Casten, Ives, Redpath clash on climate change, COVID relief
In online debate, incumbent congressman ties Ives to Trump
Libertarian Bill Redpath, U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, and former state Rep. Jeanne Ives engaged in a League of Women Voters debate Monday in their race for the 6th Congressional District seat. (Zoom)
By Ted Cox
Incumbent Congressman Sean Casten and challengers Jeanne Ives and Bill Redpath clashed most severely on climate change, COVID-19 relief, and police protests Monday in an online debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters.
Casten, who won election two years ago in a campaign based on his background as a scientist and climate-change entrepreneur, said he believed in science, as do the voters of the 6th Congressional District, which loops around the northwest and southwest suburbs from Palatine to his own home of Downers Grove. “The people I have the honor to represent are unabashedly pro-science,” he said, “pro-choice, pro-equality, pro-market, pro-democracy. They know that those values should never be partisan.”
Casten cited his presence at the Madrid Climate Conference last year and the failure of the Trump administration to address climate change, quoting a representative at the conference as saying, “When the U.S. doesn’t lead, bad things happen.”
“The science is totally settled,” he said. “This is the challenge of our lifetime.”
“There is some global warming,” allowed Redpath, a West Dundee Libertarian, but he added that “only to an extent” was it generated by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. “We can adjust to this,” he said. “We’ve been adjusting to it.”
“Listen, the climate changes,” said Ives, the former state representative from Wheaton who unsuccessfully challenged former Gov. Rauner for the office in the Republican primary two years ago. But she added that “I’m open to suggestion on this” and charged that it is Casten who’s set in his opinions.
Ives insisted she was comfortable with gender equality on lesbian-gay-bisexual-transsexual-queer issues, saying, “Honestly, I do not have a problem with any of this.”
Casten threw her own words back at her, quoting that as a state representative she had called same-sex marriage “a completely disordered relationship with people trying to weasel their way into acceptability.”
Ives countered that she had said that some time ago and the remarks were taken “way out of context.”
“I have never seen the country more unsettled,” said Ives, in the political system and with the police protests that have spanned the nation. But she called for strict enforcement of the rule of law and equality under the law. “It’s quite unfortunate that people are not being treated equally,” she said, clarifying “people not arrested at protests,” as in Portland, Ore., Kenosha, Wis., and here in Chicago.
Casten, however, blamed President Trump for much of the social unrest, and said he himself is “encouraged by the youth who are standing up and rising up.” He cited the optimism of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia in pointing to how the vast majority of the public supports Black Lives Matter protests.
Ives countered that Casten wasn’t helping the situation when he called U.S. House Republicans “Nazi sympathizers.”
Casten defended federal coronavirus relief provided through the CARES Act and also backed the estimated $1 trillion provided to state and local governments in the HEROES Act, which has been rejected by Senate Republicans. “What would have happened if we didn’t spend that?” Casten said, adding, “We’ve got to get more aid to states and municipalities … but the details matter.” Pointing out that “every state in the country” faces budget shortfalls due to the coronavirus economic collapse, he said, “If we don’t prop up those budgets for them” it would be an inadvertent way to defund the police — a position he otherwise rejected.
“He has no fiscal responsibility at all,” Ives answered, adding, “Just throwing money at something is not the answer.”
“We need to cut government spending,” Redpath said. He called for the government to “wean people off” the $600 a week in expanded unemployment benefits provided during the worst of the pandemic lockdown, which he said kept the unemployed from returning to work.
Casten joined Redpath in suggesting that police should lose the qualified immunity that has led many officers to act with impunity. “It’s pretty frightful out there,” Ives responded, insisting that the “rule of law” should be imposed to jail rioters.
They also clashed over health care. In response to Ives defending the health-care system, and calling for tax-free health-savings accounts, Casten dismissed that approach, saying that, with median family income at $60,000, “telling people to set aside $10,000 in a health-savings account is not health care.”
On guns, Ives insisted police and local governments are “not enforcing current gun laws,” and she blamed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for releasing gun offenders. Ives said she would support a gun law that would call for a mandatory prison sentence for possession of an illegal gun.
Casten said simply, “We have too many guns” and “we have gone completely gun crazy in this country,” and he pointed out, “The majority of gun deaths in this country are by suicide.” He backed background checks and a ban on assault weapons.
Ives was muted on immigration, insisting, “I am pro legal immigration” and calling for a “balance” of interests, while blaming problems on “porous borders” and “a broken visa system.”
Redpath called for regulated open immigration, saying, “The nation would greatly benefit from it” and adding, “Being an American is not about being born and raised here. It’s about a state of mind.”
Casten quoted President Reagan in saying America should be considered a “shining city on a hill” to attract immigrants, and he called for “a path to citizenship” for undocumented workers in the agriculture industry, as well as so-called Dreamers raised here without formal citizenship.
Ives closed by saying the election comes down to the question: “Do you want more freedom in your life or more government?”
Casten said the election was about much more than that, suggesting it was also about replacing Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court and countering Trump’s “white nationalism.” He connected that to Ives, calling out her “outspoken racism, homophobia, and love for Donald Trump.”