Justin's Political Corner

Democratic congressional candidate Matt Goetten Thursday proposed an economic plan that calls for improving infrastructure, encouraging manufacturing and revitalization of downtowns, cutting business subsidies and improving education.

The plan, Goetten told reporters on a conference call, includes “investments in rebuilding and improving our basic infrastructure – not only the transportation infrastructure here in central Illinois, but also communications and energy infrastructure – which we think is going to be an important cog in the economic wheel as we move forward over the next 10, 20 years.

“We’re the only campaign with a jobs plan,” Goetten said.

Mike Richards, spokesman for David Gill, Goetten’s opponent in the Democratic primary in the new 13th Congressional District, said Goetten’s plan sounds like what “every Democrat in the country” is proposing.

“I’m glad he agrees with Dr. Gill that we can fix this economy and fix our ailing infrastructure and improve our human capital all at the same time,” Richards said.

Goetten said his priorities include road improvements, such as finishing the conversion of U.S. 51 from two to four lanes between Decatur and Centralia. He also backs the proposed Tenaska clean-coal project for Taylorville.

Goetten, a veteran of the Afghanistan War and a captain in the Illinois Air National Guard, also called for a new GI Bill so returned veterans can succeed at home.

Goetten now is Greene County state’s attorney.

Earlier Thursday, Gill, an emergency room doctor from Bloomington, issued a news release critical of Goetten for being hesitant to speak out on what Gill called the “Republican war on women.”

“I will never hesitate to stand up for American women and defend their right to control their own bodies,” Gill said.

“I’m focused on creating jobs,” Goetten said on the conference call. “I’m focused on protecting Medicare and Social Security. My opponent can focus on whatever he wants to in his campaign, but that’s what I hear … working men and women in central Illinois talking about.”

h/t: Bernard Schoenburg at State (Springfield, IL) Journal-Register