Primary Election Date: 03/20/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

I am an Emergency Room doctor—not another career politician. There are far too many career politicians in Washington, D.C. We need citizen legislators with common sense who understand the conflicting pressures of daily life and the needs of people as they struggle to pay bills, get access to health care, and make a better life for their children.

My interests are wide-ranging, with a firm grasp of economics and international issues. I have read newspapers since I was seven years old, and I have followed politics since high school. Most pertinent to my qualifications, I fully appreciate and apply the values of persistence, dedication, integrity, and hard work.

Born into a family of modest means, I assumed personal responsibility at age 13, taking a job as a bus boy and dishwasher shortly after my father passed away. I worked my way through college and medical school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After earning a B.S. in Mathematics, I worked one year for an actuarial company in Chicago, prior to starting medical school. During medical school I met my first wife, Polly. After working as a family practice physician in Delavan, Illinois, I moved my family to Clinton in the heart of DeWitt County, Illinois, where we raised our three children. Polly’s death from colon cancer in 2007 was a huge loss for my entire family.

However, life moves on after tragedy. I remarried and moved to Bloomington, Illinois. My second wife, Elaine, is as passionate as I about the urgent need to change our political process. We have six children between us. Our blended family took to the campaign trail in 2010, once more trying to effect change in the political process with a true grassroots campaign. Although we raised a decent amount of money in the middle of this terrible recession, it was not enough to get our message out. Still, we out-polled better funded statewide Democratic candidates in the district by 5-15 points.

Since 1988, I have served both rural and urban communities across Central Illinois, first as a family practice doctor and then in emergency departments. As a physician, I work with people in need every day. When patients come into the E.R., I do not ask about their political views before I treat them. I identify and examine each problem, offering solutions based on my experience and the best medical practices available.

Now, voters in Illinois’ new 13th Congressional District have a chance to choose between a citizen legislator with common sense and real world experience or yet another career politician beholden to special interests. If I am elected, I intend to represent your interests. I will listen attentively to your concerns and I will work tirelessly to improve the quality of life for people in our district and protect our basic rights. I will fight to improve Medicare, create good jobs, preserve collective bargaining, safeguard basic human rights, and help return common sense to the halls of Congress.

Why Am I Running?

In recent decades the fabric of our social safety nets put in place during the Great Depression has been eroded by a mistaken philosophy that sees government as an unnecessary evil and promotes the myth of the free market as job generator. My E.R. experiences and the corruption evident in Congress first led me to run for the U.S. House. While my Republican opponent pushed us into the invasion of Iraq, I bravely stood up and publicly denounced the invasion, beginning in late 2002.

For most of my adult life I have served the rural and urban communities of Central Illinois. I have watched hundreds of families slip from comfortable middle class lifestyles to a tenuous paycheck-to-paycheck and long-term unemployment existence. I see these changes locally as a result of policies put in place by career politicians and corporate magnates in Washington, DC. I have been fully committed to this race and the people of IL-13 since I declared on June 30, 2011, running a full-time campaign with paid staffers and a network of volunteers, and cutting my work hours to the minimum required to support my family. My wide-ranging interests and experiences give me a broad understanding of both domestic and international issues facing our country. I have developed sets of specific plans to address critical issues facing our country, and am both aware of and involved in seeking solutions to problems facing our district

In contrast to my current Democratic and Republican opponents, I accept no corporate special interest/lobbyist PAC money, enabling me to have an independent voice to stand up to the corporate entities and deep-pocket special interests that threaten our democracy and our once-great middle class. We must elect people who understand both the values of the community and the hardships of struggling to maintain self, family, and future in an uncertain and shifting economy.

Hold Me Accountable!

In my first year as a member of the U.S. House, I would actively seek to enact laws that increase access to health care while easing the cost burden by re-writing current regulations that favor insurance and pharmaceutical corporations over the welfare of patients. I would work with colleagues to develop sensible and sustainable energy policy and infrastructure projects to promote good-paying full-time jobs while reducing our carbon footprint on the planet’s general health.

Throughout my tenure in Congress, I would protect our social safety nets, and I would actively pursue Constitutional Amendments to reverse the effect of the Citizens United ruling and to enact term limits and pension reform for all federally elected officials.

My DFA values:

For most of my adult life I have served the rural and urban communities of Central Illinois as a doctor, first in Family Practice, then in Emergency Medicine. I have volunteered with various organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the Salvation Army to make life easier for my neighbors and fellow citizens. To improve participation our democratic process, I became active in local politics in the 1990s. My candidacy is the result of the confluence of these interests and concerns.

We are the strongest nation on earth precisely because we are a nation of immigrants who came here to work hard and to seek a better life. Our diversity and our plurality are the bulwarks against internal and external tyranny. While a strong national defense is necessary for military security, we must realize that economic stability, social mobility, and educational excellence are the keys to long-term overall security and prosperity.

Liberty is at the heart of the American experience. We must ever strive to bend the arc of the moral universe, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, toward its eventual goal of justice. Until we are all free with equal rights--all ages, all races, different sexual orientations--none of us can be truly free.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

My campaigns have always been true grassroots efforts powered by people locally and across the nation. Currently I have a small paid staff and a network of 300+ volunteers throughout and beyond IL-13. My supporters staff booths at local festivals and farmers' markets, write letters to the editors of local newspapers, hold house parties, and spread the word of the campaign through word of mouth and social media. We have donors in 45 of the 50 states, stretching from Maine to Hawaii. In the last week we have received donations from dozens of counties in Illinois, of course, and also from Indiana, Ohio, Alaska, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Maryland.

I have gathered hundreds of endorsements, some from current state and local officeholders and organizations, but many from precinct captains, veterans, local activists, and concerned citizens who want to stand up and be counted.