I am a young small businessman, a multi-tour Iraq veteran, a brand new father and a commuting NIU student. I pay close attention to our elected leaders and the votes they take, and I have been getting very frustrated with Congressman Bill Foster.

While in Iraq I e-mailed him several times. He is on the House Financial Services Committee, but he would not respond to e-mails about the financial bill or the bailouts. On military issues I got pointless form letter responses, and he refused to hold town halls over health care (or anything), which meant no coverage of his positions. For a deployed soldier, that meant zero representation. It meant roughly the same thing for people back home, too.

Now, as a business owner, I am dealing with expensive new mandates with no help. Why was Bill Foster focusing on new entitlements when our existing ones are failing financially? Will Social Security even be around when I retire? He claims his big focus is on jobs. Nonsense. I know about what it takes to add jobs–I’ve done it!–and I know Rep. Foster was focusing on nothing of the sort.

While deployed I began to watch Randy Hultgren, Foster’s opponent. After looking at his voting record, then coming home and meeting him, I became a big supporter. Randy will be the kind of fiscally responsible, jobs-focused representative that Foster failed to be. He is about liberty and empowerment, and I respect that. Please, vote for Randy Hultgren for Congress!

Liandro Arellano

Transfer student

Undecided major