Editorial: Sandy Cole in GOP 62nd race
Republican Sandy Cole has served the 62nd District of the Illinois House of Representatives since 2006. During that time, she has pushed her "Family Focus" legislative agenda, which is part of the nine pieces of legislation that she sponsored that have been signed into law.
Cole has vowed to continue focusing on property tax relief, educational funding, health care availability and creating more jobs.
She also wants to continue to work toward securing funds for smaller road projects while still working to move along larger projects such as the proposed Route 120 bypass.We feel Cole does a good job listening to the concerns of the residents living within her district, without pushing her own agenda and ideals ahead of what the voters want, although on issues such as same-sex marriages she needs to pick a lane. She has voted against same-sex marriages but continues to hide behind the "whatever my voters want" shield. The voters deserve to know how a candidate will vote on major issues.
Cole has done a great job taking over for long-time Representative Robert Churchill, and the experience she gained in her first four years on the job should serve her, and her constituents, well over the next four years. We endorse Sandy Cole for the 62nd District Republican Primary.Comments from various Newspaper Readers
Jake in the Lake: In addition to islandtime's comments, I also know first hand that Rep Cole has worked closely with others to conserve and protect people's recreational rights on inland lakes, including when big gov't yahoos in local government in Lake County were heading in the opposite direction and trying to have lake usage overregulated UNDER FALSE PRETENSES.
Rep. Cole not only protects our valuable resources, she has proven to help protect citizens' valuable rights.
Main Street Citizen: I was at this forum also. First, Rep. Cole stated clearly in answering this illegal immigration-related accusation from Mr. Mitchell that many of these students are US citizens (are "documented") and, as citizens, cannot be denied in-state tuition. It doesn't matter what the citizenship status of their parents is ("undocumented," etc.). Most of them are US citizens because they were born in this country, as directed by the US constitution. You can't arbitrarily take away their rights here because you don't like the residency status of their parents, and neither can a lone state representative. If Mr. Mitchell is elected in November, he's welcome to try to change the US Constitution, and good luck with that.
Secondly, there is a very discernible difference in the "categories of US residency status." This is not Bill Clinton-like "parsing of words." A person is not just "legal or illegal" necessarily, and that goes to the heart of the SPECIFIC case Mr. Mitchell brought up. Rep. Cole explained to some of us who asked in the hall after the event concluded (and after she had a chance to dredge up a memory of a letter from years ago sprung upon her by Mr. Mitchell). Rep. Cole's logic regarding this particular case was fair-minded and reasonable.
And that's the difference between conducting oneself as a thoughtful public servant on nuanced, "exceptions to the rule"-type issues like this, or just boiling it all up into simplistic, wrong-headed politics to mislead people with. Mr. Mitchell would better understand the difference if he had held any elected office previously and gotten some experience with these situations.
I would recommend Mr. Mitchell run for some local municipal or school-level office before running for state or higher-level office. We already have a President doing "on-the-job training" and look at the dire straits we're in because of it.
Jake in the Lake: I have had some direct experience with Cole, and I am impressed with the kind of person and public official she is. Any politician can go after the "opposite" party, but I've seen Cole hold RINOs within her own party in Lake Co accountable and challenge bogus agendas they were pushing.
Good republicans and pro-limited-gov't voters should know that Cole (along with other area Republicans like Osmond, Tryon, Althoff) voted in the legislature to stop Lake Co villages from trying to zone beyond their village borders in order to take away citizens' property rights. A real abuse of gov't power and waste of tax payer resources. This is obviously a no-brainer to oppose that abuse, BUT some Lake Co RINOs in high ranking positions did in fact want villages to have this kind of unlimited authority, to zone from afar.
Despite pressure from certain RINOs, Cole had the fortitude to protect her citizens' rights and promote good, accountable government.
Main Street Citizen: The more I've researched Rep. Cole's record, the more I like her. Not all incumbent Illinois Republicans are bad and/or RINOs. This election is not about throwing out all incumbents, no matter how "good" that makes you feel. It is about throwing out bad incumbents, and there are plenty. But Rep. Cole is not one of them. She has one of the most fiscally conservative records on taxes and spending in the Illinois House. She is all about legislating policy that incentivizes private business to create jobs and grow the state's economy. How does that make her a RINO, as Paul Mitchell labels her?
Rep. Cole hasn't lost a single election (primary or general) since starting her career in public service in the mid-1990s. She beats Democrats. Has Paul Mitchell even run for anything ever, much less won? You can bet the Democrats in this district are excited over the prospect of running against Paul Mitchell in the November general election rather than Rep. Cole. We need to elect more Republicans by winning currently Democratic seats, not jeopeodarize and lose seats we already have filled with capable, thoughtful, conservative Republican legislators like Rep. Cole.
IslandTime: Sandy Cole has been a good rep and is just a likeable person. She has my vote. She is a very strong supporter of the environment and making her area a great place to live in. People like Mitchell frighten me because they want to legislate exactly what I do with my life. A super conservative Republican is just as dangerous as a very liberal Democrat--they both want to legislate morality.
Too many politicians (especially those she served with on the Lake County Board) not only do not take time to read what it is they are supposed to vote on, but they don't have a clue about the subject whatsoever. One former county board member always had an earpiece in his ear and he was doing work on his other job or listening to something else during board meetings. He is not an exception but the fact is there are more legislators and politicians just like him.
On top of being well versed on the issues, Sandy is a bulldog when it comes to fighting for the issues.
She is a far better rep than the one she replaced and I would expect great things from her in the future....(Governor???) - one never knows.
