Roakam's Conservative Guns

Below is an excerpt of a recent Daily Herald article. Not surprisingly, it seems Roskam is going to stick to his conservative guns, despite the fact that he only won by the smallest of margins and the issues being voted on are all common sense solutions that are favored by over 80% of all Americans. I especially love the contrast to Republican Mark Kirk, who actually does exhibit independence. Roskam did get one thing right though, if he continues to be a rubber stamp to his party and vote more conservative than his district, there will be efforts to educate his constituents about this and to dump him in 08!


How suburban House members voted this week
BY ERIC KROL
Daily Herald
January 15, 2007

The suburbs' seven House members found different ways of fitting into their new positions during the key first week of Congress.

For freshman Republican Peter Roskam of Wheaton, it meant sticking to his conservative guns despite winning by only a narrow margin last fall.

With Democrats pushing four high-profile, populist measures, Roskam voted for one of them. He backed the implementation of the rest of the 9/11 Commission recommendations, but voted against lifting a ban on federal stem cell research funding, an increase in the minimum wage and allowing the federal government to negotiate discounts with drug companies for Medicaid.

"The freeing thing about going through a campaign is that the direct mail is going to come no matter what," Roskam said. "Vote your district, vote your conscience and stand for what you believe and articulate why you believe it, because your opponents will attack you no matter what."

Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston said she wasn't surprised Roskam didn't move to the political center."This is a new direction for our country and Peter is following the old path," she said.

While Roskam kept to the philosophy he laid out in his campaign, his Republican colleague, Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park, moved to the center, supporting all four pieces of the Democrats' much-hyped first 100 hours push to deliver on promises the party made last fall.

"I'm an independent guy. I've always been pro-choice, pro- environment," said Kirk, who fended off a tougher-than-expected challenge last fall. "What I would hope to be is a new Republican voice that is pro-defense, pro-science, pro-economic development and a fiscal hawk."