By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News
The Livingston County Democrats held a “Get to know the candidates forum” Friday evening at the Pontiac Township High School auditorium, with all five democratic candidates running in the 16th Congressional district March primary.
Sara Dady, Murri Briel, Neill Mohammad, Chris Minelli and Nathan Arroyave were given four questions each beforehand and each had five minutes to answer, along with a two minute closing. Each talked to us at WJEZ afterwards to give listeners who may not have been able to make the forum a snippet of their platform.
Arroyave is a photojournalist and art broker from Rockford. He has roots in the 16th District and is ready to advocate for his constituents.
“When I do something, I go all at it. That is what I feel we are lacking in our representation. They’ll tell you what you want to hear, but are you really going to put what I like to call ‘boots on the ground’ and actually go do it? Our current representative will tell you what you want to hear, but is he really there? An advocate for your healthcare, and advocate for your workers rights, for equal rights? My argument is no, and that’s why I feel that voters should support my campaign and support me when this comes. This is just not something that I’m going to do by myself, it’s everybody. That’s someone I do believe I can be when it comes to that,” Arroyave said.
Briel lives in Joliet and helps victims of domestic violence. She says her platform is simple.
“I am one of you. I will fight because I know how. I believe every single person I’ve met is amazing and has phenomenal potential and together, we can do some amazing things,” Briel said.
Dady is an attorney from Rockford, specializing in Immigration Law. She says she will support people of the district in succeeding in life, from work to healthcare to equal rights.
“As a mother, a business owner and a volunteer in my community, I’m fully invested in the past, present and future of this district and I believe everyone in this district deserves the opportunity to succeed,” Dady said.
Minelli is an attorney from Ottawa. He admitted at the forum the election of President Trump is what pushed him to run for congress, and with that, to make many changes he feels are needed.
“My entire philosophy of government is people before politics. I want to bring representation back to the Illinois 16th. My biggest problem with a lot of current career politicians, including Adam Kinzinger, is he just doesn’t represent people. He represents special interests and quite frankly, I’m sick of it. I really want to represent the people of the district instead of special interests,” Minelli said.
Mohammad is a healthcare management consultant from Dekalb. He said the way he grew up lead to his successes and he wishes to keep those values afloat.
“The reason I’m running for congress, first and foremost, is to restore the American dream. I’m running as someone who grew up in a working class background, I grew up with not all of the finer things in life and necessarily all the advantages and the reason I’ve been able to be successful and the reason I’ve been able to lead the kind of life that now has me running for congress is because of the work other people have put in. Earlier generations fought for public schools. They fought for affordable public schools. They fought for investment in working families that allowed them to succeed. It’s those very things that are so much under attack and in disarray because of the Republican Party and that’s why I’m running, because we need to turn that around,” Mohammad said.
Currently, Republican Adam Kinzinger represents the 16th Congressional District.
