Antonio Favela: Candidate Profile

Back to 77th District Representative

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioQA Bio City: Melrose ParkWebsite: www.favela4staterep.comOffice sought: 77th District Representative Age: 31Family: SingleOccupation: Board member, Melrose Park Village Planning and Zoning BoardEducation: The John Marshall Law School, J.D. DePaul University, B.A.Civic involvement: I have volunteered for numerous organizations including: Hispanofest, Durango Unidos en Chicago, Pueblos Unidos, ICIRR, The Greater Chicago Food Depository, Rotary.Currently I am the treasurer of a committee that was setup to raise funds and oversee a construction project in my father's hometown located in Durango Mexico.Elected offices held: NoneHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: In my youth, I was arrested but never convicted of anything, other than loitering once. The events served as learning experiences that allowed me to better understand my environment and pushed me harder to study, graduate college and, eventually, graduate law school.Questions Answers Why are you running for this office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you, and if so, what is that?While not minimizing other important issues such as education, an issue I care deeply about, my biggest concern is government waste. While I believe that taxes are necessary, I do have a problem with wasteful spending. Waste leads to higher taxes without benefits. The end result of wasteful spending is a reduction in funding vital programs in areas such as education and mental health programs. The people of Illinois are tired of tax increases. The solution must be to find ways to save money, not raise taxes every time our government needs a bailout.What differentiates you most from your opponents in the race?I am a true democrat. I don't owe any political favors; I will be accountable to the constituents in my district and no one else.Would you vote to make Illinois' temporary income tax hike permanent before it expires in January 2015? If not, how will you replace the billions of dollars the tax hike brought in, or what cuts would you make?Until we can find alternative revenue streams I would support keeping the existing taxes in place. However, I think there is enough time to come up with a solution, such as reducing expenses, and streamlining services so that we do not have to continue the regressive tax approach on the working class. Let's get our house in order so that we can reduce the burden on working class families.Please outline your views on public pensions in Illinois.My opinion is that the pension reform act may not hold up in the Illinois courts, but at this point it is a waiting game. As of today, it is the law, and It remains to be seen whether it will actually put Illinois on a path towards solving our state's budget crisis. However, if it is found to be unconstitutional, we can use the courts opinion as a framework to make a more improved version of the current law.What changes would you make to the state's new concealed carry law, if any? Would you change the number of exempted places where people cannot carry? In what way? Would you change the training requirements? In what way? Do you support restricting assault weapons? High-capacity magazines?The biggest issue with the concealed carry law is that it does not give our law enforcement agencies enough time to thoroughly review the flood of applications that should have been expected to come in at its inception. If a goal of the concealed carry law is to provide the people of Illinois a lawful way to protect themselves, then we should facilitate that goal by keeping legal guns out of the hands of those people that would pose a threat to law abiding citizens.Which of the following do you support: New casinos, slot machines at horse racing tracks, gambling on the Internet? Would you approve legislation that includes all of the above in order to compromise and get the parts that you want?I am in favor of expansion of gaming in Illinois. I believe that doing so would bring more revenue to our state. Ultimately, I think the decision to build a casino should be left to the residents of that community. I would also take into account the fact the Casino revenue has been affected by video gaming in bars, before deciding on whether to build more casinos.On what issues would you would break with your party, or have you broken with your party, and why?I don't think in terms of breaking with my party. Rather, I favor reasonable solutions over political rhetoric. Clearly, I am a Democrat for a reason- I am strongly in favor of LGBT rights, pro-choice, and will defend working class families. However, I am willing to work with both sides of the aisle to come up with common sense solutions on issues affecting the citizens of Illinois.What is your position on limiting how much money party leaders can give candidates during a general election?I think the bigger issue is that the majority of legislative districts are either heavily Democratic or heavily Republican. As a result, there is no opposition in many of these districts. This allows party leaders to pour all their resources into the handful of districts where the seat is actually up for grabs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are thrown into these races, where the salary of a state legislature is less than $70,000, and the money is spent only to benefit whichever party wins, instead of the people of that district.If elected, do you plan to vote for the current leader of your caucus? Why or why not?As a representative of the people of my district I would ensure that their voice matters. I would reach out to my constituency to see what the community wants and needs. In order to get Illinois back on the right track we need to have the right people in place to help get us where we need to be.What is your view of the tax breaks granted to companies like Motorola Mobility, Navistar and Sears, and should state tax breaks be given to companies moving from one Illinois municipality to another?Taxes provide the funding that supports government services. Businesses, large and small, contribute a large portion of our tax revenue in Illinois. Too frequently companies and governments are pitted against one another when there should be a progressive working relationship between the two. I am opposed to tax breaks given to companies that move from one municipality to another because we are just playing musical chairs and competing with each other instead of competing with other states. Our focus should be on creating an environment where we keep companies in Illinois and strengthen the state as a whole.Do you favor changing how Illinois sets new legislative district maps every 10 years? If so how?I strongly favor changing the process by which Illinois legislative districts are re-drawn. Creating an independent, non-partisan commission to re-draw the boundaries every 10 years can only serve to strengthen our democracy.Finally, is there anything we haven't asked about that you feel we should know?I started law school as a part-time student, working at Triton College as a GED instructor. I became a full-time student after my first semester after deciding to focus on my studies. During my time law school career I have been inducted into the Phi Delta Phi legal honors society and I am a CALI award recipient. Additionally, I was a member of the moot court honors council, and the Latino law student association. I've interned in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit in DuPage County as well as the John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Clinic