On Sept. 20, Democrat Sean Casten appeared before the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board. Watch the video at the top of the page to find out why he’s running for the 6th Congressional District seat in Illinois in the 2018 general election.
As part of our endorsement process, we repeatedly invited Rep. Peter Roskam to meet and talk with us, but he blew us off. Now we know how his constituents feel. Roskam has infamously refused to hold unscreened town meetings in his district because some people have not been nice to him. Meeting with constituents, even the ones who disagree with you, would seem to be the first order of business for an elected official in a democracy.
For that reason alone, we think Roskam is undeserving of your vote.
Our endorsement goes, with enthusiasm, to Sean Casten, a clean energy entrepreneur from Downers Grove who has committed to holding at least four town meetings a year. Casten can claim real expertise on environmental issues, and he shares our view that the Republican tax cuts enacted last year — with a big push from Roskam — reward the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the rest of us.
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Casten also wants to improve, not kill, the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare,” which has made it possible for millions of previously uninsured Americans to obtain quality health care. In another major difference of opinion, Roskam is staunchly anti-abortion while Casten is strongly pro-choice, as is this editorial page.
Which candidate’s views best represent those of the 6th Congressional District? Hard to say. The district voted solidly Republican for decades, but it favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by 7 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election. The outcome of this year’s election could have national ramifications, deciding which party controls the House for the next two years.
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SUN-TIMES 2018 ILLINOIS VOTING GUIDE
Ahead of the historic 2018 elections, the Sun-Times is teaming up weekly with the Better Government Association, in print and online, to fact-check the truthfulness of the candidates. You can find all of the PolitiFact Illinois stories we’ve reported together here.