As the March 15 primary creeps closer, political hopefuls are drawing crowds as they lay out their stances.
In the battle for longtime State Rep. Don Moffit’s seat in the 74th district, Republicans Wayne Saline, Mike DeSutter and Dan Swanson along with Democratic candidate Bill Butts met this morning at the Knox County Farm Bureau to chat up the electorate and field questions.
Saline began the forum, commenting on the need to pare down state agencies.
“We have waste in Springfield,” he said, “and that’s a given. So we go in and we evaluate all these various agencies. We can find wasteful spending and make those cuts. And even if it’s one or two percent that will be a huge amount of money going back into our revenue source so we can start paying our bills.”
DeSutter discussed the need to bolster Illinois’ infrastructure, saying the state’s airports, railroads, waterways and ag-routes “should be the envy of the United States.”
Butts shared similar sentiments.
“One of the things that I’d like to see done, particularly for agriculture, is to upgrade our locks and dams,” Butts said. “That’s a major problem and its only going to get worse unless we start putting money in it.”
Swanson, who has 27 years of military experience, said he will “support and provide a strong voice for our National Guard.” As he explained, a domestic act of terror is not a matter of “if,” but “when.”
