North Cook News

Republican Marilyn Smolenski hopes to parlay her outsider status into a victory in November’s general election and a video on social media illustrates that she has plenty of grassroots support to help with her goal.

An Aug. 8 Tweet from the 55th House District candidate features a nine-minute YouTube video of testimonials from several constituents, including Gary Slipke, a general contractor from Des Plaines.

“I believe what’s happening in Springfield is a state that’s unstructured,” Slipke said. “A state that does nothing but spend.”

Rep. Marty J. Moylan (D-Des Plaines)

Anthony Artino, a Park Ridge engineer and member of the armed forces, is also shown on the video discussing tax hikes.

“They’re raising taxes a lot when they shouldn’t be,” he said. “They have blinders on. They’re not really paying attention to what’s going on.”

What remains to be seen is whether Smolenski’s outsider strategy will be enough to propel her to victory over incumbent Rep. Marty J. Moylan (D-Des Plaines) this November. Moylan has been in office since 2013 and ran unopposed in the April primary, receiving 9,433 votes. Smolenski also ran unopposed and received 4,690 votes.

Smolenski stresses her status as a mom and her background in a family construction business on her website, and blasts Moylan as a pawn of long-time Illinois House Speaker Robert Madigan (D-Chicago).

The 55th District covers Chicago, Des Plaines, Park Ridge and Rolling Meadows.