ENDORSEMENT: Kelly Mazeski for Congress in 6th District Democratic Primary

SHARE ENDORSEMENT: Kelly Mazeski for Congress in 6th District Democratic Primary
2018candidates_355_73943229.jpg

Kelly Mazeski, U.S. House 6th District Democratic primary candidate. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

When seven Democrats run for Congress in a Republican district and there’s hardly a clunker in the bunch, something’s up.

Maybe, the thinking goes, the district is no longer so Republican. Call it the Trump Effect.

U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam has represented Illinois’ 6th Congressional District, stretching through the far west and north suburbs, since 2006, but there are indications he may be vulnerable. Hillary Clinton carried the district by seven percentage points over Donald Trump in 2016, and polls show Trump has grown only more unpopular since then with moderate Republicans and independents.

Our endorsement in the Democratic primary goes to financial consultant Kelly Mazeski, a member of the Barrington Hills zoning board who ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois Senate in 2016. She previously has served in local government as a village trustee and a plan commissioner.

We like Mazeski’s consensus-building, bipartisan style, as evident by her ability for 18 years to work effectively as a Democrat in the heavily Republican Barrington area. As she writes in her questionnaire, she has often been “the only Democrat in the room.”

We also like Mazeski’s priorities for the district, including a repeal of the GOP tax reform bill signed last month by Trump, and her promise to be a far more accessible representative than Roskam has been. Town-hall meetings might make a comeback.

Mazeski has been endorsed by Emily’s List, as well as by two Democratic members of Illinois’ congressional delegation, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Rep. Cheri Bustos.

Also running are Becky Anderson Wilkins, a member of the Naperville council; Carole Cheney, a former Illinois chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, who has endorsed her; Amanda Howland, a College of Lake County trustee who lost to Roskam in 2016; Sean Casten, a Downers Grove businessman who has a particular expertise in climate change issues; Jennifer Zordani, a regulatory attorney from Clarendon Hills, and Ryan Huffman of Palatine, who has a degree in public policy from the University of Chicago.


When the Democrats running in the 6th Congressional District primary visited the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board on January 30, we asked each to introduce themselves to voters. Here was Kelly Mazeski’s response:

Send letters to: letters@suntimes.com.

The Latest
The acquisition of Tamarack Farms makes Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge a more impactful destination and creates within Hackmatack a major macrosite for conservation.
The man was found unresponsive in an alley in the 10700 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.