Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Karen May Won't Run Again in 58th District

Wow, this is some real news. First Susan Garrett decides not to run again for State Senate, and now Karen May announces she will not run in 2012 for the 58th State Rep. District.

Are all the incumbent Dems anticipating that they will be getting a whuppin' in 2012? What happened to the Dem-controlled remap that was supposed to further entrench these incumbents for the next 10 years. Crazy, man, crazy.

So far, two Republican have announced for this race - former State Senate Candiate and businessman Keith Gray, and Mark G. Neerhof, DO. Much more on this race, which has now instantly become a hot one, as we go on.

Here's May's e-mail to supporters and press release:


Dear Friends,

I want to share with you the news that I have decided not to run for re-election in 2012 and to thank you for your support over the past decade. It was a very difficult decision because I love serving the citizens of this district and working in Springfield for the issues that are important to us. With your help, we have had many successes, but without the distraction of a campaign, I can concentrate on completing my legislative agenda in the next 15 months. G-d willing, I intend to sprint across the finish line. Thank you for being the wind beneath my wings.
Sincerely,

Karen May

News…from State Representative Karen May

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, September 28, 2011

State Rep. Karen May: Not Running for Re-Election Highland Park Lawmaker Will Complete 12 Years of Service in Capitol

Highland Park, IL- State Rep. Karen May, D-Highland Park, on Wednesday announced she will not seek re-election next fall to the post she has held since January 2001.

After serving as a member of the Highland Park City Council and Highland Park Historic Preservation Commission, May first took office as state representative after winning election to the office in November 2000. Area voters have re-elected her overwhelmingly since then, but after serving more than a decade in the Legislature, May decided now is the time to finish her legislative tenure.

“I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to serve my community in a number of ways over the years, and having the honor of representing people as their advocate in our state’s capitol certainly tops the list,” May said. “This job allows you to have such an incredible impact on people’s lives. It has been a lot of hard work, but so gratifying and rewarding.”

Since taking office, May has maintained a full-time constituent service office to help meet the needs of local residents. May said that public service begins at home, and that helping to improve access to often complicated government programs has been a priority for her.

“Helping people navigate state bureaucracy and deliver critical services is the most important part of being in public office,” May said. “I’ve strived to be open and accessible. Our jobs involve an incredible amount of constituent service and with the help of an amazing and dedicated local staff we were able to provide resources for people to get the help they need.”

With more than 10 years in office, May has worked on a number of legislative issues, including environmental protection, ethics reform, property tax relief, common sense gun control laws, better access to more affordable health care and state budget reforms.

In light of exponentially growing state pension liabilities, May has spearheaded changes to the state’s pension laws to rein in abuses. Last year, she pushed for significant pension reforms, including banning those receiving public pensions from also receiving taxpayer-paid salaries and reducing the maximum pensions that retired public employees may receive. The reforms in the law are expected to save the state as much as $100 billion over the next 40 years. May has also pushed for new limits on pensions this year by passing legislation to stop abuses at the local level.

As the leader of the Green Caucus in the General Assembly, May has also fought aggressively for tougher laws protecting Illinois’ natural resources and ending the production of harmful consumer products. To remove mercury – a powerful neurotoxin that can critically harm the nervous system and lead to serious brain and nerve damage – from the environment, May passed a law creating a program to capture mercury switches from end-of-life vehicles before they are destroyed. The Illinois EPA believes the plan could prevent the release of up to 400 pounds of mercury a year. May has also passed laws that ban the sale or distribution of medical devices that contain mercury, including blood pressure cuffs, and require all elementary and secondary schools in Illinois to purchase environmentally-sensitive cleaning supplies that do not expose students and teachers to harmful chemicals.

As the economy tanked and state revenues declined, May was a leading advocate of budget reforms that tightened up government costs and demanded the state spend no more than it takes in. She has consistently opposed pay hikes for legislators and helped pass state budgets that reject pay raises for lawmakers.

May looks forward to actively representing the 58th district during the remainder of her term.

“I am grateful for the support of the community that has elected me for six terms and I will continue to provide the representation and services that the district deserves.”

# # #

13 comments:

Precinct Committeman said...

Very odd. She was actually circulating petitions already. What scared her off suddenly? This leaves the democrats in a lousy position - someone has to get up to speed quickly.

As far as rats escaping the sinking ship go, don't forget Anne Bassi - once touted as a replacement for Susan Garrett - also announcing that she won't run again for county board.

Anonymous said...

translation: It's been wonderful to be michael madigan's pawn for 11 years and I don't want to break a nail defending my record of ruining the state.

This is another strong indicator the democrats are collapsing from within. Incumbents with that much power don't quit because it's no fun doing whatever they want in the majority. They quit because they don't want the fight they see coming.

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

Ahhh the conspiracy theories run rampant in FOKLAES mind. How about it is time for the 66 year old to retire like the rest of us do at that age.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Senator Susan Garrett announces her retirement and there are multiple comments from many constituents lauding her performance.

Karen May announces her retirement by comparison to near silence from her many constituents. Only a tiny handful by comparison.

Maybe it was her ComEd vote? While Highland Park and my area of Lake Forest suffered massive power outages repeatedly with calls to ComEd going unanswered or being ignored for days, she voted for rate increases, less regulation and less accountability for the public utility. Thanks Karen, for leaving your own constituency in the dark. I still have the burnt log of the tree that nearly fell onto my garage that smoldered for 6 days while ComEd claimed "we'll be right out there!"

And it is a PUBLIC utility that poorly serves the public with the lowest consumer service rating and amongst the highest charges in the nation.

Or maybe it was her vote to increase personal income taxes from 3% to 5% along with other massive tax increases, increases that were so horrendous to the state that her fellow Democrat in the District, Senator Susan Garrett, voted against them? Businesses have been threatening to leave Illinois or actually started to pick up and leave ever since, while unemployment in this State remains higher than the national average.

Or maybe it was her vote on Workers' Comp reform which gives fewer benefits to the injured working man and cut doctor bills by 35% percent as a "reform" measure? When more injured workers end up collecting Social Security Disability instead of Comp, we working fools will be paying for it instead of the employer.

Where is THAT money going to come from Karen?

Or maybe it was her failure to pursue true pension reform in the State, after the Highland Park Park District showed the world how to game the system for the benefit of a chosen few? At one point she was objecting to her own "pension reform" bill being voted out of committee and onto the House floor!

Or maybe it was voting for a State budget that was anything but balanced as required by the State Constitution, that put off over 3 Billion in incurred bills this year to next year (not counting them in the budget) and made no effort to pay over $1 billion the State incurred and didn't bother to pay providers in the past? The reason to rush to pass the budget according to the Democratic Leadership? To keep GOP voices out of it.

Now the Governor threatens to close prisons. Is an early release program on the horizon that will allow those who harm the public through their criminal acts to be released to create more havoc?

She owns all of the above and more. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will be forced to defend their party record in running this State into the ground, and any claims of "independence" or "being different" come up against her blind following of Michael Madigan. Karen had multiple chances to say "no" to her party boss.

She rarely did and only on non-controversial issues that wouldn't irritate her boss.

It was time for her to go. Too bad Lauren Turelli came up short against her last time. We would have been far better off being represented by Turelli during the last legislative session instead of Karen May, who repeatedly proved that she was the puppet to Michael Madigan.

Louis G. Atsaves

A. Bees said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
A. Bees said...

It maybe petty, but May and Garret out gives me a huge smile. In my experience they were the most difficult members of the Lake County delegation to work with. Their departure will be a good thing for the county. Although I certainly do not wish poor health on them and hope that is not the reason for Karen's retirement.

Precinct Committeeman said...

Probably just a mild case of nausea after being shown some internal polling numbers :)

A. Bees said...

Well I have been hearing from multiple sources that Democratic numbers are so bad, there are quite a few legislators choosing retirement over the fight in November of 2012. In May's district, I doubt that is the issue, but it is an interesting lens to view the impending election.

Precinct Committeman said...

Turelli lost to May by about 6000 votes. How much does Turelli's increased name recognition count for this time around? Added to the tax increase? Further, the 58th absorbed a fairly big chunk of heavily Republican precincts in Lake Forest/Lake Bluff while losing a block of democrat precincts in Glencoe.

I suspect May did, in fact, see polling that told her she would have to actually campaign to win again. Probably too hard for someone who has never really had to do that.

Re retiring at 66, pretty much no one does that nowadays except for public employees and union members.

PhilCollins said...

I'm glad that a well-known conservative is running in the 58th District. He'll easily win.

Anonymous said...

apparently democrats feel like their party still has more garbage candidates to run for the 10th so now they are desperately trying to get a water reclamation district commissioner (who is a bit on the flabby side)-(why we need that office is beyond me in the first place) named Mariyana Spyropoulos to run for a congressional district in the suburbs. Apparently they can't find anyone in the suburbs willing to do this and can't remember the last 3 cycles when they ran a candidate from outside the district who lost 3 times in a row.

This young babe apparently got her job (according to chicago tribune reports) through a classic pay to play situation when her father gave pat quinn $50,000 in exchange for naming her to a position she had previously failed to win in an election.

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

As a Gov. Christie fan who was outraged by the Democrats who literally said he shouldn't run for President because of his weight, I find the comments about Spyropoulos' weight totally unacceptable.

First of all, a quick look at her web side doesn't support the conclusion that this would even be an issue.

Furthermore, a review of press articles on Turelli and Sen Schmidt failed to turn up the word "svelte."

Your friend LA (as in your posting name) might well agree - let's keep it clean. Don't stoop to that level.

Anonymous said...

Asking these folks to keep it classy is a lesson in futility. They go on other blogs to do that before returning here to wallow.