Georgia here, Director of New Media for Alexi's U.S. Senate campaign.
It was an amazing day here today in Illinois with President Obama coming home to Chicago to join Alexi's campaign and talk about the stakes in November. Alexi joined the President at a local Ford plant in the morning, and then they joined a sold out crowd of Democrats who are all committed to helping Alexi win on November 2nd. The President gave a rousing speech about why this seat is so important, and why Democrats need to do everything they can to keep the Illinois Senate seat out of the hands of another typical politician like Congressman Kirk.
Watch the video:
And here are some excerpts (full speech here). On Alexi's candidacy:
It is wonderful to be here, and it wonderful to be with Alexi. Alexi is my friend. I know his character. I know how much he loves this country. I know how committed he is to public service for all the right reasons.
I appreciate his strong sense of advocacy for ordinary Americans. He’s not doing this to help the lobbyists; he’s not doing it to help special interests. Alexi is not one of these politicians who puts his finger to the wind and who changes who he is or where he stands to suit the political moment. You can trust him. You can count on him.
On his very first day in office, Alexi enacted the most sweeping ethics reforms of any Illinois state treasurer and ensured that contractors and banks couldn’t pay-to-play for state business.
And he’s not funding this campaign with federal PAC or lobbyist money. Not a dime. Because he wants to make a strong statement about who he will be fighting for in the United States Senate. And as state treasurer, Alexi has proven himself as someone who isn’t afraid to stand up to special interests. He took on credit card companies and banned them from aggressively marketing on college campuses, so that our kids don’t graduate with credit card debt on top of tuition debt. He’s reformed our state’s college savings program so that it’s now ranked one of the best in the country. And I’m sure a lot of you have heard of what he did for Hartmarx.
This is a clothing company that’s employed people in this state for more than a century. And by the way, I’m a customer. (Laughter and applause.) And when they fell on hard times and a big bank threatened to pull their credit and destroy more than 600 jobs, Alexi stepped in. And he told the bank that if they did that, they would no longer be managing the money of Illinois taxpayers. And because of what he did, Alexi helped save that company and save those jobs. That’s the kind of person you want in the United States Senate -- (applause) -- somebody who’s not going to forget where they came from, why they’re in this, and who they’re fighting for.
On obstructionist Republicans like Alexi's opponent, Mark Kirk:
I believe we have to keep on moving forward. Alexi believes we’ve got to keep on moving forward. And I think the American people want to keep moving forward. (Applause.)
Now, if you doubt that that’s the choice, if you’re thinking, well, that’s just some political rhetoric, I want you to think about what’s transpired within the Republican Party. It would be one thing if after 2006 and 2008 and all the problems that have been taking place, that they went off into the wilderness and they meditated, and they thought, boy, we really screwed up, and we’ve got to think of some new ways of approaching things, if they were full of reflection and soul-searching, and then they finally came back and said, we’ve got some new ideas. We’re going to do things differently. We may not agree with the President, but we have a vision for the future that might work. Then you could say, okay, maybe we should give them a shot.
But that’s not what’s happened. They haven’t learned from all the mistakes that they made. They promise to do the exact same things that got us into this mess. They haven’t come out with a single solitary idea that is different from the policies that held sway for eight years before Democrats took over. Not a single policy difference that’s discernable from George W. Bush. Not one. [...]
The point is their votes -- their obstruction -- that takes us backwards. We want businesses to create jobs in America. We want clean energy here in the United States. We want young people to be able to go to college in record numbers. We want it -- the principle that everybody in America should be able to get affordable health care, we want that enshrined in this country. And that’s the choice in this election. It’s between policies that strengthen the hand of special interests and policies that strengthen America’s middle class.[...]
They want to extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that have exploded our deficit. They talk a good game about deficit reduction, and then every time you ask them, "What’s your plan," they don’t have one. I kept my campaign promise and gave a tax cut to the middle class -- 95 percent of working Americans.
They voted against it. They voted against holding oil companies like BP accountable for every dime of the spills they cause. We forced BP to set aside $20 billion for the men and women of the Gulf Coast whose livelihoods depend on clean water and clean beaches. (Applause.)
And then what happens? After we do that, the guy who if they took over in the House of Representatives would be the chairman of the Energy Committee apologizes to BP. Says I’m so sorry that the President is making you pay these fishermen and these hotel owners and others whose livelihoods by been wrecked by your carelessness. Apologized to them. Called what we did a "shakedown." I think he might have added "Chicago shakedown" in there. (Laughter.)
That’s the choice in this election: a choice between folks who apologize to BP and folks who are looking out for small business owners and fishermen. Policies that are helping our economy grow again and policies that are going to make America more competitive and our middle class more secure, or more of the same? [...]
And if you want to read Alexi's introduction of the President, you can do so here. Here's a snapshot of Alexi’s remarks that clearly articulate why Illinois needs him in the United States Senate:
[T]he question is, less than ninety days from a truly seminal election, what will be the next chapter in that American story?
As we face some of the most daunting economic challenges that this country has ever seen, how will we respond? Looking back, how will we define ourselves, how will we define this moment for generations to come?
Will we step up and lead and have the courage to make the tough decisions to ensure that the America in 2040, 2050 - the America 100 years from now - is a stronger, more educated, more morally responsible nation than ever before?
Will we lead the world in technology, innovation, science, education, health care, business development?
Will we remain the nation of inspiration, the nation where any dream is possible, the nation where my parents traveled across an ocean to be a part of?
This election will say a lot about which direction we're headed.
Will we go back to the short-sighted and reckless economic policies and greed that have brought this country to its knees, or will we leap forward with a renewed commitment to economic opportunity for everyone?
Are we going to send people to Washington to get things done, or will we elect those whose only objective is to obstruct and deny the achievements of the other party?
That is what this election is about.
Now, a few months ago, my opponent Congressman Mark Kirk, behind closed doors, said that he wants to go to Washington to make quote, "this guy," President Obama, a one-termer.
That's the amount of respect that he and his party have for the President of the United States.
And sadly, deplorably, that is their whole agenda.
And here are Alexi's thoughts on the GOP wanting to "take our country back":
The preferred message of so many on the right, the slogan they keep repeating: "We need to take our country back."
Think about that. "We need to take our country back"?
This divisive and offensive message has never made any sense to me. Who are the "we" they are talking about? Take it back from "whom"? And how far back do you want to go?
Back to the failed Bush/Kirk economic policies that added more to our national debt than all the previous administrations combined? To one of the greatest periods of job loss in this country's history, that Congressman Kirk helped create? To tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas? To tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, with zero plans to pay for them? To the last decade, when the economic engine of the American middle class was systematically undermined?
"Take our country back"?
That's offensive. It's outrageous. And we can't let this language and this ideology continue.
Read all of the President's speech and Alexi's speech in Chicago today over at our website, AlexiForIllinois.com.
You can donate here, and sign up to volunteer here. Let's keep up the momentum and keep this seat in Democratic hands!