Meet the Candidates follow-up.

The Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce held their 'Meet The Candidates' event Monday night. They had quite a few candidates attend. A candidate may have many reasons to not attend (a previous engagement, etc.), but this close to an election, any candidate that shows up most likely considers the event important. So I really appreciate that State Senator Dan Rutherford, Republican candidate for Secretary of State (S of S), attended. Dan was the only State-wide candidate to show up.

It is hardly news that I support Dan, as I co-hosted a fund-raiser for him. He is a great guy. I am disappointed in Jesse White, our current S of S. To mention a few reasons: It doesn't seem to me that the office is suppose to be an employment agency for his family. He has promoted his daughter in the S of S office to an executive level and hired 4 additional family members. He gave no-bid contracts to the wives of two of his Senior Staff members (possibly in violation of conflict of interest laws). Hired a felon as a Director, who ran a ghost-payrolling scheme, and the Director was recently convicted of it.

More importantly, Dan has several specific plans to improve the agency. Anyone who has had to get a license renewed or other service in a Driver's Facility will recognize how important it is to improve customer service. Dan's day job is with ServiceMaster, a company that is a reknown service company. When Dan is elected, you will be able to make an appointment on-line for the service you need. A business will be able to do many corporate reports online. Dan will walk the office into the 21st Century.

So the bottom line is my suggetion to vote Republican and especially vote for Dan Rutherford.