The League of Women Voters Naperville recently held two candidate forums to give voters a look at candidates running for office.
U.S. 6th Congressional District Republican Primary
Republican candidates for the U.S. 6th Congressional District Jeanne Ives and Jay Kinzler started off the night discussing things like immigration reform, race and gender discrimination, and gun safety.
“My change in gun laws would be that we enforce the gun laws we have,” said Ives. “We’re just not doing it. We have plenty of gun laws in the state of Illinois. And until we start to clamp down on gun crime, we’re not going to get anywhere here.”
“I am a big proponent of the Second Amendment,” said Kinzler. “I believe the Second Amendment protects us and all the other amendments. I do believe there needs to be restrictions on gun ownership for people who are mentally ill, people who are domestic abusers, and people who have a criminal record.”
Ives is a former member of the Illinois House of Representatives and Kinzler is a doctor and surgeon. The winner of that Republican primary will face off with Democrat incumbent Sean Casten in November.
Illinois 41st Representative District Democratic Primary
After an hour of questions, the forum concluded and moved on to the next set of candidates – social worker Denika McMillen and Director of Global Data at investment firm Morningstar Janet Yang Rohr. They are both vying for the Democratic nomination for Illinois’ 41st Representative District.
They took questions on balancing Illinois’ budget, election security, and climate change.
“I believe that we need to pass through the Clean Energy Jobs Act that’s been passed in the house but not necessarily the senate, because it’s going to create more jobs, also get us closer to our renewable energy goals, as well as get us on the right foot and make sure that we’re creating a better future for our kids,” said McMillen.
“Climate change is real and we have a moral obligation to our children, our grandchildren, and generations to come to address it now before we do irreparable harm,” said Yang Rohr. “We need to do this with businesses, as the questioner asked about, but we need to do it at so many other levels too.”
The winner of that primary will go against Republican incumbent Grant Wehrli.
Primary on March 17
This was the league’s second and third candidate forums after hosting discussions with candidates for the U.S. 11th Congressional District earlier this month.
Primary elections will be held on March 17.
Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.
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