Lake County Young Republicans Host Gubernatorial Candidate Adam Andrzejewski

Last night at its regular business meeting, the new Lake County Young Republicans, headed by president Collin Corbett, hosted entrepreneur and GOP Gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski, who came to speak about campaign and his goal to bring transparency to Illinois government.

Andrzejewski, a social and fiscal conservative, is an earnest, presentable young candidate, although I would rather see him running and winning something like state senate first, rather than going for a top spot like governor, since he has never been elected to office before.

Andrzejewski responds that he believes that the voters in Illinois are looking for "leadership, not political experience." Fair enough, and we'll see if he's right, but I think running for a senate spot and using that as a platform for higher office would have been a wiser political choice, if he's serious about getting elected. I could very much see him in the mold of a Senator Matt Murphy or Dan Duffy - someone coming into this as a businessman, not a politician, and leveraging his self-made success in the business world as a fix for the state's budget problems.


Andrzejewski believes that the first step to fixing Illinois government is "transparency" and has created a tag line of "Every Dime. Online. In Real Time." It's catchy. According to Andrzejewski's research, even State Comptroller Dan Hynes can't agree with other government offices about how many programs are funded out of state government and what those programs are. Andrzejewski's main goal is to provide web access to virtually all government spending, which sounds ambitious, but he says is a lot easier than the entrenched politicians would have you believe, as borne out by experiences in cities like New Orleans. "We need basic data on government spending," he contends, and we don't have it, and pretty much can't get it under the current systems in place.

Andrzejewski says the taxpayer in Illinois needs an "advocate," and someone who knows how to support and encourage small business owners as the core of economic recovery. He says, "I've listened to small business owners and I've lived it," referring to his creation of a very successful local yellow pages book that competed well with the big boys, and enabled him to retire young and pursue work in non-profits and eventually politics.

Andrzejewski realizes he's up against long odds, but points out that he was the first candidate to declare officially, and that "if you can't decide if you want to run for governor" (a thinly-veiled dig at potential candidate Joe Birkett), you have no business being in the race. He also points out his well-developed issues pages on his website, which contrast sharply with anything offered by State Senator Bill Brady, another guv candidate.