By Jim Vail
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| High School Teacher Ed Hershey is running for Congress. |
It sounds like a chocolate battle over who should serve in the 4th Congressional District - Hershey v. Chuy!
Lindblom High School teacher and associate union delegate Ed Hershey is challenging Chicago Teachers Union favorite Chuy Garcia in the Nov. 8 election for Congress.
He is running on the Working Class Party ticket that is not affiliated with the Democratic Party.
"The working class needs its own party," Hershey told Second City Teachers. "We need our own party to represent our own interests."
Hershey pointed to the current economic crisis. High inflation is cutting into people's paychecks. Wages have to go up to keep up with the inflation or else people lose, but neither party will say something to deal with the crisis. Record oil company profits while people have to pay higher housing, gas and food prices comes down to - ruling class more money, working class less.
Hershey joins his fellow high school teacher Froy Jimenez who is running for state senator. Both are seeking endorsements from the Chicago Teachers Union.
Hershey said he and a group of volunteers gathered 7,850 signatures to qualify for a place on the Nov. ticket. (full disclosure: I helped Ed gather signatures on his petitions)
While Froy's opponent challenged his signatures, Rep. Garcia did not challenge Ed's signatures.
Hershey first ran for Alderman in the 25th Ward in 2015 and earned 8 percent of the vote. Disgraced Ald. Danny Solis who wore a wire to help indict Ald. Ed Burke was replaced by Byron Sigcho-Lopez who is close to the CTU and the Democratic Party.
The CTU endorsed Rep. Garcia for Mayor against Rahm Emanuel, that resulted in a run-off. Emanuel decided to not run in the next election that elected Lori Lightfoot.
Garcia ran unopposed in the Democrat primary.
"Garcia's political role is to tie the working class to the Democratic Party," Hershey said.
Hershey and Jimenez said the onerous process to run for political office is evidence that the system is set up to keep the working person out and big money interests in.
Hershey had to collect at least 5,000 signatures on his petitions and then drive all the way to Springfield, Illinois to hand deliver the petitions.
"It's one more way to keep people out of politics," Hershey said.
People told Hershey while he gathered signatures that high inflation has really hurt them. One black woman in the Little Village neighborhood said the Democrats are sending Ukraine $40 billion in arms to kill Russians and Ukrainians while there is little money here for working people for the basics of housing, transportation and education.
"A lot of people are open to what we are saying," he said.
Hershey is an associate delegate at Lindblom and has worked over 16 years in the Chicago Public Schools. He teaches physics and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago.
Another note: many people in the district who would have signed for Working Class Party could not because of their immigration status. This despite the fact that many have lived here for years, and contribute to society with their work, by raising children, paying taxes etc. They make this society run, yet they are denied the right to vote. In the 4th Congressional District this is a big way that the working class is held out of politics.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, repeatedly, when petitioning, black voters wanted to sign for Working Class Party, only to find that they did not live in the district -- often enough just outside of it.
Ed what is the difference between the Working Class Party and UWF created with millions of unauthorized CTU dollars?
ReplyDeleteThe main difference: Working Class Party is a new party, running separately from the Democrats. That's important, as the Democratic party seeks to tie working people, through the unions and through other means, to our exploiters.
ReplyDeleteUnited Working Families candidates are all Democratic Party Politicians.