Who's running for Illinois representative in the new District 93?

State Rep. Mark A. Luft, 91st District, will attempt to retain his seat in Illinois House in the GOP primary June 28. He will face challenger Travis Weaver.

With the redrawn boundaries, Luft, who was elected in 2020, finds himself in the 93rd District. Candidate Weaver is the son of Chuck Weaver, former GOP state senator, who represented the 37th District from 2015 to 2020.

Current 93rd District State Rep. Norine Hammond was drawn out of the district, but is running in the 94th District GOP primary.

The new 93rd District starts just east of Colona and stretches south to Pekin. The district stops short of Galesburg to the west and Peoria to the east. Along with Pekin, it includes Annawan, Cambridge, Kewanee, Williamsfield, Brimfield, Edwards and several other small towns.

We sent a few questions to the Republican candidates in the contested race in an effort to learn more about them and where they stand on key issues. We also requested biographical information.

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Mark A. Luft

Age: 56

City of residence: Pekin

Education:  Pekin Community High School, Eastern Illinois University, Enlisted in the Army Reserves, Illinois Central College, Midstate College

Work Experience: Illinois American Water Company working for 30-plus years. Started by digging ditches and retired as the senior operations manager

Political Experience: Served on the Pekin City Council since 2015 and was elected Pekin City mayor in 2020.    Elected as state representative, taking office January 2021. Serves on the Revenue and Finance, Public Utilities, Housing, Economic Opportunity and Equity, Cities and Villages, and Appropriations and General Services Committees, the Property Tax and Water Sub Committees, is a member of the Veterans Caucus, and is the Republican Spokesperson for the Children with Disabilities Caucus.

Organizations: Volunteered for the Pekin Junior Football League for 14 years as a Coach, director, vice president, President and eventually Chair of the Board Member of the Pekin Rotary

Family: Mark and his wife Lelonie have five children and four grandchildren

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Travis Weaver

Age: 29

City of residence: Edwards

Education:  Northwestern Kellogg School of Business, MBA, 2020

University of Alabama, BA in Finance & Marketing, 2015

Work experience:

Caterpillar Inc, 2015 – 2022

Strategy Manager: 2020 – 2022

Investor Relations, Senior Analyst: 2018 – 2020

Corporate Funding, Analyst: 2017 – 2018

Cash Investment, Analyst: 2015 – 2017

Political experience: n/a

Organizations and memberships: Wildlife Prairie Park, Board of Directors and Chairman of Education Committee; GED Tutor with Moonlight Coalition for Adult Learning; Member of Northwoods Community Church; Member of Peoria Downtown Rotary; Member of NRA; Member of Peoria County Farm Bureau

Family: One of three children of former State Senator Chuck and Laurie Weaver, uncle to five (soon to be six!) nieces and nephews

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What will you do about healthcare costs?

1. Healthcare costs continue to soar. What proposals do you have to address the escalating costs of healthcare including prescription drugs? 

Travis Weaver: Except for Medicaid, healthcare is largely a federal issue. However, we need to expand common sense payment options like Health Savings Accounts and bring more competition into health care to encourage cost reduction.

Additionally, hardworking Illinoisans are suffering from the effects of the energy bill passed by the governor. My opponent was one of the few Republicans to vote for this legislation which will gouge hardworking taxpayers already saddled with record inflation.

Earlier this year, Peoria Journal Star reported that monthly electric bills will nearly double over bills from June 2021 because of this legislation. It’s also been reported that we may suffer from rolling electric blackouts due to this legislation. To purposefully push our country backwards by almost a hundred years with unreliable electricity during peak energy usage is unconscionable. I will work to overhaul this legislation and keep power plants operating until new affordable power is available.

Mark Luft: In addition to supporting medical innovation and sponsoring legislation to decrease consumer costs for items like cancer screenings and hormone replacement therapy due to hysterectomy, Illinois must go further to make healthcare more affordable. We should evaluate the mandates the state has placed on health insurers in recent years to find ways to streamline costs, passing savings on to patients.

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How will you ease tax burden?

2. Illinois has been ranked as the least tax-friendly state for the middle class in the nation. How will you try and help ease the burden on taxpayers?

Mark Luft: Illinois’ high cost of living is hurting families and crippling businesses as tone-deaf politicians continue to push tax hikes. As state representative, I have been a consistent advocate for lowering the tax burden, including lower property and income taxes and lowering trailer fees.

Illinois needs a sound plan to pay off our debts, balance our budget, and set us on the right trajectory toward fiscal solvency. We must cut out-of-control spending and prioritize growing our economy and keeping job creators in Illinois. I have a proven record of reaching out to all stakeholders to identify ways to stabilize our economy and draw in new businesses.

Travis Weaver: Every dollar spent is a dollar taxed. We must cut spending, as Illinois has the nation’s heaviest tax burden.

In 2019, Illinois legislators voted in 19 tax increases to “fix roads;" however, a significant portion of those funds are being spent on pork projects separate from public infrastructure. With such a high budget already, there is ample room for all essential services, infrastructure included, without any more tax increases.

This will only be fixed by replacing “tax and spend” legislators with legislators committed to fiscal responsibility. My finance background as the youngest strategy manager at Caterpillar will enable me to wage a relentless battle against overspending. Our state needs to be frugal in spending and diligent in the projects we choose to fund. My experience from Caterpillar and current ownership of a small business contrasts with many legislators who have spent their lives spending other people’s money in government organizations.

What about gun violence and crime?

3. How would you address crime and gun violence in your district? 

Travis Weaver: In an overreaction to a few bad apples in select departments, the General Assembly passed a massive overhaul of criminal justice last year. This included eliminating cash bail and returning violent criminals right back to the streets already plagued by too much crime. It’s called “catch and release.” Now we see crime once associated with big cities happening in rural Illinois. Progressives placed huge new mandates on local law enforcement with no funding to pay for those mandated changes which diminished law enforcement’s ability to protect citizens.

There was a lesson for all time in New York City when in the late 1980s and early 1990s crime spiraled out of control. When New York City then implemented the Broken Windows policy where no crime was tolerated, all crime diminished to record low levels. History has shown that a reasonable amount of additional training to ensure civil liberties are not violated, staffing support to ensure folks aren’t overworked, and a no-nonsense intolerance of crime will protect our people.

Mark Luft: I’m proud to have been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police and the Associated Firefighters of Illinois. We owe our state’s first responders a great debt of gratitude, but progressive politicians in Springfield have pushed radical policy changes that put the interests of criminals over those of victims and law enforcement. That’s wrong and it must be remedied.

I support repealing the SAFE-T Act immediately. Since its enactment, the state of Illinois has seen record numbers of law enforcement professionals retire early, resign and move, or leave the field completely. Crime is on the rise, in 2021 Peoria experienced a record number of homicides. This problem will only get worse when cash bail ends a few short months after the November election.

I have also sponsored legislation that would allow a judge to deny bail for those charged with aggravated battery to a police officer. My legislation sends a strong message that if you harm a police officer you will not be back out on the street any time soon.

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Illinois Election: Weaver challenges Luft in new District 93 primary