by Fran Eaton
In today's Southtown Star column, I write about the press conference held by U.S. Senate candidate Patrick Hughes' supporters this past Tuesday in Lockport. A frustrated Hughes fan publicly challenged the campaign for not responding to his local paper's query.
"Why did you ignore all the voters in our area?" he demanded.
Hughes' spokesman Charlie Johnston took the reins of the quickly-going-bad discussion and apologized for the missed opportunity.
"We'll get the information for you," he said.
One has to sympathize with the demands on overworked campaign people, who may not be familiar with every news source that makes demands on the candidate, but the SouthtownStar fan was right. Southwest Cook County and its surrounding area is home to thousands of voters angry and frustrated with the status quo in Washington, D.C.
Hughes' message of less government control and spending would resonate with area voters who are facing growing job uncertainty and seeing the closing of businesses and waning of economic growth in the area, partly due to failure at the nation's capital.
The problem is, though, the vast majority of area voters have never heard of Patrick Hughes.
The rest of the Southtown Star column is HERE.
