Donald R. Walter: 2022 candidate for Illinois House District 50
Bio
Party: Republican
Office sought: Illinois House District 50
City: Aurora
Age: 70
Occupation: Director of Diocesan Partnerships, Augustine Institute
Previous offices held: Precinct Committeeman and Vice Chair of ATRCC
Q&A
Q: What needs to be done structurally to make the legislature more effective? What is your position on term limits in general and for legislative leaders specifically?
A: Illinois should follow 34 other states that expect lawmakers to check their governor's emergency executive powers. Illinois is the only Midwestern state still under a COVID emergency declaration. We need to have a 5 term limits for House and Senators in Illinois.
Q: Federal assistance has enabled the state to make important advances toward improving its budget. What will you do to ensure these advances continue when the federal aid is gone?
A: Consolidating taxing entitles, putting the saving of self-managed retirement funds directly toward the pension fund, colleges and universities must enact cost cutting measures in their operations and salaries to make the state subsidies decrease while insuring 75% of their students are from Illinois. Combine School districts under Community College areas first and subsequent changes geographically where a Community College can serve the demand for higher education to more high school students at a lesser cost.
Q: To what extent are you happy or unhappy with the evidence-based model for education funding now in place in Illinois? How would you define "adequate" state funding for Illinois schools and what will you do to promote that?
A: My answer is the current form of educational funding has failed to produce the desired outcome of highly qualified students across all economic and ethnic strata. In talking with parents the most favored method of education is that of school choice. We have failed a good portion of our children in Illinois per a recent Wall Street Journal article.
Q: Do you believe elections in Illinois are free and fair? What changes, if any, are needed regarding election security and voter access?
A: The most important right we have is the right to a representative republic form of government through our elected officials. That right is protected by a free and fair election process and highly valued individual vote. We must maintain the integrity of that vote by a traceable and verified voting system of one person one vote. Voter registration attained with proof of citizenship and ID and cleaned up voter electoral rolls have to be maintained.
Q: How well has Illinois responded to Supreme Court indications that it considers abortion, gay marriage and other social issues to be state, not federal, responsibilities? What if anything needs to be done in these areas and what would you do to make your vision come to pass?
A: It is the finding of the Supreme Court and rightly so that these are state issues. We don't have a voice in Springfield that is brave enough to balance back to the centrist view on abortion that the majority of our citizens favor, which is, there should be limitations on abortion. The trend of Democratic states, like California, is to have the right to kill a born baby, now a US Citizen, up to 28 days after birth. With Governor Pritzker and the Illinois "not to be outdone" as the abortion center of the US, this legislation will eventually be brought to committee and eventually the floor of the House. This needs to be held in check. Our children's lives, their identity and their mental health are being destroyed by this administration and they're limiting parent's right and ability to stop them.