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Rodger and Kathy’s Tax Returns
February 20, 2012Please see Rodger and Kathy’s Tax Returns posted below.
Rodger Cook Has Most 12th District Financial Support
February 18, 2012Freeburg, IL….Recently filed federal election financial reports show local voters
overwhelmingly love candidate Rodger Cook, the only Republican candidate born and
raised in Illinois’ 12th Congressional District. Cook raised more money from voters in
the district than the other GOP candidates combined, garnering 57% of all individual
contributions from IL-12.
“Residents of the 12th Congressional District want a candidate who has loved living here
and isn’t a political opportunist. They want someone who has a lifetime of commitment
to the area,” said Cook. “I’ve lived and worked in the 12th district all of my life, growing
up here, working here, raising a family here, and serving as a police officer and Mayor of
Belleville.”
“No matter how much an out-of-area candidate can dump into the race, money can’t buy
you love,” Cook joked.
According to the FEC reports, failed Lt. Gubernatorial Jason Plummer, who recently moved
into the district and signed a 6-month lease, raised nearly 90 percent from outsiders. In
contrast, Cook’s in-district funds constitute 85 percent of his total individual contributions.
Cook raised $16,700 from constituents, while Plummer only raised $12,450 from
constituents.
“Times are tight for constituents. It may not seem like much money, but that’s because the
residents of this district are struggling to make ends meet in a tough economy, that’s only
made worse by the President’s agenda,” said Cook. “That’s why we need a conservative
candidate who will stand up to this president and his big government policies.”
Cook to the President: “Stop putting politics before American jobs.”
February 18, 2012Belleville, IL….President Obama moved to block the Keystone XL Pipeline that
would transport oil from tar sands in Canada to the US. Underlying the Keystone
Project are many political implications. Rodger Cook, a candidate for the US House
in the 12th Congressional District of Illinois, sees the project as a source of many
much needed jobs in a struggling economy.
“Once again President Obama and his administration have put politics ahead of
what is best for this country and the American worker. Thousands of jobs and the
opportunity to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil has been put aside to
satisfy his left wing political base. Enough is enough!” replied Cook.
Rodger Cook sees reviving the economy as a central issue in his campaign, and
keeping the government from hindering job creation is important. The US Chamber
of Commerce determined that this project could create upwards of 250,000
jobs in the US. Southwestern Illinois could benefit tremendously from similar
projects related to coal mining. Developing the mining industry in the Illinois 12th
Congressional District, in addition to the Keystone Project, would help America
become energy independent.
Cook stated, “President Obama obviously has no interest in developing an energy
independent America that does not rely on Middle Eastern oil. We should be drilling
and mining at home, and working closely with North American allies like Canada.”
In addition to the economic and energy interests at stake, the Obama
Administration’s decision to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline will have foreign policy
implications.
“Stopping the Keystone Project affects job creation in our struggling economy, but
it also has implications in foreign policy. The last thing Americans want is for this
oil to end up someplace like China, and this may hurt our ties with ally Canada,” said
Cook.
‘Jobs are hard to find’: Voters want to hear how 12th District candidates plan to put people back to work
February 12, 2012Paula Hipskind, who is unemployed, wants the 12th Congressional District seat’s next occupant to know one thing.
“Jobs are hard to find, and it’s getting worse,” Hipskind said.
On a blustery afternoon last week, Hipskind, of Belleville, spoke with a reporter outside the Dollar Tree store in Bellevue Plaza in Belleville.
Hipskind, the mother of three grown children, pulled her jacket tight against the steady wind as she pondered the scarcity of decent jobs in St. Clair County, where unemployment hovers at 10.3 percent.
Is there anything she would like to tell the six candidates vying for the 12th District Republican and Democratic nominations in the March 20 primary?
“Just make it better for people to find jobs,” Hipskind said. “It just has to get better somehow.”
Hipskind speaks for plenty of voters in the 12th District, whose 12 counties — ranging from a sliver of Madison County at the northern edge and Alexander County in the extreme south — have posted a combined average jobless rate of about 9.8 percent, mirroring the statewide average as of December, state figures show.
The contenders — three Democrats and three Republicans — are asking voters to choose them to replace U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, who is stepping down as the district congressman after 23 years.
The six candidates offer plenty of ideas for fixing the 12th District’s economy, as well as the state’s and nation’s — prescriptions aimed at boosting job growth after a recession that’s hit young people the hardest.
Nationwide, the employment rate for young workers has hit its lowest ebb in 60 years. Just 54 percent of adults ages 18 to 24 have a job, according to a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.
These numbers resonate for Hipskind. Her 21-year-old daughter is stuck working a low-paying part-time job at a roller rink, she said.
“I always keep telling her to find something better somewhere,” Hipskind said. “But there aren’t any better jobs.”
For Chris Miller, a Democrat from Carbondale, the key to creating new jobs will lie in stitching together a comprehensive energy strategy for the 12th District, a blueprint that encompasses everything from plans for exploiting fossil fuels such natural gas and coal, to developing renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
This plan also would mean reopening Southern Illinois coal mines, according to Miller, a U.S. Army veteran who saw combat while stationed in Iraq.
“But I would like to see it done in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Miller, who’s worked retail jobs after leaving the Army.
Besides Miller, the other candidates in the Democratic primary are Brad Harriman, of O’Fallon, and Ken Wiezer, of Granite City.
The GOP primary candidates are Jason Plummer, of Fairview Heights, Rodger Cook, of St. Libory, and Theresa Kormos, of O’Fallon.
Harriman, who emphasizes his working-class roots, said the biggest thing he could do as a member of Congress to boost 12th District hiring would be to push for federal dollars to repair and build infrastructure, such as roads and bridges.
A focus “on infrastructure and the creation of manufacturing jobs” are the two best ways to combat unemployment, Harriman said.
In addition, Harriman is pushing for passage of the American Jobs Act, a Democratic-sponsored stimulus measure that aims to boost local government hiring through infrastructure construction and tax credits for companies that hire the long-term unemployed.
It also would’ve added an estimated $447 billion to the federal deficit during the next decade. The bill, despite President Barack Obama’s support, failed to get voted out of either the Senate or the House.
Plummer said the key to creating new jobs in the 12th District lies with shrinking the size of federal government, a move that would cut taxes for everyone and jump-start job creation.
“I’m in favor of everybody having lower taxes and a more transparent tax code,” said Plummer, who is from a wealthy Edwardsville family with extensive real estate holdings. “I just think you need to shrink the size and scope of government.”
Cook said the biggest thing to boost hiring in the 12th U.S. House District would be to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Obama signed into law in March 2010.
Derided by Cook and other critics as “Obamacare,” the law’s many regulations leave business owners with “no clue as to what impact or what cost that is going to have on their hiring of employees,” Cook said. “It has stopped hiring cold.”
As with Congressional races elsewhere across America, the fault line between Democrats and Republicans in the 12th District race centers on the issue of tax cuts, specifically the question of whether to extend the series of tax cuts passed under former President George W. Bush.
If Congress does nothing, the 2001, 2003 and 2006 tax cuts that Bush signed into law will expire at the end of December.
If those cuts are allowed to expire, most Americans’ tax bills would shoot up by an average of $1,540 per household in the first year. The average annual tax increase for 12th District households would be $1,392, according to the Tax Foundation of Washington, D.C.
If the Bush-era tax cuts are extended, however, they would reduce federal revenues by an estimated $3.8 trillion during the next decade, while adding about $655 billion in debt service costs, for a total fiscal whammy of $4.4 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, of Washington, D.C.
Consequently, the tax cuts’ extension will be the largest single contributor by 2019 to the nation’s public debt, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Josh Mehring, a union construction worker from Columbia, is all for extending the tax cuts for most American workers, but ending them for taxpayers earning $250,000 or more per year.
Allowing the tax cuts to continue for the wealthiest Americas would continue to widen the income equality gap in America, according to Mehring, a member of Laborers Local 196.
“It’s sad to see the middle class diminishing,” Mehring said. “And that’s the backbone of America.”
Harriman, a Democrat who’s spent more than three decades as a school teacher, coach and administrator, wants the tax cuts to continue. But he draws the line at “millionaires and billionaires, who need to pay their fair share,” he said.
Harriman declined to define the income cutoff point for those who should receive the tax cuts.
“I guess you could say I haven’t drawn the line,” he said.
Wiezer, a retired carpenter, wants the tax cuts to expire for all Americans.
“Let the tax credits expire? Yes! But, use these same taxable credits and deductions for improvement and development of their business and industry,” Wiezer said. “Businesses will still be in control on how and why their money is spent and invested.”
Kormos, a psychiatric nurse for more than 30 years, wants the Bush era tax cuts extended for all Americans for the indefinite future — until reforms to the federal tax code close most loopholes and make the code more transparent.
“It’s been shown that the lower taxes are on businesses and individuals, they are more prosperous,” Kormos said. “I want to see individual businesses and families prosper. And I believe the best way to do that is by tax cuts and eventually by just reforming the tax system.”
Cook, who in the mid-1990s served as Belleville’s mayor, cited his experience in the banking sector since leaving office as the source for his belief the tax cuts should be made permanent.
Coupling the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts with a dramatic reduction in federal regulations would give the economy a huge boost, according to Cook.
“We take some these burdensome regulations off of small businesses, get government out of the way, then our economy will take off and we’ll start creating jobs, put people back to work,” Cook said. “It’s just as simple as that.”
Voters in 12th District Have a Lot on Their Mind
February 6, 2012By Mike Fitzgerald in the Belleville News-Democrat
J.R.’s Place is more than a cafe. It’s the social lifeline and nerve center for this village of about 2,000 people.
Fresh-baked pies behind a glass display case. Patrons in hunting camo and work boots. A dry erase board lists lunch specials.
And the political talk flows like the coffee — strong and plentiful.
Which makes a sort of karmic sense. After all, the memorial marking the pivotal third Lincoln-Douglas debate, which took place on a sweltering September day in Jonesboro in 1858, stands a few blocks north of the cafe.
Like other regulars at J.R.’s, Ron Garner worries about the big problems facing Union County, as well as the rest of Southern Illinois and the nation.
These problems — high unemployment, a worsening state fiscal mess, the astronomical national debt, gridlock paralyzing Congress — could spin out of control, according to Garner, a retired construction supervisor from nearby Anna.
“The Democrats can’t always be right and the Republicans can’t all be wrong, and vice versa,” said Garner, who considers himself loyal Democrat. “If they don’t sit down and get this straightened out our country is in terrible shape.”
The scarcity of jobs in Union County is a big concern for Garner, 70, just as it is for waitress Halie Pearl, 26, also of Anna.
Even though unemployment is steadily falling across the land, with the national rate dropping to a three-year low of 8.3 percent as of Friday, the local employment picture looks bleak, Pearl said.
“I’m real scared. There’s no jobs around here,” Pearl said. “I won’t have a retirement.”
Garner and Pearl live two hours’ drive south of Belleville, deep in the “Little Egypt” region of Southern Illinois and a short drive north of the Kentucky border.
But the decisions that Garner, Pearl and their neighbors make in the Nov. 6 general election will play a pivotal role in choosing the 12th U.S. House seat’s next occupant.
Since World War II, St. Clair County and the region have been represented by only two men in Congress, the most recent being U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, who is calling it quits after 23 years.
This remarkable streak depended in large part on the fact that Costello and his predecessor — the late U.S. Rep. Mel Price, a Democrat who served in Congress for 44 years — could depend on the reliable bloc of Democratic votes found deep in Southern Illinois because of coal industry’s unionized workers.
The 12th District has a nearly 81 percent white population, 16 percent black population and the percentage of Hispanics is less than 2 percent, U.S. Census figures show.
In voting in presidential races going back to 2000, the Democratic candidates — whether it was Barack Obama, John Kerry or Al Gore — won 54 percent, 52 percent and 53 percent, respectively, of district votes.
But the days of unchallenged Democratic power are fading. And that means the race for the 12th District has never been more competitive — or ripe for a Republican victory this fall, according to John Jackson, a professor emeritus of political science at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Jackson has spent years studying voter attitudes in Southern Illinois and he sees district voters feeling increasingly alienated from the federal government — a trend with potentially big implications for Election Day in the 12th Congressional District.
The region’s growing anti-government attitudes, a legacy of its long kinship to the Deep South, coupled with the decline of coal industry jobs in the region, mean, “It’s going to make the Democrat candidate have to hustle to try and disentangle all that,” Jackson said. “It’s going to make it easier for the Republican to do the sort of knee-jerk ‘I hate the federal government, I want to drown it in the bathtub.’”
What’s the role of government?
To get a sense of voter attitudes in Southern Illinois as the March 20 GOP and Democratic primaries approach, a News-Democrat reporter and photographer last week took a road trip from Belleville, heading south along the undulating ribbon of highway that marks Illinois 3.
Jonesboro, which is about 100 miles southeast of Belleville, seemed as good a place as any to start because of the Lincoln-Douglas debate that took place there nearly 154 years ago.
Then, as now, the nation seemed poised at a crossroads. Then, as now, Congress was deeply divided, to the point it seemed incapable of dealing with the most pressing problems of the day. And then, as now, Congress was held in low regard by the general public.
One central issue tethers the politics of 2012 to 1858, according to Jackson.
“That whole thing about still trying to settle the role of the federal government and the role of the state government — that’s what the Civil War was all about,” he said.
Jonesboro also symbolizes the region’s strong ties to the Old South dating back many decades, when white settlers migrated northward from the backwoods of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Indeed, Little Egypt’s well-known Southern sympathies were the main reason U.S. Senate candidate Stephen A. Douglas invited opponent Abraham Lincoln on Sept. 15, 1858, to have their third debate here — so Douglas could trick Lincoln into making anti-slavery remarks before a hostile, raucous crowd.
As a result of these ties to Dixie, Southern Illinois voters adhere to strong patriotic values, including deep respect for the American military, Jackson said.
“Yet they hate the federal government,” Jackson said, “and that disconnect is a mark of the Southern political culture that I think overlaps into Southern Illinois.”
Republican candidates “will mine that rich vein of alienation, no question about it,” Jackson said. “It’s easier to mine that vein of alienation that’s reinforced 24-hours a day.”
This sense of alienation comes out loud and clear with Jim Linson, of Anna.
At J.R.’s Place, he sat with friends a few tables over from Garner. Proudly wearing a baseball cap bearing the letters “U.S.M.C.,” Linson, who served in the Marine Corps in the mid 1950s, couldn’t wait to weigh in on the evils of the federal government.
“Let me tell you something,” Linson said. “I’m 75 years old, and I have never seen such a mess as the country is in now. We can’t keep spending more than we’re making. Now they’re going to balance the budget on the backs of the old people? That’s BS.”
Seated a few tables over from Linson, Becky Livesay, of Anna, described herself as a Republican. Livesay said she planned to vote for Republican Rodger Cook, the former Belleville mayor, for the 12th District seat.
“He’s for getting jobs and he’s also for less dependence on the government,” Livesay said. “People relying on themselves and people supporting the community and helping people who need help.”
‘Everybody has problems around here’
If the Great Recession is lifting — and that’s a far from unanimous opinion — it doesn’t mean people in the 12th District believe they’re out of the financial woods, not yet anyway.
These voters worry about jobs and the economy, and their unease extends to their children’s futures.
An hour’s drive north of Jonesboro, up Illinois 3, sits the river city of Chester, whose economic mainstay is Menard Correctional Center, which houses more than 3,600 inmates and employs more than 850 workers.
Not far from the prison, off Illinois 3, is Rozier’s Country Market, a grocery store where anxieties about the economy weighed on the minds of employees and customers alike.
“They’re worried about if there are going to be any future jobs, and raising their families,” said Tammy Juenger, 52, a cashier at the store for the past four years. “Sometimes you hear them say with all the prices going up foodwise and gasolinewise, they complain about that.”
Juenger said she did not know enough about the six candidates running in the 12th District primaries to have a preference at this point.
But if she could speak to them, she’d tell them how she and her husband worry about what the future holds for her two granddaughters and “how things will be when they grow up, whether they can afford to buy things, or have a family of their own,” Juenger said.
Natasha Lang, 20, a Rozier’s customer, also could not cite a preference for the March 20 primary.
A stay-at-home mom with two young sons, ages 18 months and 4 months old, Lang said what concerns her most is scarcity of jobs in Chester.
“Everybody has problems around here. It’s hard,” she said. “Nothing lasts around here. It’s great for a minute. But if you open a restaurant, nobody can afford to keep going.”
Twenty-four miles north of Chester, just off of Illinois 3, stands Twila’s Flower Shop, a Red Bud business that opened five years ago.
While the economy looks like it’s improving for some Red Bud businesses, times are still tight for hers, said store owner Twila Schulte.
As for the recession, “we are actually starting to feel it more,” she said. “I’m struggling to stay above is all I’m doing.”
A few blocks away, at Keil’s Pharmacy in Red Bud, Abby Dingwell waited for a prescription to be filled.
Dingwell, a nurse at nearby Red Bud Regional Hospital, said she has not formed a preference yet for a 12th House District candidate.
“I would like them to clear everybody out, get rid of everybody and just start fresh,” said Dingwell, a mother of four.
Source: http://www.bnd.com/2012/02/05/2045775/we-the-people-of-the-12th-district.html#storylink=misearch
GOP hopefuls make cases for Costello’s seat
February 5, 2012
Geoffrey Ritter
Carbondale Times
Vying for a U.S. House seat suddenly in play on the 2012 map, three Republican candidates hoping to represent Carbondale and southwestern Illinois in Congress met Jan. 21 for a forum aimed squarely at tried-and-true conservatives.
In the hour-long forum Saturday evening at the Pavilion in Marion, Rodger Cook, Theresa Kormos and Jason Plummer all struck similar tones on issues of reducing the federal deficit, loosening business regulations imposed by agencies including the EPA and overturning “Obamacare,” the sweeping health care mandate championed by President Barack Obama and passed into law against vociferous Republican opposition. A fourth Republican candidate, Teri Newman, did not attend the forum.
Sponsored by the Shawnee Tea Party Patriots, the event served as a stage for candidates hoping to win back a Southern Illinois congressional district long held securely by Democratic Rep. Jerry Costello, who has represented the district since 1993 and announced late last year that he would not seek reelection.
Three Democrats also are running for the seat in the March 20 primary election, including Chris Miller of Carbondale, Kenneth Wiezer of Granite City and Brad Harriman of O’Fallon. In addition, Retha Daugherty of Carbondale is seeking the seat as an independent.
The event was an undiluted dose of tea party politics. Rodger Cook, a former mayor of Belleville, law enforcement officer and player for the former St. Louis Cardinals football team, repeatedly claimed ground as the most conservative choice in the race.
“I’m fed up,” Cook told the crowd of gathered voters. “I’m worried about my kids. I’m worried about my grandchildren. We need to send people to Washington to represent the people of the 12th District, not a party.”
Theresa Kormos of O’Fallon, a longtime nurse, is making her second run at the 12th District seat and stressed that reorganizing the nation’s tax code is one of her top priorities if she wins the seat. She said reducing the role of the federal government is imperative in maintaining personal freedoms.
“The federal government is growing too big, and they are becoming too powerful,” Kormos said.
Plummer, a product of Fairview Heights who serves as vice president of his family’s lumber business and ran for state lieutenant governor in 2010, said residents of Southern Illinois have a lot at stake in the coming election cycle.
“We’re struggling as a whole nationally, but Illinois has been struggling a lot longer than just the recession we’ve been going through lately,” Plummer said. “Illinois is struggling because of poor public policy.”
On the issues
During the forum, which lasted just short of an hour, the candidates touched on a range of topics, although there were few contrasts offered among a field vying for conservative votes in a partisan primary.
Not surprisingly, economic issues took center stage, with the candidates arguing in favor reduced funding to public agencies and programs, loosened restrictions on environmental regulations and a rewritten tax code as means toward reviving the sluggish economy and confronting the substantial federal deficit. Most of all, they agreed, government needs to get out of the way of recovery.
“The government is never responsible for job creation, but they do need to change the environment to allow businesses to grow and entrepreneurs to create new jobs, such as changing the tax code, getting rid of overregulation from the EPA, getting the government out of the way,” Kormos said. “The federal government always makes things worse.”
The government made the recent economic downturn worse, the candidates argued, by issuing bailouts to the auto industry and economic institutions. Cook, who made strides to define himself as the most purely conservative candidate on the stage, called the bailouts “absolutely crazy” and said the marketplace needs to be free for businesses to rise and fall on their own merits.
“The bailouts to the large Wall Street banks, the bailout of the auto companies is absolutely crazy,” Cook said. “This is a free-market economy. It depends who you are in this administration, who they’re going to take care of. We need to get government out of the free market and let businesses rise and fall on their own.”
Cook also called the EPA “out of control” and contended the federal government currently is being run by “left-wing wackos.” Plummer struck a similar tone, saying that environmental regulations imposed by the EPA makes it more difficult for American businesses to compete globally. In fact, he said, the EPA now far exceeds its mandate.
“This administration makes it harder to compete with folks,” Plummer said. “When you tell farmers you’re going to regulate how much dust their tractors can kick up when they’re combining a field, I think clearly they’ve gotten a little too big for their britches, and we need politicians who can rein them in. I aim to do that.”
The candidates all expressed support for expanding domestic oil production as a way of increasing American jobs and providing support to the economy, and all said that increased coal mining in Southern Illinois and further development of “clean-coal” technology could pay myriad dividends for the region.
“I would do all I can to support energy independence and repealing and fighting the EPA,” Kormos said.
The candidates touched on themes touted by Republicans on the national stage, including cutting illegal immigration and maintaining the integrity of gun rights.
“We have to enforce the federal laws we have on the books,” Cook said of immigration problems. “No amnesty. I don’t think that people who are here illegally that we ought to give them benefits.”
The candidates also sounded off on “Obamacare,” the sweeping health care overhaul proposed by Obama and ushered into law by a narrow Democratic majority that is expected to continue as a lightning rod in this year’s presidential and congressional elections. All the candidates said they opposed its passage and would make repealing the entire package a priority if elected.
“It’s unconstitutional what they’re doing, and if elected to Congress, I will go to Washington and repeal Obamacare because it is an infringement upon our states’ powers and us as people, our rights,” Cook said.
Kormos, citing her decades spent in the nursing profession, said the law has little to do with expanding health care coverage and more to do with consolidating liberal power.
“(Obamacare) is the worst piece of legislation ever in history,” Kormos said. “As a nurse for 34 years, I’ve seen a lot of changes, and it has nothing to do with patient care. It has everything to do with taking away power.”
Plummer contended that the continuing health care debate speaks to the theme that the federal government has grown far too large to be properly responsive to its citizens.
“We have to take government away from Washington, D.C., and we have to make it more local,” Plummer said. “I’d like to take more power from Springfield and bring it home to Williamson County, or Jackson County. The closer to you power is, the more responsive it will be.”
The road forward
Illinois, long considered a Democratic stronghold on the national stage, has showed cracks in its façade ever since Republican Mark Kirk won election to Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat in 2010. Now, with Costello stepping down after about 25 years in the House, a usually sleepy congressional district could attract some national media attention.
Organizers of last weekend’s event indicated another similar forum was in the works for the three Democratic candidates for the seat, but no concrete detail have been announced. So far in that race, Brad Harriman has garnered the endorsements of both Costello and the powerful union AFL-CIO.
The primary election to select one Democrat and one Republican for this fall’s election will be held March 20.
St. Louis Bloggers Recognize Cook Campaign
January 22, 2012Reboot Congress, a conservative political and economic blog located in St. Louis, Missouri, has noticed the work that the Cook Campaign has been doing over the past several months. They have posted a news release from the Cook Campaign where Rodger sends a clear message to the President: “Stop putting politics before American jobs.”
Rodger firmly believes that this proposed pipeline is one step closer towards securing one of his primary goals: making American energy independent. Cook said, ”We should be drilling and mining at home, and working closely with North American allies like Canada.”
Full blog post and press release can be read here: http://rebootcongress.blogspot.com/2012/01/il-republican-roger-cook-on-xl-pipeline.html
Rodger Cook on WSIL-TV
December 2, 2011By Fanna Haile-Selassie & Randy Livingston at WSIL/ABC
[For video, click on the link above.]
WSIL TV — He’s a former pro football player, police detective, Belleville mayor, and businessman. Now, Rodger Cook wants to be a Congressman.
“I’m the most conservative person in this race, both fiscally and socially,” says Cook.
The Republican is running for the 12th district seat being vacated by Jerry Costello.
“We need to send a big message to DC,” explains Cook. “We need to send people like me that don’t care about if you’re democrat or a republican. I’m a conservative.”
Cook has worn many hats in his nearly 55 years; first playing for the St. Louis Cardinals football team, then becoming a homicide detective. In 1993, Cook became the mayor of Belleville, then spent the rest of his years as a banking and consulting businessman.
“I’ve worked in small business. I’ve protected people as a police officer. I’ve worked and seen first hand what this government has done to small businesses,” Cook cites. “You know, I’ve lived it. I can go there and I have a position because I’ve lived it, not because I’ve read it.”
Cook supports domestic oil drilling and coal mining, especially in southern Illinois. Easing energy regulations is one of his top goals, along with growing jobs, and cutting taxes to stimulate the economy.
“You know what happens when you cut taxes? The people that earn it get to keep the money, spend it, invest it, create jobs with it,” he explains.
Cook’s goals fall very much in line with the Republican Party agenda. In fact, he believes like-minded conservatives will take over the 2012 election.
“We keep the house, take the senate, take the presidency, and we’re going to be able to do this and get this economy roaring in 2012. I believe that.”
When asked how he plans to handle Congress’s low approval rating and improve party politics, he says a republican take-over in Washington is the solution, just like the democrats had in 2008.
“Give us two years of that and watch what’s done,” Cook says. “That’s exactly what I’m telling people.”
Cook is running against Theresa Kormos, Terri Newman, and Jason Plummer for the 12th district republican nomination. On the democratic side, the candidates so far are Brad Harriman, Kenneth Wiezer, and Chris Miller. The primary election is March 20th.
Former Belleville Mayor Running for Congress
November 29, 2011By Dennis Grubaugh of The Telegraph
ALTON – A man who says he took on criminals and corruption both as a cop and a mayor now is setting his sights on the U.S. Congress.
“I took on the machine in Belleville. I did what they said couldn’t be done,” said Rodger Cook, a Republican now living in St. Libory, during a recent stop at The Telegraph.
Cook is running for the Republican nomination for Illinois’ 12th Congressional District, a post to be vacated after this term by longtime Democratic incumbent Jerry Costello of Belleville. At least five other people, members of both major parties, are showing an interest in the office.
Cook served a single term as Belleville mayor from 1993 to 1997. He said he refused to raise taxes and kept the budget balanced every year in office.
“We opened up the government to people. You couldn’t even speak at meetings, which were only 15 minutes long. Mine were two-and-a-half hours long,” he said.
“I spent years in public service because I believe each of us shares responsibility for our community. I wanted to help protect my neighbors – from crime, from corruption, from mismanagement. I think my experience will come in pretty handy in Washington,” he said in a statement released as part of his campaign.
Among his platforms are cutting taxes, getting off foreign oil, cutting regulations for business, and doing away with the national health care law implemented by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama last year.
Foremost, though, is getting a handle on spending. He notes that the incumbent “has brought home a lot of pork … but we’re going to have to reduce the size of government.”
Some of those decisions will run contrary to his own party, he said, but he believes, “You’re there to represent the people, not the party.”
From 1981 until 1993, when he ran for mayor, Cook was a Belleville police officer and detective and served for a time as a member of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis. He once was named Policeman of the Year and received several law enforcement commendations. He said he helped establish – with no tax money – the Belleville Teen Center, a drug-free center for students to gather.
He has spent the last 15 years as a consultant with small banks and businesses throughout Southern Illinois, advising them on compliance issues. He worked for a CPA compliance firm, Norman Bacus and Associates, until Sept. 30, when he quit to pursue his congressional bid.
“I know the jobs issue from every angle. I grew up in a single-parent home where we struggled to make ends meet. As a cop, I saw how a good job made a difference in keeping people out of trouble and families intact. As a businessman, I see how government heaps regulations on entrepreneurs and stymies job creation,” he said.
He and his wife, Kathy, have five children and five grandchildren.
He served on the Greater St. Louis Area Fellowship of Christian Athletes board and was a founding member of the related Metro East Fellowship, chairman for the past two years.
Read more: http://www.thetelegraph.com/articles/belleville-62563-mayor-people.html#ixzz1f6v6a8Ze
Cook to party bosses: “Let the voters decide. I will not step aside”
November 14, 2011Belleville, IL….At a hastily arranged meeting by nervous Republican Party leaders from Madison and St. Clair counties, Rodger Cook, candidate for the 12th Congressional District, said he would not bend to pressure to back out in favor of a favorite out-of-district candidate.
“I think the voters should decide who can best represent us in Washington,” said Cook, who was born and raised and has lived in the district all his life, “and I will not step aside.”
“I’m a conservative Republican. I know these folks are good people, but they must realize we have a great opportunity to elect someone who can help stop Washington’s out-of-control spending, fight the Obama agenda and can make sure government doesn’t get in the way of job-creating small businesses,” said Cook.
Cook announced last month he would run against long-term Democrat incumbent Jerry Costello (D-Belleville), who has been in Congress for nearly a quarter of a century. Just three days after Cook announced, Costello suddenly said he would retire, throwing race wide open.
“Republicans stand for the free market and the open exchange of ideas. I welcome anyone into the race who can make the case,” Cook said. “But the voters should be the final judge, not a few selected insiders.”