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Tri States Public Radio and NPR News will provide you with updated stories from all of our local and national elections between now and November. The NPR News element below will be updated constantly, and will sometimes provide live coverage and audio from important events leading up to the November elections. You can find all of our local coverage after the jump.Election 2012 News From NPR

Curtis Courts Voters in West Central Illinois

T.J. Carson
State Senator John Sullivan (right) introduces John Curtis (left) at a campaign stop at GloBar in Galesburg

A Western Illinois University teacher said there’s a lot of frustration, distrust, and anger in state government. And he wants to change that in Springfield.

John Curtis of Macomb began his campaign for State Representative at a natural starting point, by visiting his hometown. He also made campaign stops in Galesburg, Beardstown, and Havana recently.

Curtis, a Democrat, is looking to unseat Republican incumbent Norine Hammond in the 93rd district which covers McDonough, Schuyler, Brown, Cass, Fulton, and Mason Counties, as well as portions of Warren and Knox Counties.

Curtis said his top concern right now is the budget. He condemned Republican Governor Bruce Rauner isn’t concerned with passing a state budget.

“The governor’s inexperienced. So the first thing that he needed to do was come in and get ideas from both sides of the aisle. Instead, he decided to hold the working poor, senior citizens, students hostage, so that he could push through his agenda,” Curtis said.

Curtis said fixing the budget wouldn’t be easy. But he doesn favor implementing a Constitutional amendment for a progressive tax rate, in addition to House Speaker Michael Madigan’s millionaire tax proposal.

He also wants the government to be “smarter.”

“We make government smarter by protecting home health care assistance, so that seniors and those facing difficult medical issues can stay independent. We make government smarter by protecting MAP grants, and fully funding our colleges and universities. We make government smarter by increasing the minimum wage, so that someone who’s working 40 hours a week is not living in poverty,” Curtis said.

Curtis also called for government to encourage small businesses by creating uniform regulations across the state.