Lisa Bickus finds inspiration from the things she knows can really be.
“We use to drive the Midwest,” Bickus recently told a Lockport crowd during a campaign speech she delivered and later posted to Facebook. “We no longer do that. My son just got a $30,000 scholarship from Iowa State University. He can’t get that here.”
But Bickus is committed to returning things to the way they once were in the now cash-strapped state. She is set to face off against Rep. John Connor, D-Lockport, in the 85th District House race in November’s general election.
“The biggest question many of my friends and family have asked is, ‘Lisa, what are you doing,’” Bickus added. “The state is so corrupt. I’m stepping out on a leap of faith. We’re still at the same place we were 10 years ago. The state hasn’t moved forward.”
Bickus said part of that reason is what lawmakers have allowed the job of being a legislator to become.
“Politics has become such a dirty word and it wasn’t 30 years ago,” she said. “You used to be able to talk around the table about political ambitions… now it’s just messy and dirty.”
Bickus traces her commitment to wanting to make a difference to a chance encounter she had more than a decade earlier.
“Ten years ago I started with this political action group and the Homer Finders Club,” she said. “My interest was purely selfish and self -giving, giving to the community. I didn’t like politics and didn’t want anything to do with politics, but some of those leaders taught me when you want to get involved in your community this is the way to do it.”
Since then, Bickus hasn’t looked back.
“My children are no longer young; they are young adults,” she said. “Illinois is my home; it’s your home. Our families are losing their futures here, their legacies. Our families are being destroyed by the career politicians who have put in place for 40 years the infrastructure, the policies and the laws that have corrupted our state.”
A small business owner in Mt. Prospect, Bickus said she totally identified with a video Gov. Bruce Rauner recently posted to social media where he pointed the finger of blame at longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan, D-Chicago, for consistently enacting policies that’s made life harder for small business owners.
She said the state’s rising tax levels are crippling families and creating a future where the next generation will be straddled with never-ending debt.
“If we keep on this path, we’re going to have to sell our homes; we’re going to leave this great state or our businesses are going to go bankrupt,” she said. “It’s time to elect new leadership. It’s time to step out of your comfort zone. It’s time to talk to our career politicians and take things in a different direction.”
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