Three reasons to run for Senate
The last straw for Kathleen Thomas was when senators didn't respond appropriately to her letters about health care reform.
Former downstate Judge Don Lowery had enough with the economic policies of stimulus spending and bank bailouts.
And ex-Harvey alderman John Arrington has been stewing since party leaders rejected his pitch to be placed on the ballot to run against Barack Obama in 2004.
The reasons these three candidates will appear on the Feb. 2 Republican primary ballot for Senate came out in editorial board interviews at the Daily Herald Wednesday.
And it was clear all three view the current policies in Washington, D.C. as undermining what they see as American values. Plus, they equally disdain the candidate many Republican party leaders have chosen to openly endorse: U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park.
"I don't see how in the world conservatives can vote for such a candidate," says Arrington, who petitioned Republican leaders in 2004 to take the place of Jack Ryan on the general election ballot.
The party ultimately picked conservative commentator Alan Keyes of Maryland.
Lowery of Golconda says he differs with Kirk "on virtually every issue."
Kirk has been blasted for his support of legalized abortion, gun control laws and, lately, his backing of the cap-and-trade legislation aimed at curbing global warming by taxing related pollution. But state and national GOP leaders see the five-term north suburban congressman as their best shot at winning a general election in Democrat-leaning Illinois.
Lowery says his record of service in Vietnam and 26 years on the bench separate him from the other candidates running. Arrington, son of a Pentecostal preacher, points to his decades in the anti-abortion rights movement and time fighting government programs in south suburban Harvey.
Thomas, a former school board member, says she is running as an outsider. Thomas said Obama has a "socialist agenda" that is "totally skewed" from her vision of how the country should be run.
"He is trying to bring a nanny state where the government takes care of everybody," she said.
All three candidates oppose the current Democratic attempts at health care reform, stimulus spending, bank and corporate bailouts, abortion rights, cap-and-trade legislation and moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the Thomson Correction Center in western Illinois.
Lowery said he believes moving the detainees to a maximum-security prison in tiny Thomson will draw other terrorists to move to the town and potentially organize a jail break.
"I think there is a possibility you will have sympathizers migrate to that area," Lowery said. "It is something to consider."
The candidates are in a six-person field to replace appointee Roland Burris, who is not seeking election on the Democratic side. The other candidates include Hinsdale real estate developer Patrick Hughes and Chicago blogger Andy Martin. Rockford businessman Robert Zadek is petitioning to withdraw from the race.
The primary is Feb. 2.