Daily Herald opinion: Mike Frerichs endorsed for another term as state treasurer

This endorsement is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

Throughout his campaign for state treasurer, Republican state Rep. Tom Demmer of Dixon has criticized Democratic incumbent Mike Frerichs for not speaking up more about taxes and state spending. Frerichs' numbers, however, speak for themselves.

In his two terms as Illinois' chief investment officer, the state has topped $1.2 billion in investment gains while cutting investment fees by more than $100 million. Frerichs accelerated and increased repayments of unclaimed property by modernizing this once paper-based program.

He expanded a program that can help children with disabilities save for the future and created Secure Choice, a retirement program for private-sector employees whose companies don't offer retirement plans. As of July 1, 105,500 participants had saved more than $80 million for retirement.

Investments and retirement plans don't generate the kind of exciting headlines you get in an election year when many state candidates are debating abortion laws, violent crime and cashless bail, so Demmer has built his campaign around the promise that he would be an “advocate” for taxpayers. But, we'd argue, Frerichs has done that — not through words, but through his accomplishments over the past eight years in office.

We endorse Frerichs for another four-year term.