the base because services are a growth industry.

Should Illinois consider taxing the retirement incomes of its very wealthiest residents, as most states do? And your argument is?

Illinois shouldn’t consider something as drastic as taxing senior income until we’ve seen how a graduated income tax and expanding the sales tax has helped put our fiscal house in order. The governor and the general assembly have already taken the first steps by pursuing a graduated income tax that will be put before voters this fall. There will be more steps needed in the future to put Illinois on the right financial track and all ideas should be put on the table. However, our middle and low-income seniors must be protected, as the retirement income is often their only source of income.

What can Illinois do to improve its elementary and high schools?

The basis of strong public schools is adequately resourcing schools. The state needs to meet its financial obligations to local school districts. Smaller class sizes have proven to be better for children and every child should be able to reach their full potential.

In addition, investing in teachers training, including recruiting teachers into high need schools is a way to build strong classrooms.

For high schools, there should be more career and technical education to prepare students for either college or work opportunities.

Mass shootings and gun violence plague America. What can or should the Legislature do, if anything, to address this problem in Illinois?

The General Assembly can implement common sense gun legislation, such as requiring firearm owners to register their firearms; prohibit the transfer or possession of assault weapons, 50 caliber rifles, or large capacity ammunition magazines; impose restrictions on purchases or sales of multiple firearms; and allow municipalities to regulate firearms.

Do you favor or oppose term limits for any elected official in Illinois? Please explain.

I oppose term limits for members of the General Assembly, primarily because it takes away voter’s power to choose who they want to represent them. Experienced legislators have a better understanding of policy issues and can be more effective in representing constituents’ interests.

Everybody says gerrymandering is bad, but the party in power in every state — Democrats in Illinois — resist doing anything about it. Or do we have that wrong? What should be done?

In Illinois, we should make the effort to make the redistricting process more transparent and less partisan. One way to do this would be to institute an independent, non-partisan commission that would be tasked with reapportionment.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago is investigating possible official corruption by state and local officials. This prompted the Legislature to pass an ethics reform measure to amend the Lobbyist Registration Act (SB 1639). It was signed into law in December. What’s your take on this and what more should be done?

SB 1639 is a positive step in making lobbying registration more transparent. The Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform being constituted is also good, assuming that the commission makes substantive recommendations soon. I believe that there should be a revolving door provision for legislators similar to the one in place for public service employees.

When people use the internet and wireless devices, companies collect data about us. Oftentimes, the information is sold to other companies, which can use it to track our movements or invade our privacy in other ways. When companies share this data, we also face a greater risk of identity theft. What should the Legislature do, if anything?

In the absence of federal regulation, the General Assembly should regulate companies that collect consumer data. At the least, companies should be required to disclose when private information is being collected and allow individuals to opt out of having their data collected. I will support legislation that protects consumer data privacy, especially that of children.

The number of Illinois public high school graduates who enroll in out-of-state universities continues to climb. What can Illinois do to make its state universities more attractive to Illinois high school students?

Illinois needs to adequately fund our state universities and colleges. Illinois youth will be more likely to stay in-state if our colleges and universities offer the best education and financial opportunities. Our talented Illinois students are being courted by out of state universities with financial incentives. Providing our colleges and universities with capital funding to keep their facilities state-of-the-art makes our campuses more inviting.

What is your top legislative priority with respect to the environment?

The Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) is the next step for Illinois moving into an environmentally sustainable future. CEJA promotes economic opportunities by expanding access to clean energy jobs. And, it drives Illinois toward 100% renewable energy, making our environment healthier for everyone.

What historical figure from Illinois, other than Abraham Lincoln (because everybody’s big on Abe), do you most admire or draw inspiration from? Please explain.

I admire the work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who has recently been honored by having a street named for her in Chicago. She was not intimidated from calling out the wrongs she saw, even when it threatened her own life. When she came to Chicago, she had already become a leader and well-known journalist. But, being in Chicago, she then became politically involved, fighting for the women’s suffrage movement and forming the first black women’s organization. She spent her life fighting for what she believed in and made her voice heard as a woman of color. It is because of her, and others like her, that I can be in the position I’m in as a woman of color in Chicago, running for office and fighting for what I believe in. She blazed the trail for women like me and I am grateful for her courage.

What’s your favorite TV, streaming or web-based show of all time. Why?

I have several, so it’s hard to choose just one. Breaking Bad is one of my favorites — I really enjoyed the character development and the authenticity of those characters with their flaws on full display. To look at it from a policy perspective, it calls attention to the disparities of the healthcare system that drove the main character to sell drugs to pay for his cancer treatment.

On a lighter note, I’m really enjoying Killing Eve — it’s a thriller that is unpredictable, and I love that there are two women who portray the lead characters.