Endorsement: Roskam for Congress in 6th District

This editorial has been updated to correct Sean Casten's hometown of Downers Grove.

There is no disputing Republican Peter Roskam's link to President Donald Trump as an author of the administration's signature tax reform legislation. But a broader look at Roskam's record offers a reassuring assessment of his inclination to act as a check on the president's more troubling impulses and of the role he can play as a collaborative lawmaker. Roskam, of Wheaton, was quick, forceful and unequivocal, for instance, in his condemnations of the president's ill-advised tariffs and the administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the Mexican border. He voted against the president and his party on cutting funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, worked against Trump to restore funding to protect the Great Lakes and was among Republicans who joined Democrats to pass Russian sanctions that the White House originally opposed. This kind of resistance has particular value coming from a high-ranking member within the president's own party.

Roskam's opponent, Democrat Sean Casten, of Downers Grove, is steeped in the issues important to the district, a strong and effective spokesman on issues of climate change and a credible voice on economic and business issues. But he is new to politics and he has run a campaign that leads us to question how inclined he would be toward working in a bipartisan way to solve problems.

Roskam provides someone whose leadership and influence - in his party specifically and in Washington more broadly - can directly serve the interests of the district. Moreover, we're confident that he will, indeed counting on him to, defend Mueller's standing and review the special counsel's eventual report from the viewpoint of the nation's welfare, not his party's bidding. He gets our support.