Mike Amrozowicz, Republican candidate for the District 31 state Senate seat, recently released a statement supporting legislative term limits in the hopes of ending an era of “professional politics” prone to potential corruption.
"Politics is meant to be a public service, not a career,” Amrozowicz said. “Many of the problems we have in Illinois … stem from the fact that we have career politicians in Springfield who have been in office for so long that they've lost touch with the working families they are supposed to represent."
Polling conducted at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale has revealed that approximately 4 out of 5 Illinois residents support term limits, but several long-serving legislators include Michael Madigan (D-Dist. 22), Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, who was first elected over 45 years ago. Likewise his counterpart, Senate President John Cullerton (D-Dist. 6), has been in the General Assembly for 37 years.
| Contributed photo
"I've had my career," Amrozowicz said. "I served my country for 21 years in the Navy, and I owned and operated a small business for 12 years after that. I'm just looking to give back to my community, make a positive difference, then get out. If more of our senators and representatives had real-world life experience beyond politics, our state wouldn't be in the mess it's in. What we need are term limits on all members of the General Assembly, to ensure that fresh ideas and new people keep flowing into Springfield."
Amrozowicz's opponent, incumbent Democrat Melinda Bush, said she supports term limits, but only on "party leaders."
"It's really just a fancy way of saying you don't support it," Amrozowicz said of Bush’s position. "She's a career politician (trying to) trick voters into thinking she supports term limits, when she really doesn't. She wants the political points, but doesn't want the term limits to affect her personally. Frankly, she doesn't seem to really support term limits even for leadership, or she wouldn't have voted for Cullerton, who's been in office for 37 years."
Amrozowicz has promised to limit himself to 10 years in office.
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