District 14 race widens
By BRENDA SCHORY Shaw Suburban Media
Two more candidates have filed in the hopes of unseating incumbent Congressman Bill Foster, D-Batavia as the race for the 14th Congressional District heats up.
South Elgin resident Daniel Kairis, 59, filed as a Green Party candidate this week, as did James Pistorius, of Aurora, who filed as a Democrat.
This brings the total number of primary candidates to seven. Kairis will be a third-party candidate on the ballot in Nov. 2, 2010.
Seven will face off in the Feb. 2, 2010 primary, including five Republicans: James Purcell, of Batavia, a local business owner; State Sen. Randall Hultgren, R-Wheaton; Jeff Danklefsen, 41, a maintenance man from Geneva; Ethan Hastert, 31, an attorney from Elburn and son of the former speaker; and Mark Vargas, 28, a Defense Department employee who is a St. Charles native.
Bill Cross, a Shabbona resident, withdrew his candidacy as a Republican last month.
Now that Pistorius has filed as a Democrat, incumbent Foster will also have a primary contest.
A Foster campaign spokesperson did not reply to a voicemail message nor e-mail. Pistorius did not reply to a telephone message nor an e-mail seeking comment.
Kairis said he was a “semi-Republican” who left the party in 1982 to become an independent.
“I felt that both parties were so compromised by big money corporations or ... I have the best chance of making a difference,” Kairis said. “The Green Party does not take corporate donations and that kind of follows what I believe. It’s been the joke, we have the best government money can buy – why do we continue to put up with that?”
Kairis has run for office – and lost – before: as a Green Party candidate in the Illinois 55th Representative District, where he came in third last year. He also ran and lost as a Republican for Elgin Township Supervisor and in the 1980s when he ran as a Republican in the Illinois 65th Representative District.
Kairis operated Video Impressions Plus before retiring from the business. a political activist for many years. He was also a member of the Citizens Against the Balefill which fought and defeated an $8 billion landfill on the eastern border of Elgin near Bartlett and has been active in numerous other community groups.
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