State of Illinois to citizens: "Help wanted"

Ever wanted to run for public office? Well if you live in Illinois, now's your chance.

With the nominee for Lt. Gov dropping off the ticket, the state's Democratic Party officially opened up the nomination process to anyone who wanted to fill out the form last week. Of course I started writing my answers as soon as I heard about it Friday morning. Here's some of what I had to say:

Why are you a Democrat? I'm a Democrat b/c I believe at its core the party fosters a true sense of community in that people of all backgrounds are welcome to come contribute to the effort for progressive change. The party's focus on social change issues within the context of responsible fiscal management is one that can still make positive change happen.

What do you believe are the greatest challenges facing the State of IL and areas of greatest opportunity? The greatest challenges facing Illinois are the same facing the entire nation; can the public stay positive enough to ensure economic recovery in the face of still increasing unemployment and deficit? Will the gap between the people and the officials elected to represent them remove any chance those officials might have to make any progress towards addressing issues like healthcare reform, economic recovery programs, or campaign finance reform? And in Illinois, these issues are all compounded by the public's lack of faith in what's seen as a corrupted and ineffectual system of government. That perception is truly the greatest challenge facing the state, because if the people of the state don't buy into the system, it doesn't matter what programs and progress come out of that government. But this also presents the state with its greatest opportunity--if the state government can turn this perception around and bring back the people's faith in their elected officials, then there's no argument that the same can't happen on the national level. I believe Illinois really does have a chance to set an example for the rest of the country.

Blah blah idealistic crap blah.

Go to the party's page at http://www.ildems.com/ltgovnominees.htm to check things out for yourself.

Is this a completely ridiculous idea? Of course it is. But I think I would regret not at least answering these questions and submitting to the process. From a certain perspective it's just one more job application I've got out. So why the hell not.

Current beer-scale: 3.3