American Grizzlies United Highlights Danielle Rowe's Candidacy for Illinois State Representative

In her speech in Iowa last September, Governor Palin highlighted the need to take on the permanent political class—people who have turned public service into self service. This kind of permanent political class does not just exist in Washington D.C.. It is present in state houses and city halls all across this country. There are politicians who cling bitterly to power and influence without respecting the very people who they are supposed to serve. This kind of attitude is the very reason why we need to elect citizen candidates at every level of government—candidates who realize that they are servants, not masters of their constituents. This is the kind of candidate American Grizzlies United wants to highlight and support—candidates who believe in the sudden and relentless reform that Governor Palin enacted and espouses.

One such candidate is Danielle Rowe ,who is running for state representative in the 52nd District in Illinois. She is up against the permanent political class in Illinois—taking on an incumbent who first took office after being appointed by GOP bosses. She is committed to fiscal conservatism, reform, and free market principles in a state that desperately needs reform and fiscal sanity. Danielle shares her story in this statement to American Grizzlies United:

My name is Danielle Rowe, and I am a Republican candidate for Illinois State Representative in the 52nd District. I am a conservative leader and tea party activist who puts our country first, supports our troops and believes we need to take back our country at the local level. I have been endorsed by the Illinois Tea Party. I am the first state representative candidate ever endorsed by the Illinois Tea Party, and I am the first woman they have ever endorsed. But what makes me most proud of receiving a statewide endorsement from the tea party is that it is the people's endorsement. When you're supported by the tea party, you are supported by the people. 

I believe in the capacity for self-governance and that government is best when it's closest to the people. I was born in raised and the small town of Wauconda, which is the Native American word for "spirit water". I believe I can represent the spirit, principles and values of Sarah Palin in the Illinois General Assembly. I believe in American Exceptionalism. I believe in the principles that founded this country and that it's the people who have made this country exceptional, not our politicians. The principles that made this country great include faith, hard work, patriotism and public service. My strong work ethic and personal belief in faith, family and community began to take shape at a young age in working in our family construction business. I am proud of my commitment to organizing, planning and creating ways to better our community and support our troops. I was a key volunteer for the United States Marine Corps where I educated children about being respectful and honoring our veterans and country. I currently volunteer to support the families of active duty military men and women, the defenders of our freedom, and work with a group to help find them find jobs when they come home. It's the people in the community I serve who have urged me to run for office and challenge the political establishment. 

Sarah Palin is known as a reformer not afraid to take on the political establishment of both parties - which is exactly what I'm doing in Illinois. I am running against an incumbent Republican State Representative who was appointed to his seat by party bosses and a former Bank of America executive making his third run for political office. When Barack Obama ran for State Senate here in Illinois, he won his election by knocking all of his opponents off the ballot. One of my opponents tried the same tactic against me and my campaign. He thought he could use his vast personal wealth and resources to kick me off the ballot and bleed our campaign dry, but he was wrong. We were victorious because of our hard working team of volunteers who collected twice the number of required signatures to get on the ballot. I've earned my opportunity to be on the ballot and run for office, but I stood with Sarah Palin before I even thought about running. 

I stood with Governor Palin, Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch in Wisconsin. Not only did I travel to Madison to support Governor Walker and attend the rally Sarah Palin spoke at, but I returned to Wisconsin to work on the senate recall elections. We knew that if we stood together and Wisconsin passed their pension reform bill we could push to get needed reform done here in Illinois. Pension reform is one of the steps in my Rowe Roadmap to get Illinois moving in the right direction to economic revitalization. The roadmap includes: 

• Repeal the Democrat's Tax Increase 

• Reform Public Sector Pensions 

• Reduce Runaway State Spending and Borrowing 

• Restore a Business Climate that Respects the Entrepreneur and Bring Jobs Back to Illinois 

Jobs for Illinois is my number one priority as a state representative and energy independence is a key to that goal. I strongly advocate responsible drilling for oil and natural gas and providing proper stewardship of the people’s resources. I support an all-of-the-above approach to energy resource development: oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind, geothermal, to sustain and grow our economy and keep and create more jobs. We need to keep our current energy forms until renewable forms of energy are more efficient, affordable, practical and able to meet our economy's energy needs. Another area where bold leadership is badly needed is entitlement reform. 

I agree with Sarah Palin. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to make tough decisions on entitlement reform so they might inherit a strong and prosperous America like the one we were given. We need to restructure Medicaid in Illinois, one of the most resource-intensive systems in state government. We should do a complete redetermination of our Medicaid rolls to remove persons the program was never intended to serve. 

I am pro-life, and I am the only consistently pro-life candidate in the state representative race in the 52nd District. Additionally, I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. I am also a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and fully support the recent McDonald v. Chicago decision of the United States Supreme Court overturning Chicago's unconstitutional handgun ban. Illinois is the last state in the country that restricts their citizens' right to defend themselves by carrying a gun. I will go to Springfield to change that. 

It would be an honor to represent the spirit and principles of Sarah Palin in Springfield, Illinois. It is always a compliment to be compared to Sarah Palin and not just when I'm riding my ATV or my motorcycle. I recently spoke at an endorsement session for a conservative political action committee here in Illinois. After my presentation, one of the members of the committee remarked that I "sounded like Sarah Palin". One of my supporters on the committee replied, "Sarah Palin started out on the PTA, ran for city council, then mayor, then became Governor of the largest state in the union. If Danielle can start as State Representative and accomplish what Sarah Palin has, she's exactly who we need to support." 

                       Danielle Rowe, candidate for the Illinois state house, 

                    receives "grizzly support" while campaigning in January

If you would like to know how you can support Danielle’s campaign, please visit her website here. You can follow her on Twitter here and on Facebook here. Her primary election will be on Tuesday, March 20th.

Above image courtesy of Essex and Orange.

Crossposted from Illinois4Palin.