Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / 2026 Election Questionnaire: Ernie Marcelain, Illinois State Senate, District 38

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2026 Election Questionnaire: Ernie Marcelain, Illinois State Senate, District 38 · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six election questionnaire Ernie Marcelon Illinois State Senate
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  District thirty eight, written by Kate Santillin. This article is
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  being read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  Name Ernie Marcelin. What office are you seeking Illinois Senate
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  thirty eighth district. What is your political party? What is
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  your current age? Fifty one? Occupation and employer manager at
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  a small family owned printing company. What offices, if any,
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  have you previously held? Non city Yorkville campaign website www
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  dot Ernie for Illinois, dot com, Education WIBONCCC and business
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  community involvement. I have belonged to Vietnam since I was
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  thirteen and indivisible at the age of twelve. I regularly
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  volunteered at the Retirement Home home in Sandwich. I have
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  volunteered at Greater Food Depository and toy drives as well.
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  Marital status dash immediate family. I have been married to
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  my wife for twenty five years and have one daughter.
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  Affordability with energy, taxes and general costs of living, health
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  care accessibility and cost small business survival and growth. Small
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  business is the backbone of a strong economy, so Illinois
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  needed to make every effort to keep them going strong.
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  I also would like to aggressively recruit large businesses to
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  the area as well. When Caterpillar moved out, there was
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  a huge economic void that towns like Sandwich are having
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  a hard time recovering from. We need to fill that
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  void as soon as possible with great jobs. I don't
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  support term limits becausider are great legislators who are still
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  sharp after many years, and they represent their constituents well.
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  It is up to the voters to say if they
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  want a change or not. On a state level, we
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  have a lot of useless spending in some areas that
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  I feel are not necessary. We need to te in
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  our belt and divert the excessive spending and divert those
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  funds to the pension. I feel individual property taxes that
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  the counties impose are way out of control. We need
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  to revise the ptail to make property taxes fairer to homeowners.
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  School funding I believe is not working the way it's
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  been laid out to Illinois residents. Illinois lottery marijuana revenue
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  and sales tax was described be enough to cover all
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  school funding, so we need to fix whatever is wrong
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  with that. Current structure. There are a lot of good
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  parts of the Safety Act that I like in regard
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  to conduct by law enforcement and review. The cashless bond
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  is not something I agree with, though One thing I
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  would like to do have an increased law enforcement. I
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  think we are stretched thin with how many boots we
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  have on the ground. I fully support and stand for
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  reproductive rights for every citizen in Illinois, and I will
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  never bend on this. I fully support the Trust Act.
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  It is the federal government's responsibility to carry out any
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  operation without assistance from the Illinois law enforcement. Illinois tax
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  dollars are only appropriated for keeping the peace of its
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  residents and not to help the federal government, who has
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  more financial seventy five billion and physical resources than Illinois does.
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  Illinois law enforcement is designed to build a partnership with
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  its residents while keeping them safe and not assisting in
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  ice raids. Illinois should our elderly citizens must be taken
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  care of because they earned that by all the hard
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  work and money they brought into the state over the years.
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  It's the least we can do for them. I believe
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  the local governments should have the rights to authorize and
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  oversee solar farms in their community. I am in the
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  opinion that the energy companies profiting off the supply of
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  energy should compensate the communities financially they are operating in
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  as a show of good faith and acceptance with the
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  energy we are approaching. We need to investigate a safe
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  and affordable means like nuclear plants en Byron along with
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  solar and wind. I am more in favor of SMR
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  small modular reactors over large scale plants. The cost in
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  the ability to mobilize is very attractive to the needs
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  of the community without a large facility. Illinois should do
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  anything it can to reduce the cost of buying and
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  renting housing. We need more standards and protection to people
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  renting in low income housing, as well as far as
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  it goes for first time homeowner. There must be programs
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  in place so owning a house is within reach and
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  possibly a pause on property taxes for the first year
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  after purchasing. All data centers must have regulations in place
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  to operate in Illinois. Currently, we are treating them as
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  standard business to do what they want when they want,
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  while exhausting the resources of the residents. That consumption will
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  draw supply demand, making the monthly bills. Skyrocket Meta worked
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  with the community in Sycamore and they should be the
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  standard to any new center opening up. I think there
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  should be a large discussion and agreement to keep the
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  Bears in Illinois. I don't think we should pay for everything,
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  but the tax revenue from the Arlington is one that
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  could fund a lot of programs that the state has currently.
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  AI must be regulated not only in the classroom, but
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  in everyday life. We must not get complacent when solving
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  problem and we need the students to rely on their
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  brain when solving problems. AI is still very flawed currently,
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  so it's too unreliable in any place, especially in school.
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  I am running a grassroots campaign and have no want
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  or need for large corporate donors.