Illinois’ Seventh Congressional District is a wonderful district, full of diverse and hard-working residents and businesses—but it is not yet a community.

It is home to the enormous economic power of the Loop. It is home to communities struggling with a lack of adequate resources, to stable middle-class neighborhoods, and to affluent neighborhoods.

These communities all work hard to improve the quality of life for their residents and to create an environment in which businesses can thrive, and yet too often they do so individually. But they all share many major interests in common. All of them depend on the same under funded transportation infrastructure, such as the Eisenhower Expressway, the Blue Line, the Green Line, and Metra. All of them are concerned with our region’s health-care system, struggling as it is under the burden of uninsured patients and an under funded Medicaid system. All of them are aware of the imminent need for security that additional first-responders can provide. And the entire district shares the need for effective public education, public education which is actually being damaged by the Federal No Child Left Behind law.

As Congressman of this District, I would work hard to engage these issues on a regional basis, bringing all parts of the District to the table to make our voices heard. The District is stronger when Maywood and Riverside speak together with the Loop financial district. I’ve built a career out of bringing diverse parties to the table to find consensus, and I intend to bring this same philosophy to Congress.

I won’t be content simply to show up on the floor and cast votes. My job will be to forge alliances across party lines and across regional lines to make this district better. My job is to make the calls and to build the relationships that let me get things done on behalf of the whole district. I will engage these issues on behalf of all the District’s communities, and doing so will make me a more effective representative for each community.