I Endorse Representative Currie

Barbara Flynn Currie was slogging thru the slush on Saturday and I happened to pass her on my jaunt for snow-pics.  I stopped and chatted with her a couple minutes, thanking her for her fine work on behalf of Hyde Park and the State of Illinois.  I specifically commended her on two things.

I'm sure everybody remembers the debacle at the Co-op in late summer 2007.  A squirrel chewed on some power lines and, while Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas) wasn't around to make hors d'oeuvres out of it, the typical Co-op tragedy ensued with a decades-old server dying.  Our front end registers scanned no more.  While everyone knows that the Co-op was the most responsible party in this debacle, it was also true that the power went down not once but twice and the second shock killed the computer.  Com-Ed told us they were not liable, so we appealed to Rep. Currie to write a letter and she did.  Com-Ed suddenly decided that maybe it was a little to blame and they sent us a check for a small portion of the damages.  Having your state representative be the majority leader of the House is quite an asset for your neighborhood.

We can't expect our leaders to be experts on every subject, so I always pay close attention to the folks politicians choose to team up with.  I'm overjoyed that Rep. Currie and Speaker Madigan have chosen to rely on Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) as their point person on transit funding.  Rep. Hamos exhibited the patience of a saint throughout the CTA funding crisis and without her diligence we might still be awaiting a solution.

I'm sure that Rep. Currie would not endorse everything on this blog, but I endorse everything about her work.  I hope you'll join me in voting for her on Tuesday, February 5.