The candidates in the 52nd House District include incumbent Republican state Rep. Martin McLaughlin and Democratic challenger Mary Morgan. (Provided by candidates)
While incumbent state Rep. Martin McLaughlin said the state of Illinois needs to cut its spending, Democratic challenger Mary Morgan said she appreciates a balanced budget but doesn’t want cuts to come from education.
McLaughlin, a self described “numbers guy,” is finishing his first term after winning election in 2020, said he sees his role as calling out expense spending by the Democratic supermajority in Springfield. Morgan, by contrast, said she will fight to fund programs, including education.
Before becoming a state representative, McLaughlin was a pension fund manager and the village president of Barrington Hills for eight years. Morgan spent several decades working in various marketing and management positions for Motorola and later the Brightstar Corp., before she took a job as an administrative assistant in the curriculum office at Wauconda School District 118 in 2021.
“Springfield has a spending problem,” McLaughlin said, noting that Illinois is ranked last among states by Moody’s credit rating.
“They need outsiders like me to explain to them how debt and high property taxes hurt families,” McLaughlin said. “We won’t get government bailout money again. But we already spent that money in this year’s budget. Where is that money coming from in the next budget? Middle class taxpayers, unfortunately.”
While McLaughlin said most of the time that means generating public awareness of financial issues, McLaughlin said he’s proud of sponsoring House Bill 4772, which deals with design-build contracts – where a single contractor provides design and construction services – that could lower construction and engineering costs for county projects. It unanimously passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law in May.
“Doing that as a Republican in the supermajority Democrat chamber was not easy,” McLaughlin said. “It shows that I can get things done.”
While Morgan, who touts her own business acumen working in the wireless industry, agreed it was important for politicians to have some understanding of business principles, she doesn’t think that governments need to be run as a business.
Read more here.
Leave a Reply