Attorney General Candidate

Questions & Answers

What is the importance of the Illinois Attorney General to your constituents in Champaign County?

Illinois' Attorney General has three primary roles, in my view: to protect, represent and advocate. The Attorney General protects the people of Illinois by aggressively pursuing consumer protection actions, appropriately distributing crime victims' assistance resources to benefit those who need them most, going after rogue corporations that violate Illinois labor laws and fighting back against federal overreach when it threatens the rights of Illinois residents. The AG must ably represent the State of Illinois in civil matters in which it is the defendant or plaintiff. The Attorney General also interprets the law and the state constitution when the governor and General Assembly request legal opinions. Finally, the position of top lawyer and statewide elected official affords the AG a crucial bully pulpit to advocate for criminal justice reform, open government and other policies that benefit the people of Illinois and make justice more accessible and even-handed in this state.

Drawing on my law career, in which I handled a wide variety of cases from workers' compensation to child welfare to criminal proceedings, and my 13 years in the Illinois Senate, I will have the experience and acumen to hit the ground running on my first day as Attorney General. I am prepared to serve the people of Champaign County and all of Illinois through effective consumer protection, representation and advocacy. In particular, the years I spent serving as counsel to the City Colleges of Chicago, as well as my work on related issues in the General Assembly, has given me a valuable perspective on Illinois higher education and the needs of communities that support and rely on colleges and universities. I will continue to sound the alarm for adequate funding for state-run universities and the MAP grants that make them more accessible to Illinois students. Additionally, I will use my position to fight against the Trump administration's attempts to strip protections from LGBTQ students and victims of campus sexual assault and to discourage international students from studying in the U.S. through draconian travel and immigration restrictions. I will continue the current Attorney General's practice of taking on institutions that take financial advantage of students and workers burdened with student loan debt.

Beyond higher education, I am committed to standing up for ordinary Illinoisans who work hard to try to make ends meet at a time when income inequality is growing and many residents are not reaping the benefits of equal protection under the law. Many Illinois voters have lost faith in our system of government and rightly demand greater openness and access. As Attorney General, I can step into these gaps as advocate - in court, vis-à-vis the General Assembly and in the public square. The Attorney General is uniquely positioned to protect consumers from excessive utility rates, from excessive fees charged by financial institutions, from workplace rights violations, from fraudulent schemes and from the lasting trauma of having been the victim of a crime. It would be an honor to work for Champaign County residents and all Illinoisans in this capacity.

Why are you qualified to be Illinois Attorney General?

During my 24 years of practicing law and 13 years in the state Senate, I have been involved in a wide variety of law and policy issues related to the duties of the Attorney General's office, including voting rights, workers' rights, criminal justice reform, public safety, consumer protection, education, health care access, the environment, the rights of domestic violence and sexual assault victims and the protection of working families. I have served as a prosecutor, practiced education and health law, represented workers in labor and employment cases, represented those falsely accused of crimes and taken on civil rights cases. While serving in the General Assembly, I actively advanced policies such as the abolition of the death penalty, comprehensive law enforcement reform, sentencing reform, protections for victims of domestic violence and limits on excessive payroll debit card fees. With this background, I am uniquely qualified to transition from legislating to prosecuting, advocating and enforcing as the state's Attorney General. In particular, my experience crafting and passing criminal justice reform legislation will allow me to use the office of Attorney General to continue making Illinois' justice system more equitable and effective. My track record speaks for itself and for my ability to handle threats facing this state and its people as they arise.

What is a key policy difference between you and your Primary Opponent[s]?

I’m a proud democrat. But I have developed a reputation of working across the aisle to get things done on a broad range of issues. I think that too often partisan divide and regional divide prevents us from advancing good policy that everybody knows is right. When it comes down to policy making we should be able to speak across the aisle, which I have done for the past 13 years in the legislature. On my first day at the Capitol, my predecessor Barack Obama pulled me into his office and advised me to spend some time with people from other parts of the state and on the other side of the aisle. He warned me not to assume that each party necessarily thinks differently about every issue and told me that getting to know all of my colleagues both socially and professionally - Republican and Democrat alike - would benefit me when I least expected it.

I’ve followed that advice and it’s been useful on a variety of issue – especially when negotiating criminal justice reform, workers' compensation reform and the voting rights act.

Is there anything else you would like to say to an undecided voter in Champaign County?

What distinguishes me from my opponents is my strong and public track record on the policy issues for which the Attorney General takes legal and advocacy responsibility. This experience will allow me to go straight to work once sworn in, and it will prepare me to handle the new threats facing Illinoisans from many directions, including federal threats to health care access, immigrant and refugee rights, voting rights and protections for victims of sexual assault.

To know what I will do as Attorney General, one needs only to look at my record. I will advance criminal justice reform as I have done in the General Assembly, I will protect the rights of crime victims as I did while in the General Assembly and as an attorney, and I will fight for working families as I have throughout my career.

Northside Democracy For America, a group from Chicago, hosted an Illinois Attorney General Forum

Watch the full video: here.