Swanson, Demink debate abortion, guns, rural population decline in District 71 forum

GALESBURG — The two candidates in the race for the 71st district seat in the Illinois General Assembly met Tuesday evening in the Galesburg Public Library for a debate ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.

The incumbent and Republican candidate was Dan Swanson and the challenger and Democratic candidate was Chris Demink. The two answered a series of questions that were not made available to them beforehand.

The candidate in the race for the 36th district seat in the Illinois Senate, Democrat Michael Halpin, was also present. Halpin’s answers to the debate questions will be made available in a following article. His opponent in that race, Republican Mike Thoms, said he had a prior commitment and was not at the debate.

Both candidates for the race for U.S representative of Illinois’s 17th congressional district, Republican Esther Joy King and Democrat Eric Sorensen, were invited to the forum but also said they were not able to attend.

The event drew at least 60 people and was put on by Galesburg’s chapter of the NAACP in collaboration with United Against Hate, PFLAG and the Galesburg Public Library. It was broadcasted by WGIL and The Register-Mail’s editor Tom Martin moderated the questions.

A debate featuring candidates in Knox County races was also held last week in the Galesburg Public Library. Some of the quotes below are excerpts from the candidates’ remarks for the sake of length or clarity.

Where do you stand on access to abortion in Illinois?

Swanson had this to say:

“I believe in life, I believe in protecting children. I believe that's what I was raised to believe. I grew up on a farm and I saw life everyday, I've seen life every spring as we have new livestock being born on the farm. I believe in life. (...) If we look in our classroom space, we had empty classrooms, and if we look at our schools, if we look at how we can increase, in 10 years, 500,000 students, or we can increase our workforce by 500,000, by 50,000 over 10 years, half a million people. (...) It's a choice but I believe it's not something that you and I should be funding as a taxpayer. And that was passed with HB40, House Bill 40 when Gov. Rauner signed it. When he said, that he's going to use your tax payer dollars to fund abortion, that to me was very sad that that took place.”

Demink had this to say:

“I think Roe vs. Wade should not have been overturned. (...) I am Catholic, I was raised Catholic, so I believe at first an adoption option, but I still don't think women should be told what to do with their body by the federal government. But also there was one other thing I brought up before and, there's something we're leaving out and I don't hear any of the politicians or anybody in the upper ranks talking about this, but why don't they, if they're going to make abortion illegal, why don't they make it so the male that caused this — because it takes two to tango, people — so why don't they put the male on notice to help raise this child if they're made to keep it, they should make the other person involved make them help do it.”

What legislation would you support to ensure public safety without infringing on the Second Amendment?

Swanson had this to say:

“This isn't a new problem, if you want to say the Second Amendment and guns and people being shot, or being misused. What happened is the majority party has never brought forward a bill yet that would be something you could say would be part of the Second Amendment legislation. They've had the numbers to do that. I'm a second amendment guy, I've served in the Army and my constitutional duty and right is to support the Constitution of the United States. (...) I believe it's not such a gun issue, it's not a Second Amendment issue, I think it's more a mental health issue. And that's where it's not the gun that kills people, it's someone who has a mental health issue, that's where the problem lies. This past year we added I believe around 171 million dollars towards mental health, and that's where I think we need to focus in mental health. (...) I think it's a family issue, I think it's how people are brought up at home. And most cases, what we see, some incident of a person who got someone or did something like that, never followed the process anyway.”

Demink had this to say:

“Well like I said, they passed a half-a-million-dollar budget, or money for that. Some of that is supposed to go for cameras for the law enforcement and where they use that money, it's not going into guns, that's for one thing. Now, I'm a second amendment person, I have weapons at home and so forth. I do not think somebody should be yanking them away. But we don't need bump stocks and things like that, OK? That's a little overboard. I don't need a bump stock to pick pheasants out of the sky. All I need is some buckshot. (...) Like I said, cameras for the police officers, better training for one thing for police officers, without a doubt, and that's also in that half-a-million dollars.”

Rural counties have lost population in the last 10 years. Knox County lost 5.6%, McDonough County lost 16.5%. What is causing the loss and what can you do to help?

Swanson had this to say:

“We know too many of our kids are going down to state schools. When they go to an out-of-state school, we lose them, they don't come back. So 5.6%, I don't know how many of those are students who left Illinois or whatever, but 16.5, we have universities here to keep children and keep our young people here in Illinois. The jobs are here, education opportunities are here. You know, a lot of it has to do with our tax system, our property taxes that are costing people to lose their homes because of high property taxes. Losing their homes or losing their businesses because they can't afford to heat them or can't afford to pay the electric bill and things. So a lot of it has to do with inflation. A lot of it has to do with opportunities, in my mind, but I think basically it's going back to those unfunded mandates that were passed on to our counties, that were passed on to our cities, were passed on to our schools to increase those property taxes for people who live in our communities. But keeping the youth in Illinois, keeping our young, bright future in Illinois, I think is our best way to see our growth come back. And by offering the opportunities, by having the jobs, by having the education systems in place, I think that will encourage people to stay here and we'll see those numbers rebound eventually.”

Demink had this to say:

“For one thing, it's kind of sized in with the worker's rights bill. Like I said in the prior debate, that people didn't come here for the weather. You got to give them some reason to stay. A good paying job will do that. Even in the smaller communities, you create bills that would make better paying jobs and keep those people there. It's a basic social studies lesson is all it is and it's what you got to look at.”

Do you believe Governor Pritzker overstepped his bounds by shutting down Illinois early in the pandemic? And what should the Governor have done?

Swanson had this to say:

“Well one of the things the governor did not do is enclose the legislative branch, one of the three branches of Illinois government, into the decision making process. And I think he overreached his authority when he misinterpreted the Illinois Emergency Management Act. The Illinois Emergency Management Act is pretty clear that an executive order is good for only 30 days. His interpretation was, that order was good for 30 days and every 30 days he could renew it. The interpretation as we see it was, that meant at 30 days you needed to call the legislative branch in to get the authority from the legislative branch to do it again. There's so many things that he's overstepped in his spending, how he's used the money that was for you and I as far as the federal ARPA dollars. (...) So I think he overstepped his bounds. I think there was room for more opportunities other than just using one shoe fits all philosophy. There's a difference between our COVID out here than the COVID in the city of Chicago or the city of Rockford. I think the people who suffered the most over all of this was the children when we shut down schools for almost a year and a half.”

Demink had this to say:

“Frankly I don't think he did, but I agree with Dan that he could have brought in the legislation to re-enact or revoke the system, whatever they are using. But as far as education goes, what's the life of a child's worth? What's the life of one child? What's that child's life worth — what if it's anybody's out here, what about their children? (...) And it killed thousands of children too, it didn't just kill mostly people over 50 and 65, I'm not saying it didn't, but what's the price of that one child it may have saved in Illinois, shutting down the schools like they did? So I say no.”

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Illinois District 71: Swanson, Demink debate abortion, guns at forum