I have read her bio. I wish her luck. I see Daniel Biss is helping her. I am a conservative, republican, but I like Daniel Biss. Hopefully Mrs. Fine won't go down to Springfield and get bogged down in that quagmire of thieves, liars and cheats that is our state senate?

What party affiliation is Laura Fine? She doesn't say on her website and it's not mentioned here. She does have the endorsement of the teacher's union. Her opponent Kyle Frank has no money and doesn't seem to be running a real campaign.

Hi Tim,
Laura Fine is a Democrat from Glenview.
Melanie

I wish Laura Fine much luck....she has my vote...and I know where she hails from and it is great lineage.

Anita

more DEMOCRAPS IN IL,NOT. wake up people.

I had the opportunity to observe Laura Fine the other day at a luncheon hosted by retired teachers. She is a nice women. She means well. But, she simply does not have the experience, demeanor or leadership ability to be a meaningful participant in Illinois government. She clearly fits the template for the women that the North Shore elects.

In her speech to the luncheon, the only reason Laura gave for running and her only qualification for election is that her husband lost an arm in an accident. That is tragic - although not the most tragic thing I have heard (like the hospital calling me to tell me my son had died) - but it is not a qualification for election. We need more than that in our leaders.

Laurie may make a fine candidate and State Rep some day, but today, she is simply not ready for prime time.

Eric

Nice person with good intentions trumps experience That cheats and lies and spends poorly anytime as does most of il current politicians.

SW -

Don't confuse experience and success with corruption. The next time you need a doctor, I hope you choose one who is experienced in the particular need or ailment you have. Choosing a doctor who is inexperienced but intends well could be a disaster.

The same principle should apply to electing the people we need to dig Illinois out of this mess. Illinois is in the position we are in - and will stay there - unless we transform our government. That will not happen if we continue to install people simply because of "intention". Remember, Rod Blagojevich was a well intentioned young man who ran as a candidate who would reform Illinois government.

Righting our state ship will take strong people, ready, willing and able to oppose the powerful forces that have created the "culture of corruption" that haunts this state. (See www.expectmore.us). We have lined our road into this hellish condition with many,many candidates who appeared to be well intentioned. It is easy to vote for people that are "well intentioned". If we stop there, we have outsourced our responsibility to make an informed voting decision.

Eric Lieberman
www.LiebermanForIllinois.com
www.expectmore.us

IMHO, a vote for Laura Fine is just another vote for the Madigan machine, here in the North Shore, which has been hugely responsible for the extremely dire economic and financial crisis which Illinois faces. A vote for Fine will even further consolidate Madigan's grip on the North Shore already in play through his proxy, Daniel Biss. My question is WHY vote for someone with such limited experience who will be part of the problem and not offer independent fiscal solutions? Her opponent, Kyle Frank, is truly a Springfield outsider, an MBA and attorney, who can provide fiscal leadership to our bankrupt state. And, if you are interested at all in politics, the School pension-cost shifting proposals supported by Madigan, Biss and Fine will have long ranging devastating effects on our beleaguered school districts resulting in major property tax increases and an almost impossible position for School Boards and teachers to negotiate salaries and benefits.

When I saw this on her campaign literature, I said another clueless candidate, with no idea what's she talking about ...
Preventing Unfair Property Tax Increases

Laura Fine knows that homeowners shouldn’t pay higher property taxes when home values are falling. That’s why she will work to provide relief by pushing for a new law to freeze property taxes when home values decline.

Let me help Laura, all values have declined and they will continue to decline, but who is going to pay for the pension mess and escalating teacher salaries?

So Laura Fine is nice. Well, niceness alone doesn’t cut it. Neither does good intentions. And “good” is relative.

No one seems to think outside the box. Illinois and indeed the feds, are in such debt because of the generations of Santa Claus politicians who want to give something away at taxpayer expense. They've long ago forgotten that government was meant to keep the laws and protect us from inside corruption and outside attack, and that's it. This, so the private sector of The People can go about its business as it sees fit, without guidance or interference. Instead we've got massive bureaucracy, regulations and handouts, all run by self-serving politicians pandering for votes. To them, public service means self-service. It’s they who’ve built the box we’re in.

To redeem ourselves, we need a mind set that says, “if it can be done in the private sector, it should be.” And then we can go on from there to deconstruct our obese behemoth government that is so expensive.

Keep in mind the business model of government: the cost of government is an overhead cost to all our family enterprises, combined. So the 100+ year ramp up of our overhead has made us all less profitable in a business sense, and less wealthy in a family sense. With running $1.3T deficits at the federal level, what must our overhead be?

Illinois’ numbers may be different but the principle is the same.

For me, Laura Fine or anyone else, needs to prove that they will think outside the box.

Straight Dope About the North Shore Districts: The predominance of the coverage by Evanston Patch of the Fine - Frank race for State Rep may leave Evanston readers a little mislead and confused about who is running to represent them in the General Assembly in Springfield.

The fact is, Evanston is divided into two State Representative Districts: the 17th and the 18th. The 17th - the district which I will call the "FrankenFine District" takes in a piece of the west side (the "Skokie side") of Evanston. The rest of Evanston, however, falls into the 18th Representative District in which I (Eric Lieberman) am running against Robyn Gabel, our incumbent. The 18th district is made up of many North suburban communities, including all or part of Evanston, Northbrook, Skokie, Wilmette and Winnetka.

You can Robyn and mu Patch profiles at http://wilmette.patch.com/articles/election-2012-il-18th-district-house-race. (Don't ask me why Robyn and I seem to have been adopted by Wilmette Patch while the majority of our voters live in Evanston.)

Now, Robyn's site has a link to an "alleged" map of the 18th - http://newmediaauthority.com/gabel/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/District18.jpg - but it is wrong since it describes how the district looked in 2001.

I have yet to find a decent and current map of the 18th Rep Dist. Anyone have a URL to one?

Eric Lieberman
www.liebermanforillinois.com