Valuable outreach

The congressional race in the Illinois 6th District will be a close one, as your front-page article today attests. As a voter in the 6th, I appreciated your coverage of the recent primary and look forward to your fall election coverage.

While traditional campaigning has taken a back seat to obligatory pandemic restrictions, I was surprised that a recent article about the race in the 6th did not mention congressman Sean Casten's recent program to train his campaign volunteers to do wellness checks of the elderly by phone.

As an at-risk senior myself, I am not involved in this program, but I applaud Rep. Casten's efforts to reach out to his constituents, especially the elderly, at this time. He is going beyond what one expects from a politician.

I have been closely watching his first term as congressman and note that this wellness check effort is just another way he is reaching out to his constituents. He has already held over 25 public town halls in his 14 months in office, very impressive based on past standards for our district.

Ralph Banasiak

Palatine