Mickey Straub feels all his hard work is on the verge of paying off.
The Burr Ridge mayor recently filed 1,449 petitions to make his primary run against Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) in the 82nd District official. Straub said he pulled off the feat of collecting nearly three times the number of signatures he needed to get on the ballot by going door-to-door and talking with residents ready for real reform and change in Illinois.
“It was invigorating to meet so many people who share my enthusiasm for Illinois and who are as concerned as I am about the party and the state,” he said in a press release. “Just this morning, I met a woman from southern Illinois who is paying $9,000 per year in taxes on a home only worth $180,000 and a retiring couple last month in Lemont who want to leave Illinois for similar reasons. But what motivates me is when I hear how everyone is just so tired of the career politicians who aren’t committed enough to do anything about the rising property taxes, falling home values and fleeing residents, yet who remain hopeful that we can make Illinois a Destination State again.”
To do that, Straub said voters need to commit themselves to a plan of ousting what he calls all the career politicians that call Springfield home.
“I look forward to holding our politicians accountable for what they have done to this state and to bringing new ideas and leadership to Springfield,” he said in the release. “My promise to everyone in my district and around the state is that by promoting Lincoln’s core values and Reagan’s economic policies we will do just that.”
As for Durkin, who also serves as the GOP House minority leader and as a municipal bond lawyer for Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, Straub said he has spent much of his time in Springfield passing legislation paving the way for his firm to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars by allowing municipalities to increase their bond debt.
Straub said Durkin’s overall commitment to the GOP agenda now is in question given all the donations he’s recently taken from Democratic donors.
Now in his second term as mayor of Burr Ridge, Straub is largely credited with revitalizing the business community in the Chicago suburb and is now on record in expressing he hopes to take those same business-friendly principles downstate.
The 82nd District covers parts of Cook, DuPage and Will counties, including Darien, Homer Glen, Lemont and Willowbrook.
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