Jeremy Karpen for IL 39th District State Representative
Green Party candidate Jeremy Karpen is facing off against three-term incumbent Maria Antonia ‘Toni’ Berrios in the 39th District for the Illinois House of Representatives.
For Green Party faithful, this is a no-brainier. As a life-long Democrat, however, I also believe Berrios needs to go.
Here’s the deal: She’s a good person and her heart’s in the right place, but she’s an installed representative - the nepotism of her father, Joe Berrios, earned her the seat - and she’s just not as effective as she ought to be.
Karpen has been endorsed by the Sun Times:
This Northwest Side district has been represented by Maria Antonia “Toni” Berrios since 2003, when her father, the Cook County Democratic chairman, installed her in the job. She’s inexperienced and not considered a productive legislator. We prefer Green candidate Jeremy Karpen, a therapist for troubled youth at a residential treatment center in Chicago. He strongly supports school finance reform and increased funding for mass transit and has some innovative ideas on campaign finance and electoral reform. [emphasis original]
I also wrote about the race for Gapers Block back in August.
In an ideal world, votes should always be for the candidate rather than the party - if the party hasn’t earned one’s loyalty with good candidates, voters should go elsewhere. In this case, I hope they flock to the Greens.
Put simply, Karpen deserves it; Berrios doesn’t.
[Disclosure: I am a friend of Karpen's and have been campaigning for him for the last couple days.]
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