By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

With the recent primary election and decisions made for the November general election, State Senator Jason Barickman is reflecting on the results.

Barickman, who won the Republican nomination for his seat, said he’s expecting negative campaigning between the gubernatorial candidates.

“The two major political parties in the state have chosen their nominees. As Republicans, we’re going to have Bruce Rauner as governor and democrats have chosen JB Pritzker, someone whom many of us have criticized as being Madigan’s handpicked candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor. That’s going to generate, I think, a lot of attention over the coming weeks and months. I think this is going to be a long and expensive campaign. Unfortunately, I think it will be overly negative. I think the public would like to hear what the candidates visions are for our state, but instead you’re going to hear a lot of negativity about the two people,” Barickman said.

Barickman said, nevertheless, he’s looking to have a balanced budget in time, unlike years past.

“I think there will be, and rightfully so, be a lot of attention on the budget. The governor came forward several weeks ago. He introduced his budget. I think that budget is balanced and it’s a good start. It includes some controversial measures that the legislature is going to have to give a hard look to and the hope that I have is some of us on the Republican side of the aisle can find some common ground with Democrats on the other side of the aisle and put together a full year balanced budget this spring. I think that is job number one. I think it’s incredibly important for us to do that and I think the people of the state really want to see us come together and get that done, so that’s what we need to do,” Barickman said.

Barickman was a guest on a recent Community Forum, which can be found at WJEZ.com.