John Laesch. Carol Ammons in the 103rd.

Carol Ammons is the pro-pension, pro-labor candidate in the March 18th Democratic Primary.

Fred,

I recently wrote my friend David Johnson, a brother carpenter and Jobs With Justice activist from Champaign-Urbana.  The nature of my e-mail was to express disappointment in the Carpenters Union for backing Toni Berrios in the 39^th State Rep. race when we have a solid union candidate, Will Guzzardi, who will probably win the race.  I asked Johnson how the race for an open seat in the 103^rd was shaping up and it sounds an awful lot like Guzzardi vs. the Madigan smear machine in the 39th.

Johnson’s letter follows.

I live in the 103rd, which is more or less the city limits of Champaign and Urbana, which combined is on average a 60 % Dem / 40 % GOP district. So whoever wins the Dem primary is 95 % certain of wining the general election. 

The candidates are Sam Rosenberg (the Madigoon) vs. Carol Ammons (the progressive).

Sam Rosenberg came out of nowhere. Nobody in the community or the local Dem Party had ever heard of him. It turns out that he is related to the States Attorney (Julia Rietz ) whose maiden name is Rosenberg.

Rosenberg is a 28 year old corporate attorney originally from Chicago.

He worked previously for Mayor Daley’s office and then attended law school at the U of I  in Urbana. He then worked for the Cook County States Attorneys office and then the Champaign County State Attorneys office under Julia Rietz before he was hired by a Champaign Law firm.

Quite a resume considering the guy is only 28 years old, which indicates that his family must be connected to the Chicago Dem Machine.

Rosenberg wants to cut corporate taxes in half and opposes a $ 15 min. wage. He thinks $ 10.00 is good enough for a min. wage and that $15/hr would be “bad” for businesses.

He has a full time Staffer from Madigan’s office helping him and has received thousands of dollars in support from Madigan as well for big fancy mailings that he is sending in the mail about twice a week.

He has very few yard signs and the people who are going door to door for him all look like college students who are probably being paid. I do know that he is paying people to make phone calls.

Carol Ammons is an African-American Woman about 40 years old. For the last ten years her and her husband Aaron ( who works at the U of I as a Custodian and is a job site Union Steward in SEIU ) have been active in an organization they helped create, Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice. This organization has been one of the most dynamic grassroots activist organizations in Champaign Urbana over the years which has a shoe string budget and no paid staff. They stopped the Urbana and Champaign police from getting tasers, mobilized and fought for African Americans who have been wrongfully arrested and beaten by the police, as well as part of the Occupy Movement in 2011 and briefly occupied a local Chase Bank along with us in Central Illinois JWJ.

Every year in October they have a “Unity March” which attracts 300 – 500 people as participants. They most recently stopped the building of a new county jail, and are advocating for an alternative to incarceration facility of some type to be built.

Carol has worked mainly for non-profit organizations in social services and has served 5-years on the Champaign County Board and currently for the last two years on the Urbana City Council.

She is very active in the local Dem Party, but the right-wing of the local Dem party hates her, in particular the States Attorney and the police.

Carol opposes any corporate tax breaks unless there are specific conditions attached to provide full-time above living wage jobs and opposes privatized charter schools.

She supports a $ 15 Min. wage, a progressive income tax, strict regulations on protecting a community’s water supply, A Medicare for All healthcare system for Illinois, and supports legalizing marijuana. And of course she is against any and all “Right to Work” laws.

Carol has received the endorsements of SEIU, IFT, Graduate Employees Union (GEO), AFSCME, Champaign County AFL-CIO, and the Illinois Independent Voters organization.

Rosenberg received endorsements from the State AFL-CIO, despite arguments made by the local AFL-CIO in favor of Carol. He also received endorsements from the Central Illinois Building Trades and because of that most rank and file members of the Building Trades Unions are very angry because the endorsement of Rosenberg was made without either candidate coming to any union meetings.  Union members had no opportunity to hear or speak on behalf of either candidate.

This is ironic because when Carol was on the county board, she fought hard and won against republicans and a few corporate democrats who wanted to build a few county projects non-Union.

It has been an all out war between Rosenberg and his money and Madigan’s help and Ammon’s small army of volunteers and very little money.

The local corporate dems have also conducted a smear campaign of disinformation against her, which includes both Mayors of Champaign and Urbana and Naomi Jacobsen our current State Rep., which the local right-wing republican news paper ( The News Gazette ) is all to happy to cover and slant against Carol.

If Carol wins this she will be a VERY excellent ally for JWJ and all Working people. I haven’t been involved in a political campaign for well over ten years and now I am in up to my neck helping Carol.  That is how strongly I feel about her. I have known her and her husband for about eleven years so I know and have seen what they are all about.

Sorry for the long e-mail but this in my opinion is a crucial battle which I hope becomes a trend in other districts in Illinois in the Dem primaries. To get working people to run against corporate democrats and win.

David Johnson

Champaign, IL