ROCKFORD – Warm food and warm smiles combated the below-freezing wind Thursday night outside the Rockford campaign headquarters of Blair Hull, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.

But combat was not the topic of Hull’s speech to the small but full room of supporters. Instead, he discussed campaign issues after being introduced by Michael Goral, the Rockford Township supervisor.

Hull touched briefly on his dislike of special interest groups before diving into a promise of reduced health care costs.

“If I can’t get a bill passed that lowers health care [costs], I won’t run for re-election,” Hull said.

After chatting with campaign staffers and snacking on buffalo wings, some supporters reacted favorably to Hull’s comments on education in Illinois with hoots and hollers.

“[Education] should not depend on your ZIP code,” Hull said. He pointed out that Illinois is 49th in the nation in public school funding disparity and described the “savage inequalities” between the more affluent and the poorer schools.

Higher education was another campaign issue Hull mentioned – particularly his support of Pell Grants. He said that when he went to a public institution, classes cost $76 a semester.

“Public education is just like private education was then,” Hull said as he described the change in tuition from the time he went to school to today.

Hull went to school on the Montgomery G.I. Bill. He said 250,000 Illinois college-age adults – 100,000 in Chicago alone – are neither in school nor employed.

Those who do not have jobs and are not in school could find jobs through the military, Hull said.

“Rockford is suffering more than others,” Hull said of local unemployment which he identified as “double-digit unemployment.” He said that as a senator, he would work to expand labor groups’ influence in world trade.

Hull said he blamed President Bush for unemployment.

“George Bush has misled us in creating jobs just as he has misled us in going to Iraq,” Hull said.