Endorsement: Munger in House Dist. 59
There are some votes in a highly partisan state like Illinois that are so egregious that lawmakers need to be held accountable for them. One such vote was a bill in May 2013 that, among other things, created a Lake County Election Commission. No one has owned up to originating the bill creating the commission, which Lake County government leaders opposed as expensive and illegally targeting a single county. Incumbent Democratic state Rep. Carol Sente of Vernon Hills voted for it, a position we find outrageous coming from a representative of Lake County. With that vote as a backdrop, we endorse her opponent, Republican Leslie Munger of Lincolnshire. Munger, a community volunteer and former marketing executive making her first run for office, opposes extending Illinois' 2011 income tax increase, opposes Senate Bill 16 that would cost many suburban schools state funding, and supports moving state employees' future retirement benefits to a 401(k)-style plan. She has the ideas and the character to make an effective legislator. Sente did vote to repeal the election commission after a firestorm of protests from Lake County government leaders. She has shown leadership and tenacity in several bills important to the suburbs that strengthen communication between police and schools about potentially dangerous students and that require training about concussions for high school coaches. But the vote for the clearly politicized election commission by a Lake County lawmaker who ought to have demonstrated better judgment and foresight leaves us uneasy about how independent she can be on really tough votes. We support Munger.