Decatur…Councilman Adam Brown and State Representative Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) are proposing legislation to require Illinois businesses to participate in the federal E-Verify program, which verifies the citizenship/immigration status of new employees.

The current Illinois law allows for voluntary participation in the E-Verify program, but Brown and Mitchell believe participation should be mandatory, to ensure that Illinois businesses are not hiring illegal aliens.

“In the last two months, I’ve had community and union leaders come to me with complaints of illegal aliens performing jobs Illinois citizens can do,” Mitchell said.  “With Decatur having one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, we want to make sure that illegal aliens are not taking jobs that should be going to the citizens of Illinois.  We are proposing a common-sense law to ensure that Illinois jobs go to Illinois working families.”

Brown, the Republican candidate for State Representative in the 101^st District, took his opponent to task for voting to prohibit Illinois companies from using E-Verify.

“My opponent has a terrible record on illegal immigration,” Brown said.  “Bob Flider voted to give taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens, costing Illinois taxpayers $55 million per year.  Then Flider voted to prohibit Illinois companies from verifying a new employee’s citizenship.  He actually voted to reject the federal program aimed at cutting down on illegal immigration.”

Eight-year incumbent Rep. Bob Flider voted for HB 1744 (PA 95-138), which prohibited Illinois employers from enrolling in the federal E-Verify program, preventing companies from verifying work authorizations for newly hired employees.  A subsequent change in state law allows employers to voluntarily participate in the E-Verify program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  Flider also voted against voluntary participation in E-Verify, making Flider one of only eight House members to vote against SB 1133 (PA 96-623).

Rep. Flider also voted for former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s All Kids program, a taxpayer-funded program that provides state health insurance to children, regardless of immigration status (HB 806, PA 94-693).  In May, Auditor General William Holland released the results of an audit of the All Kids program, which indicated that 75 percent of enrollees were undocumented immigrants, at an annual cost of $55 million.

Decatur… Adam Brown, candidate for State Representative of the 101^st District, was endorsed today by the political arm of the National Federation of Independent Business /Illinois. Brown was joined by NFIB State Director Kim Maisch and local business owners at TCR Systems in Decatur to announce the endorsement.

“I am proud to receive the endorsement of the NFIB/Illinois SAFE Trust, the voice of small business in Illinois.  Our area has so much to offer potential employers. I look forward to working with NFIB to come up with new ways to encourage the growth of small businesses currently in our communities. We also must work together in order to attract new businesses to our area,” said Brown

“We are proud t support Adam Brown for state representative. Adam understands the needs of small businesses in Illinois,” said Maisch. “It’s been a very difficult economy for small businesses and we need representatives in Springfield who will support lower taxes, fewer regulations and policies designed to encourage growth and job creation. We have a lot of politicians who say they support small business, but their voting record proves otherwise. We need lawmakers who will stand up and fight for jobs and Adam is that person.”      

“After decades of failed economic policies, Illinois has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, ranking 48th among the 50 states in job creation and economic performance.  In the last year alone, Illinois has lost over 237,000 jobs. We need to work to ensure small businesses are able to prosper in our communities,” said Brown.

Decatur –  Adam Brown, the Republican candidate for State Representative in the 101^st District, is denouncing incumbent Rep. Bob Flider’s negative smear campaign. 

Brown was attacked yesterday with a misleading, negative mail piece paid for by the Democratic Party of Illinois, which is chaired by House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago).  Flider’s attack piece is the first negative mailing in the current campaign between eight-year incumbent Rep. Bob Flider and Adam Brown.

“Eight years of Bob Flider and his Chicago bosses have not been good for the people of Illinois,” Brown said.  “Illinois has a $13 billion budget deficit, a record amount of debt and double-digit unemployment.  Since my opponent cannot run on his record of failure, Bob Flider has once again resorted to negative, personal attacks.”

As a Decatur City Councilman, Adam Brown has voted on numerous city contracts for road maintenance and infrastructure improvements.  The Chicago Democrats accuse Brown of accepting campaign cash from a government contractor.  The reality is that Brown accepted a single $250 contribution from the contractor in question and only after announcing his run for the State House.  Rep. Bob Flider has accepted nine campaign contributions totaling $2,310 from that same contractor.  Even Chicago Democrat Speaker Mike Madigan has accepted campaign contributions from the same contractor that he is now using as the basis for the attack on Brown.

“Not only is Bob Flider a hypocrite, but he’s a dirty campaigner who has taken a million dollars from Speaker Madigan to smear good people like Scot England, Dick Cain and now me,” said Brown.  “The voters of the 101^st District have had enough of the Chicago Machine’s smear campaigns.  I am confident they will see through Flider’s misleading attacks.”

Brown was joined by State Representative Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth), who highlighted Bob Flider’s history of negative personal attacks on Scot England and Dick Cain.

“Bob Flider is the same politician who spent $600,000 on a character assassination campaign against Scot England in 2004,” Mitchell said.  “Flider engulfed the airwaves with personal attack ads morphing Scot England into Weird Al.  Using Mike Madigan’s money, Flider outspent England more than 10 to 1.  Two years later, he spent another half-million dollars of Chicago money to outright lie about Dick Cain, accusing a local restaurant owner of sending jobs to China.  It’s disgusting how low Bob Flider will go to hold on as just another cog in Mike Madigan’s wheel of power.”

Decatur… Adam Brown, the Republican candidate for State Representative in the 101^st District, is raising questions about incumbent Rep. Bob Flider’s lack of action on the state’s budget crisis.

Flider chairs a House budget task force that met just three times in the past year.  Flider’s task force has issued no recommendations regarding spending cuts or fiscal reforms.

“Illinois has a $13 billion budget deficit, yet Bob Flider and his Democrat allies in Springfield keep spending like there’s no tomorrow,” Brown said.  “Flider’s do-nothing task force failed to make even one recommendation on how to address this budget crisis.  Bob Flider couldn’t come up with one spending cut?  The taxpayers deserve better than that.”

Incumbent Rep. Bob Flider announced the creation of his budget task force more than a year ago.  According to official House records, Flider’s task force met just three times, with the last meeting taking place in February.  The task force issued no report or recommendations.

When Flider’s task force was announced, the Herald & Review issued an editorial entitled “Task force talk changes nothing.”  The editorial was skeptical of Flider’s motive and questioned whether the task force would accomplish anything.

While the effort by the Mount Zion Democrat might be admirable, taxpayers should be skeptical that there will be any results. […]

Why be skeptical?

These are the same legislators who have approved budgets for the past several years that were structurally out of balance.  This group of legislators has borrowed from the state’s pension funds and put off payments to state vendors to make previous budgets look balanced.

This is also the same group that failed to take any concrete action on the current budget deficit.  The General Assembly, controlled by Democrats, failed to approve any meaningful revenue increase or cost reductions to address the state’s huge budget deficit. […]

So, taxpayers can be pardoned for asking a simple question: “What is a task force made up of the politicians who created this problem and then failed to solve it, really going to accomplish?”

Flider’s task force is in danger of being one of those government initiatives that appears to be addressing an issue without really doing anything.

Herald & Review, August 6, 2009

Councilman Brown agreed with the conclusions reached in the Herald & Review editorial.

“Flider’s task force accomplished nothing,” Brown said.  “The same people who got us into this mess cannot be trusted to get us out of it.  It’s time to bring accountability back to Springfield.  Taxpayers have had enough of the over-taxing, over-spending and over-borrowing of the ruling Democrats.  Enough is enough!”

DECATUR – Adam Brown, the Republican candidate for State Representative in the 101^st District, releases the following statement on the resignation of Michael Randle, Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

“Director Randle announced his resignation yesterday. My question is what took so long? Acting under Governor Quinn’s instructions, Randle released over 1,700 inmates early, many of whom were convicted of violent crimes. The early release program was a spectacular failure which endangered the safety of the citizens of Illinois. Once released, many of these criminals went on to commit additional crimes.

This is another example of the failed policies of Governor Quinn and his legislative allies. Illinois citizens were put in danger by the early release program and it took almost nine months for Randle to step down after news of the program broke. Quinn should have shown real leadership and removed Randle immediately after the finding out about this failed program.

This fall we have the opportunity to change Springfield. We can and must put a stop to the failures of the entrenched politicians that control state government.  I look forward to working with new leaders to get Illinois back on track.”