Gentes the right choice for Senate

Over the last several weeks, Mayor Bill Gentes has been the victim of negative and unfair attacks by his Republican opponent Dan Duffy in the race for the Illinois State Senate in the 26th district.

Bill Gentes is a man who has been serving for the last seven years as the Mayor of Round Lake, but Mr. Duffy has chosen to attack this service rather than commend it. Despite the fact that all municipal elections are nonpartisan, Mr. Duffy has stated that Mayor Gentes has been running the town as a "mini-me" to the governor, or as some sort of henchman to entrenched partisan interests, which is a complete fabrication of the truth.

In Round Lake, people know Bill, and they know where he stands. As stated before, because municipal elections are nonpartisan, candidates are expected to run for office on the strength of their ideas, not the depth of their pockets or their loyalty to any party. They need to be able to demonstrate a commitment to the people of their community, not to their political party, and certainly not to campaign contributors or their corporate sponsors. Even more importantly, they need to be able to tell people why it's in their best interest to vote for them - not why they shouldn't vote for someone else. Bill wants to go to Springfield to clean house, not to clean up.

If people actually open their eyes, they might see that Dan Duffy is the perfect example of what is wrong in Illinois politics.

Cris Nolan

Mundelein