Blog #2

I am from Lake County, IL, in the Grayslake area, which is located in the Northwestern Chicago suburbs. My elected State Representative is Ed. Sullivan Jr. and my State Senator is Representative is Melissa Bean.

According to the 2006 census, Lake County has an approximate 713,076 population. Our county seat is located in Waukegan, IL, and is considered the 31st richest county by per-capita income. (if that's important.) Our county right now is concentrating, supposedly, on using our funding to fix all our roads and raise our educational standards by hiring new teachers and supplying new text books along with support for our large hispanic and black populations. Which, is a bit more visible than it was back in 2000.

Ed Sullivan Jr.was first elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 2002. He is a Mundelein native, which was where I grew up. He is known for establishing a strong record on fiscal responsibility, public safety, education, domestic violence, and property tax issues. He has also been working with his House Republican colleagues to block major tax increases on Illinois families proposed by the Democrat majority in Springfield. When I was president of Mundelein High School, school year 2007-2008, i interviewed him on what his action toward the growing number of sex offendors was. At the time, and still now, has actually been a great problem in our area. Unlike other politicians, he actually kept his word and sponsored legislation protecting children from convicted sex offenders. He has past the following bills as well, or at least has become part of them: HB 154 which deals with senior citizen medical tax freezes, HB0212 requiring police to obtain at least twenty hours of training each year and has other requirements, HB 0705 that deals with medical malpractice, HB 793 dealing with crime order protection, and many other bills.

Melissa Bean is a democrat serving her fourth term in office. She is a mother and wife who is an advocate for seniors, small business owners, and all families. Her business and entrepreneurial background has helped the community. She has become part of House Financial Sercies Committee for protecting consumers from deceptive credit card practices, Subcommitte of Capital markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, along with House Commitee on Small Business which supports the growth, at the moment they are trying to solve issues impacting the domestic biofuels industry. She is working to increase access to affordable health insurance, provide meaningful tax relief, improve the climate for small businesses, and demand greater fiscal responsibility and accountability from Congress and the federal government. Which of course is one of the many things that has been very controversial within the federal goverments responsibities. She actually voted yes to building a more secure border/wall along the Mexican Border. I can understand why we need to control the number of immigrants entering but I have yet to further research her actually view to decide whether I like her or not. She definitely has my support on education and small businesses however.

I am still a bit curious on how things work. Isn't it that our representative and senator work together? Yet, how do they do that if they are from two different political parties?