Bost faces another Green Party challenger

Posted 10-18-2006 - thesouthern.com

Bost faces another Green Party challenger

http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2006/10/13/local/17825852.txt#blogcomments

by jason lee the southern

After losing election bids in 2002 and 2004 to Republican state Rep. Mike Bost, Green Party candidate Rich Whitney has moved on.

Now Bost, campaigning for re-election to a sixth term in the 115th District, faces another Green Party challenger - Charlie Howe of Carbondale.

Howe is one of 13 Green Party candidates slated to run Nov. 7 for state office, including Whitney for governor, Julie Samuels for lieutenant governor and David Black for attorney general.

Active in the Green Party since 2000, Howe, 62, serves as chairman of the Shawnee Green Party and a board member for Green Earth, a Carbondale-based nonprofit land conservation organization. He also is a member of the Illinois Civil Liberties Union.

If elected, Howe said improving the region's economy would be one of his top priorities.

"There just aren't good-paying jobs in Southern Illinois," Howe said. "Unless you work for the university, railroad or a hospital, you're probably out of a good-paying job."

With a career that includes mostly blue-collar jobs in the aviation and oil industries, Howe says he understands challenges facing working people, such as gaining access to affordable healthcare.

"The Green Party feels that healthcare access should be a right of every person in Illinois," he said.

Howe says improving the state's public education system and providing more opportunities for young people to attend college would help boost the region's economy.

"To create more jobs, you've got to have people who are educated and in tune with the times," Howe said.

Meanwhile, Bost, 45, said on the campaign trail he has heard concerns from voters centered on classic hot-button issues in Illinois - education, jobs and the state budget.

Bost contends Republicans were largely kept out of forming the budget, which passed with no GOP support in the house.

What resulted was a state financial plan laden with debt and pork that offset the benefits of spending increases, Bost said.

"We're borrowing against the future of our kids instead of doing what's fiscally responsible," he said.

The state's "long-term indebtedness" is nearing a crisis, Bost says, including bills owed to Medicaid providers that have continued to mount and cause headaches to doctors and nurses throughout the region.

"It's going to take a new leader in the governor's mansion to reverse this trend," he said.

Bost also has been an outspoken critic of staffing levels at state prisons.

He says hundreds more guards are needed to make prisons safer for officers, as demonstrated by a pattern of violent incidents involving prison employees and inmates.

"Our prisons are way understaffed and it's a dangerous situation," Bost said. "Once we get our fiscal house in order, we have to do something to improve the safety of those guards."

Bost and Howe square off at 9:30 p.m. today in a televised debate on WSIU-TV.

jason.lee@thesouthern.com

(618) 351-5031

 

Charlie Howe

Party: Green

Residence: Carbondale

Age: 62

Political experience: Chairman, Shawnee Green Party, 2005-06

Mike Bost

Party: Republican

Residence: Murphysboro

Age: 45

Job: Full-time state legislator and business owner

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