Write-in Candidate: Voters Need to ‘Step up’

A Park Ridge woman is hoping to fill a gap in Republican candidates on Tuesday. needs a minimum of 500 voters to write her name in to represent in order for her name to appear on the ballot in November.

Sweeney, a business manager and substitute teacher, said she decided to run in January after Rep. Rosemary Mulligan’s petition signatures were challenged. .

“I knew at that point that [Mulligan] was off the ballot,” Sweeney said. “So we had nobody on the ballot running the Republican primary. That’s when it occurred to me to run.”

, and a Democrat, is running for the newly formed district and was uncontested in the primary.

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Sweeney said members of the Republican Women of Park Ridge encouraged her to step forward. The House Republican Party and the Illinois Policy Institute also encouraged her to run, she said.

“I think it started by word of mouth,” Sweeney said. “People had seen my work as an activist and caring about the community.”

Last summer Sweeney became involved with a group of parents advocating for greater transparency at Elementary School District 64 in Park Ridge. As a result of their efforts school board meetings are now put on video and made available online.

Sweeney said she’s willing to tackle the issues of pension stabilization, Medicaid reform and the state’s debt.

“We’re compounding our debt because we’re borrowing more and we’re spending more, and the answer isn’t to tax more,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney said the pensions need to be changed so that they are more similar to those in the private sector, with 401K-type of system. She said if people have pensions at all, they are tied to the market.

“Right now people in the private sector aren’t typically getting raises, people aren’t typically getting pensions that guarantee a defined benefit every single year,” Sweeney said. “They can contribute, their employers may match, but they don’t get a defined benefit every single year.”

Sweeney said the only way to change Illinois was to get out and vote in representatives that are really willing to step up.

“We can change Illinois if we get the right people in office, and I believe the right people are going to the people that don’t put up with the same old shenanigans that we’ve had in Springfield,” Sweeney said.

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