GOP quick to criticize Londrigan after campaign kickoff

April 12-- Apr. 12--Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan formally kicked off her second effort to defeat U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, Thursday, generating quick reaction from Republican organizations who hope to keep the 13th Congressional District House seat in the GOP column.

"It's long past time we had someone representing this community who has our best interests at heart," Londrigan said at state AFL-CIO headquarters in Springfield, where she was cheered by about 50 supporters. "It's time we have a representative who meets constituents, whether they agree with her or not. And it's time we had someone whose words are backed up by their actions and their votes."

Davis was criticized by opponents in the 2018 election cycle for not having open, in-person town hall meetings, but Davis said he regularly meets with many constituents.

Londrigan told The State Journal-Register in a story published Thursday that she is "absolutely not" a Democratic socialist, as some newly elected Democratic members of Congress identify themselves. The Republican Party of Illinois responded before her formal announcement Thursday. State party spokesman Aaron DeGroot characterized Londrigan's statement as "a lame attempt to distance herself from her past statements and the Democratic Party's march towards socialism," adding that "voters in the 13th District won't be fooled" and she must "let voters know whether or not she will take part in the Democratic Party's far-left, socialist policy agenda" including the "Green New Deal" and "Medicare for all."

Meanwhile, Carly Atchison, a regional press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, issued a statement saying that "Illinoisans rejected socialist loser Betsy Dirksen Londrigan once and they'll do it again in 2020. "Her support of radical socialist policies like single-payer, late-term abortion and a Green New Deal are out of step with Midwest values and will once again render her unelectable."

Londrigan, speaking to reporters after her announcement and after being told of the state GOP criticism, said: "I'm supposed to listen to all of that propaganda and respond to it -- I don't think so. All that is to me and the voters of the 13th District is partisan politics at its worst."

"I am a central Illinois Midwestern Democrat," Londrigan also said. "It means that we're going to continue to talk about jobs, and we're going to talk about infrastructure. We're going to continue talking about protecting our health care, because that's what people talk to me about, and that's where I stand, is with the people in the 13th District."

In an interview Wednesday, Londrigan said she's not for any health plan that would take away employer-provided health care. As for the Green New Deal, she said, "I'm a pretty pragmatic person. I want to see what things are going to cost. Clearly, climate change is an issue. I like the conversations that have been happening. ... But in terms of what I would support, I want to look at actual legislation with costs attached, with economic impact benefits."

On abortion, she said as she entered her last race for Congress that "women are fully capable of making their own decisions about their own bodies, without government telling them what they should and shouldn't do."

Like her 2018 race, Londrigan said health care will be a key issue this time around. She discussed illness that landed her son Jack in intensive care years ago. Jack, now 22 and soon to graduate college, was among family members on hand at the announcement Thursday.

"I ran last year to protect all families like mine whose access to good care and insurance were the only things standing between them and financial ruin, or God forbid, the loss of a loved one because of an illness or a medical emergency," Londrigan said. "And I'm running for Congress in 2020 because we have unfinished business."

She noted that earlier this month, Davis voted with most Republicans against a House resolution condemning, according to the title of the resolution, "the Trump administration's legal campaign to take away Americans' health care."

The administration, in a legal filing in late March, said it backed full invalidation of the Affordable Care Act -- also known as Obamacare.

"Congressman Davis again voted to side with big drug and insurance companies that bankroll his campaign instead of protecting the Affordable Care Act," Londrigan said. "I wasn't surprised by the vote, but I was deeply disappointed again."

She said the vote supports "taking away protections for the millions of Illinoisans with pre-existing conditions," and helping "explode the cost of insurance. ..."

Davis has said Obamacare has yielded insurance too expensive for many people to buy, and he would always protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

Davis also voted for tax reform that he said helped families across the district. At her announcement Londrigan said that Davis vote was "in support of tax cuts for the rich that we know was nothing more than a massive giveaway to corporations and super-rich people -- paid for on the backs of middle class families. And as Illinois families cope with having less money in their pockets this tax season, they have him to thank.

"Enough," she said. "We expect better and we are going to elect better."

Ashley Phelps, spokeswoman for Davis, called accusations from Londrigan "the same false attacks that voters in this district rejected last election. But they're not surprising because Londrigan doesn't want to talk about what she's for."

Phelps said, for example, that Londrigan had been for "Medicaid for all," which was used in ads against Londrigan last election cycle, but Londrigan said characterizations of the costs of what she wanted to do were untrue.

Londrigan did say last campaign that "there are good options, such as Medicare X and Medicaid-for-All being discussed, but we have to get the right representation in Congress to make a 'public option' reality." She said last fall that she wanted to "fix what's broken" with Obamacare, and favored offering, on a trial basis to rural areas and small business, Medicare as a public option, which was being pushed at the time by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia.

Contact Bernard Schoenburg: 788-1540, [email protected], twitter.com/bschoenburg.

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