Frank Craig for State Senate (25th District)

Background:

Frank was born in Pittsburgh, PA but has lived throughout the U.S (NJ, OH, NV, NY, RI, MA, FL and CA). His education began at St. Maurice Catholic School in Pittsburgh but has included public education in Middle School and early High School, and he received his High School diploma at St. John's Jesuit High School in Toledo, OH. Frank has a BBA in International Marketing from the University of Toledo and attended the MBA program at that institution. In the early 1980's, Frank's life took a different path as he was recruited to tour with the Del Viking's, a popular 1950's Doo Wop group ("Come Go With Me"). For the next few years, Frank travelled the country extensively performing with the group as well as many others (The Mama's and Papa's, The Shirelles, The Marvellettes, Little Anthony, Chuck Berry and others) performing as many as 300+ shows a year.

In the mid-80's Frank started his own band in South Florida and found success as the leader, lead singer and songwriter for his own music, being favorably compared to REM, Bob Dylan and The Beatles, and opening for B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, The Romantics, Phish and the Hooters, among others. During that time, Frank released several critically acclaimed CDs and was courted by various recording labels.

While in Florida, Frank met his soulmate, Annie, who joined the band and together they entertained audiences throughout the South. In 1990, they were married and in 1994 began their family with the addition of their first child, Molly. With a new family to attend to, Frank began to transition from full-time musician to entrepreneur by starting a regional talent agency, It's OK, I'm With the Band, which counted Chris Evert among its clients.

In 1996, Frank joined a start-up division within Motorola, iKno!, which supplied wireless content to paging devices throughout North America. Moving up the corporate ladder, Frank accepted a position in Naperville, IL to acquire content from major media sources (CNN, AP, Sony, MTV, The Weather Channel and others) for all of Motorola's wireless devices.

In 2001, Frank left Motorola and joined Amadeus, the largest global travel distribution (GDS) company in the world, where he is responsible for online business development for North America.

Always interested in politics and seeking to improve the lives of the people in the community, Frank and Annie began to get involved in local politics, assisting in the successful campaigns of State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia and Aurora Mayor, Tom Weisner. Both Frank and Annie have previously run for political office, Frank running for the Kane County Board in 2004 and Annie successfully running for the Aurora Township Board, winning a seat as a Trustee. Frank is also currently a Precinct Committeman in Aurora.

Frank and Annie are the proud parents of 3 beautiful and happy children (Molly-11, Teagan-8 and Maggie-5) and Frank is currently running for the IL State Senate in the 25th District, which covers most of Kane, Kendall and LaSalle counties.

Goals:

I'm running for the State Senate (25th District) because I believe we need and deserve better representation than what we currently have. Citizens need a forceful and effective advocate for their needs and concerns. Someone who will stand up for their interests and who can work in a spirit of cooperation and partnership to finally find common sense solutions to the problems we all face rather than demogogue and attempt to deflect the blame to others for their own failures.

We need to fight to keep the jobs we have while attracting high-tech industries that will provide the good-paying jobs of the 21st century. To ensure that, we will need a well-educated and well-trained workforce. I am pro-business and pro-labor. To me these are not mutually exclusive ideals. We need good employers and good employees in order for all of us to prosper. Businesses need to make a reasonable profit in order to stay viable and competitive. At the same time, workers need to be compensated fairly and treated with dignity.

I believe that the quality of a child's education should not be dictated by the quality of the neighborhood they grow up in. Quality public education for all is not only a moral obligation, it also makes economic sense. For every dollar we spend on educating our children, we will need to spend far less in the future in terms of social spending or perhaps the costs of incarceration. Additionally, in order to attract good employers to the area and increase our tax base, we need to ensure that our workforce is properly educated and trained to handle the challenge.

I believe that the way we fund public education in this state is broken and that we need to quit relying on referendums to adequately fund our schools and demand that the state pay it's fair share. Illinois ranks near the very bottom of the country (49th) in terms of the gap in education funding. This problem has been allowed to fester to the point of crisis. Some of our current state legislators continue to dodge the problem hoping it will go away. It won't. Leadership is needed and it is needed now.

I also believe that our most vulnerable friends and neighbors should not have to choose between food and medicine as if each were a luxury and not a necessity. 1.8 million of our citizens do not have access to affordable health care. This needs to change.

We also need to meet our obligations and properly fund the pension system. The pension fund is currently underfunded by approximately $40 billion. This is not a problem that arose overnight. Legislators of both parties have contributed to this crisis by not doing their jobs over the past 3 decades. Those in power now should not seek to shift the blame to others. They need to recognize their role in this mess and be held accountable.

Ultimately, this election is not about me. It's about you and your dreams, your hopes and your aspirations. While some may tell you to settle and be happy for what you have, I believe that if we all work together we can all share a brighter and more prosperous future.

Issues:

1. Education
2. Renewable Energy
3. Job Creation

Grassroots Support:

My campaign relies on grassroots support in order to get our message out to the voters in the district. The energy that is created by a dedicated band of supporters is truly gratifying to me.

DFA Values:

I believe that investments we make now in our future, particularly in educating our children, will pay enormous dividends in the future and ultimately save money in the long run. It is important to structure our priorities in a way that recognizes the needs of our most vulnerable citizens while acknowledging that we have limited resources to accomplish our goals.