Political newcomer challenging Roskam for U.S. Congress seat

Michael Mason has no political experience, but that isn't discouraging him in his race against Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam for the 6th Congressional District seat in the Nov. 4 election.

"I've always been political in nature, not from the standpoint of trying to be in Congress or even the state legislature to try to sway things, but obviously I have ideas and I have visions of how I think things should be," he said.

The 61-year-old Democrat said he couldn't get formally involved in politics while working as an executive for the U.S. Postal Service.

Now, three years after he retired, the Naperville man has agreed to challenge Roskam. The decision, he said, came about after he attended a few township meetings and talked to people in the Democratic Party who encouraged him.

"There was no other candidate and I feel strongly about some of these issues and they asked me if I would (run) and so I did," he said.

Those issues include providing the middle class with more opportunities and better-paying jobs.

"I think this district is probably pretty much a microcosm of the macrocosm," Mason said. "Things are getting better but creating jobs and growing the economy is the thing that's going to keep the country going."

Mason says he also would work to improve what he feels is a deep partisan divide in Congress.

"There appears to be a lot of dysfunction in Congress," he said. "The polarization, I've never seen it like this before."

Now in his fourth term as a U.S. congressman, Roskam, of Wheaton, said his top priority continues to be getting the economy back on track and getting Americans back to work in "high-quality, good-paying jobs."

Roskam - who has worked as a lawyer, state representative and state senator - has voted against several proposals to raise the minimum wage. Mason said he would like to see it incrementally raised to somewhere near $15 an hour.

Roskam, however, said he believes the economy can be strengthened by lowering the national debt. In addition, he feels the federal government should eliminate "outdated, poorly working rules and regulations" to help create jobs.

That includes a revision of the more than 20-year-old tax code, which Mason agrees needs to be a priority.

Unlike Mason, however, Roskam says he is optimistic about legislators' ability to work together to move America forward, although it will take time.

"We need to reject an all-or-nothing approach. We need to reject sort of the instant gratification stuff that is also deeply embedded in our culture and we need to say we can do better," he said.

Roskam said the idea of letting your opponents occasionally take a victory lap is something missing from the current political culture that he hopes to see occur more often.

He also pointed out times he has worked on bipartisan bills, including a proposal he put forth this spring with Democrat Rep. Danny Davis to increase Medicare reimbursement payments to hospitals for using advanced drugs to fight superbugs, or antibiotic-resistant bacteria.