Candidates for State Senate, State Representative Discuss Issues During Tuesday Forum

The candidates for state senate and state representative in Effingham County discussed issues during a forum held Tuesday night.

(FROM LEFT, DARREN BAILEY, JEFFREY FLEMING, DAVE SEILER, BLAINE WILHOUR, MODERATOR ERIC ZELLER, ANDY HIRES, ADAM NIEMERG AND JOHN SPENCER)

The evening was sponsored by the Effingham County Chamber of Commerce and Effingham County Farm Bureau and took place at the Effingham Elks Lodge. Eric Zeller of Effingham Opthalmology Associates served as moderator.

Although there are only two primary races for legislative seats, all candidates running attended and participated.

The contested races are the Republican primary race in the 55th Senate District, where incumbent Dale Righter of Mattoon is not seeking another term, and the 109th House District, where the seat is being vacated since Darren Bailey of Xenia is running for Righter's seat. Olney attorney Jeffrey Fleming is battling Bailey for the nomination, while Adam Niemerg of Dieterich and Andy Hires of Olney are vying for the nomination in the 109th.

Also participating, though, were the candidates for the 107th House seat, Republican incumbent Blaine Wilhour of Beecher City and Democrat Dave Seiler of Effingham, and John Spencer of Louisville, seeking the Democrat nomination for the 109th House seat.

The candidate were asked for their thoughts on why they are the best candidate; whether or not the legislature is polarized; what they could do to bring support for our area; the progressive income tax, or fair tax; how to stop people from leaving Illinois; and how to achieve pension reform. Term limits were a topic, as was a way to prevent the state from going bankrupt.

The complete forum will be up on our website this morning.