When the new legislative session begins in January, someone new will represent the 58th Senate District in Illinois. Each candidate for the office thinks they have what it takes to bring change to Springfield.
Longtime southern Illinois State Senator David Luechtefeld announced his retirement last year - leaving his seat up for grabs when the election comes around this year. The district covers most of southwestern Illinois - including all or parts of Jackson, Jefferson, Monroe, Perry, Randolph, St. Clair, Union, and Washington Counties.
Republican Paul Schimpf of Waterloo won his party's nomination in the primary. He says he's running to try to fix a broken system in Illinois.
"We can solve any problem if we just work together. After we had a new governor elected in Illinois, I was disappointed that our political system still seemed as dysfunctional as ever."
Schimpf says his military experience - he served in the Marine Corps as a prosecutor, retiring as a Lt. Colonel - gives him a great perspective on working together in difficult situations.
"If you've been successful in the military you've at least demonstrated that you can work with people from across the political and social spectrum. You know, in the military you can't say 'I don't like these people, I'd like another job assignment.' It just doesn't work like that."
Schimpf's opponent is Democrat Sheila Simon of Carbondale. The former Lieutenant Governor teaches in SIU's School of Law, and says her perspective will be an asset in Springfield.
"I am running for the State Senate because I think I can make a difference up there. I think I can push us toward getting a budget, and then getting to talk about some of the things that we should have been talking about along the way, when we've been having to be so focused on the budget."
Simon says she already knows how to work with people from all parts of Illinois - but wants to make sure southern Illinois' voice is heard.
"I think it's important for folks in Springfield to know the southern Illinois perspective on the state budget - because it's not uniform across the state. Folks in larger, urban areas where there's more job opportunity lose a few state jobs, a few institutions are unstable, things are going to keep moving along. It's very different down here."
Schimpf agrees that a southern Illinois perspective is critical when it comes to the difficult issues facing the state. He says reviving the economy in Illinois - including in this region - requires making decisions that will make people want to come here and stay here.
"The thing that I believe is killing Illinois is that the job creators either no longer want to stay in Illinois, or they don't want to come here. Until we address that issue - until we figure out what's going to make the job creators want to come to Illinois, we're not going to turn our state around."
Simon points to entities like SIU's Small Business Development Center as a way for public monies and private businesses to work together - something she says must continue.
"A little bit of expertise from the folks at the Center there can make those 'boy I wish I could...' start the food truck, open the bar, whatever the case might be, and help start those small businesses, make those small businesses expand. Those are the people who are going to stay here. That's what I'm interested in in terms of our economic development dollars."
Both Simon and Schimpf agree the state budget remains the issue that must be resolved - before others can be addressed. Both say neither cuts nor tax increases alone will fix the problem, but they each have ideas on how to make some progress. Simon points to the interest Illinois pays on its overdue bills - set at nine-percent decades ago - saying it could be modified to save money.
"If we could just make the single adjustment of moving it to the market rate, or some description of the market rate - with a cap on where we'd go, then we would be paying less money for the services that we're getting, and still getting the same services."
Schimpf says while he doesn't agree with everything Governor Bruce Rauner has proposed in terms of change, he does agree with his ideas to make businesses less likely to move to neighboring states or avoid Illinois altogether.
"What I agree with the governor on is when he's talking about some common-sense tweaks that are going to make our state more competitive. I'm glad he's talking about that. When he talks about reforming workers comp so that we can lower some of those costs so that the job creators want to come to Illinois, I think he's absolutely right on that. I think the governor is right about term limits."
Both Simon and Schimpf say the easy solutions have been exhausted, and it's now time for difficult decisions to right the state's budget. One portion of the budget they're both talking about is education funding. Simon supports Senator Andy Manar's education funding proposal, which would help poorer school districts get more money.
"We don't need the fancy swimming pools. That's not a measure of a good education. But we sure need to be able to make sure that our students can take home their textbooks so that they can perform the basic parts of learning."
Schimpf says Manar's plan won't work.
"It would cause us to pick winners and losers within the 58th Senate district. I'm not going to support legislation that does that."
He says there are other options on the table - and points to Gov. Rauner's commission looking at the issue as a place to start. Both Schimpf and Simon say it's important for southern Illinois to fight for their schools - so that children in this region aren't unfairly left out.
As candidates in one of the state's most closely watched races, both Simon and Schimpf say the influence of money in politics is damaging. They say trying to focus on the issues is difficult when outside groups are spending time and money to influence voters across the district.
"I work as hard as I can, try to knock on as many doors as I can, try to control as much as I can, but realistically the Republican and Democratic PACs out of Chicago are going to tear Sheila and I apart, and that's just the way the system works."
"Disclosure is very important. The fact that you can get this information is useful and good, but I think the next step is to say, 'What reasonable limits can we put on it.'"
Thousands of dollars have poured into this race over the last several weeks, and experts say those totals will only grow as the election gets closer. You can get more information on campaign fundraising and spending at the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Schimpf and Simon say they're ready to work across traditional political boundary lines to make tough decisions. While they disagree on education funding, the role and scope of government, and how to make the economy grow, both say they are focused on ending the budget crisis and moving on to other matters facing the 58th district and the rest of the state.
