Politics & Government

Two More Announce for 11th District Race

Democrat Juan Thomas and Republican Chris Balkema both want to represent the newly created district, which includes all of Plainfield.

Petitions don’t need to be filed until Nov. 2, but the race for the newly created 11th Congressional District is already starting to heat up.

On Monday, former Aurora Township Clerk Juan Thomas announced his run for the office, the third Democrat to do so. He follows on the heels of Republican Chris Balkema, a Grundy County Board member from Channahon who announced his bid over the weekend.

The newly drawn 11th District has no incumbent. Those who have already thrown their hats in the ring are Democrat Bill Foster, former 14th District congressman; Orland Fire Protection District President , a Democrat; and Republican Aurora Alderman .

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Thomas, a native Auroran, returned to the city in April after spending 18 months working with a church in New Orleans.

He is a lawyer with his own practice who has deep roots in Aurora. His father owned a small business there for 25 years, and Thomas has been an elected official there since 1995, when, at 25, he became the youngest person ever elected to the West Aurora School Board.

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He ran unsuccessfully for state representative in 1998, worked for Secretary of State Jesse White in the early 2000s, and went on to serve on the Aurora Township Board as clerk from 2005 to 2009. Thomas is also an ordained minister who works with churches in Aurora.

Thomas said he brings to the table a sense of leadership for the new 11th District, which covers portions of Oswego, Montgomery, Plainfield, Romeoville, Bolingbrook, Woodridge, Darien, Channahon, Shorewood, Joliet and Naperville, among other communities.

The new district, he said, is more racially and economically diverse than the old 14th District, something that could give him the edge over Foster. Foster, Thomas said, is a centrist who would not be the best fit for the “more progressive” 11th District.

Thomas said his main priority will be bringing jobs to the district, and said he would like to use federal resources to help communities like Aurora and Joliet revitalize their downtowns.

Balkema is a longtime employee of Caterpillar in Joliet. The economy will be one of the chief focuses of his campaign, he told the Morris Daily Herald.

"In order to create jobs and restore economic opportunity for middle-class families, we need to start making things here in America again," Balkema told the paper.

"Manufacturing is what built the U.S. economy into an international leader throughout the 20th century, an edge we've seen decline sharply in recent years," he said.

"I bring a unique manufacturing perspective to the national debate about the direction we must take as a country moving forward, focusing on the need to create jobs, products and opportunity here in America."

The former 11th District was represented by freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Manteno), who found his home located the newly created 18th District under the redistricting that occurs every 10 years after the U.S. Census results are released.

Kinzinger has said he plans to run for re-election, but has not said whether that will be in the 11th District, which is fairly far from his Manteno home; the 18th District, where the incumbent is nine-term Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.; or the 16th District, where he might face Republican Rep. Don Manzullo, a 10-term incumbent.

The latter two districts include portions of Bloomington-Normal, which had been part of the 11th District until the redistricting.


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