Proviso connections at the Green Party convention

I've been attending the Green Party's national convention some. It started yesterday and runs through Sunday.

I'll be commenting generally on the convention on Prairie State Blue at some point. However, there is something of a Proviso angle.

I most of last night socializing with Jerry Pohlen, candidate for Congress; Kevin O'Connor, Proviso's Green Party committeeman and a candidate for state representative; and Rita Maniotis, a former Proviso East teacher and candidate for state representative. I also spoke to Rob Sherman, a candidate for state representative in the northwest 'burbs, but he also has a couple Proviso connections.

Pohlen is running against U.S. Representative Dan Lipinski in IL-03, which includes Brookfield, LaGrange Park and the southern portions of Forest Park and Westchester. Pohlen's partner Jim Frost, owner of Urban Flora, says the occupation of Iraq provides an easy way to connect with voters. When voters understand Pohlen is for withdrawing promptly and Lipinski is for the status quo the voters almost always respond positively.

Pohlen also has a new book out, Progressive Nation, a travel guide covering "more than 400 of the places in the United States that are important to progressive politics". See reviews on Amazon.com, New York Times and Barnes & Noble.

Maniotis was grumbling about her experience at a charter school. She didn't like that students could complain to the CEO about anything and then the teacher had to drop everything to respond to the complaint.

O'Connor, a LaGrange Park resident, has gotten lucky in his race against State Rep. Bob Biggins (R-Elmhurst). Biggins was arrested for DUI on May 28. See State Journal-Register. Since there is no Democratic candidate appearing on the ballot, O'Connor has the opportunity to make the race between the DUI candidate and the non-DUI candidate.

This afternoon I spoke to Sherman. He's the plaintiff in the lawsuit to overturn Illinois' moment of silence law. See Daily Herald (Rob Olmstead). The law was sponsored by State Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood). Sherman has appeared in the media with Lightford. He said she invited him to her birthday party and danced with him.

Previously, Sherman had been a talk show host on WJJG, 1530 AM. WJJG's studios are in Berkeley and various local personalities have hosted shows on WJJG, including the late Arnie Bryant.

former Proviso East teacher is Green Party candidate

This weekend I went to the meeting of the West Side Greens. I met three candidates: Jerry Pohlen (IL-03), Rita Maniotis (District 21 Representative) and Kevin O'Connor (District 41). Pohlen and Maniotis live in Berwyn. O'Connor the Green Party committeeman for Proviso Township lives in La Grange Park. If you want to contact O'Connor his email is Kevin.OConnor circled "a" ilgp.org.

Maniotis was a teacher of English and drama at Proviso East in 2006-07. It would be kinda cool to have an Illinois legislator that understood District 209 from an insiders perspective.

And she seems like she personable enough to be a serious political candidate.

I was less enthusiastic about the issue she put in her literature.

She supports the tax swap idea for shifting the cost of education from the property tax to the income tax. She says this should be done to make education funding "sustainable and equitable".

Property taxes are a sustainable source of income. In fact, the good thing about property taxes when compared to sales taxes and income taxes is that the taxing bodies know how much money they will get before the year starts. Sales and income taxes depend on the cyclical nature of the economy.

What's not sustainable with property taxes is having public sector employees having their pay and health insurance compensation grow faster than the tax base.

As for making education equitable, people don't want education to be equitable. As a matter of policy we divert more resources to high performing students and students with special needs. There are many different types of inequity built into the education system. Liberals may be influenced by Marxist ideas about equality, but I think it's denying reality to think people want education to be equal for all.

Maniotis wants to invest in mass transit. This makes sense to me.

She favors implementing universal health care at the state level. I don't think states have the resources to do this. However, I'm open to switching around the tax code so that they do.

Maniotis is skeptical of vaccines. I'm ok with applying some skepticism, but I'm skeptical about anti-vaccine paranoia. Most people think the people who try to make a political issue of opposing HPV vaccines are kooks. Left Wing opposition to vaccines flirts with kookiness too.

Maniotis also favors "Good Example Government"

--Implement recycling, renewable energy and energy conservation at all levels of state government
--Buy-Illinois! Support Illinois-based firms & farms

I did like her bio:

I am a high school teacher and a former radio producer. I am happily married with 3 children and ahve been an active member of the PTAs and PTOs at their schools. I presently serve as president of Morton West High School PTO. I am also secretary of Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice and a volunteer with Chicago Indymedia. I produce their monthly radio program, From the Trenches heard on 88.7 FM WLUW.

To contact Rita Maniotis, call (708)749-1891 or email RManiotis circled "a" Yahoo spot Com.

The Green Party is still looking for candidates to run for various positions, including challenging U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL07) and to run for Cook County Recorder of Deeds.

meet the Green Party candidates on Sunday

Sunday, September 16, from 1-3 PM, the West Side Greens will be holding their fall meeting at Kiwanis Park (Brookfield Ave. & McCormick Ave.), Brookfield, IL.

There will be two state representative candidates.

Rita Maniotis of Berwyn will run in the 21st district (currently Robert S. Molaro (D)).
Kevin O'Connor will run in the 41st district (currently Bob Biggins (R)).

Jerome Pohlen is running for Congress in IL-03.

For more info, contact Bruce Samuels, bjs613 circled "a" comcast.net or (708) 383-7711.