'Rooftop pastor' endorses Oberweis for Senate

The Chicago Tribune ^ | 5/22/2014 | Mitch Smith

[Beave Meister]

A South Side pastor who is highly visible in Chicago’s black community endorsed Republican candidate Jim Oberweis on Thursday in his bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.

The Rev. Corey Brooks, pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago, said some Democrats had taken the African-American vote for granted and that black voters shouldn’t rule out candidates simply because of their party affiliation. Brooks, who is known as the “rooftop pastor” because he once slept for three months atop a shuttered motel to protest violence, cited Oberweis’ views on education and job creation as well the state senator’s visits to the South Side as reasons for his endorsement.

“Our community has suffered a lot under Democratic policies,” Brooks said, “and a lot of what we’re experiencing, some of those policies have been promoted by a large amount of Democrats. “We need to consider options and we don’t need people to just automatically assume that because we have traditionally been raised Democrats, that our votes are always going to be there.”

[Beave Meister]

Since moving back to the Chicagoland area from California, I see that Illinois is a lot like Texas was in the 70's. The entire culture must be changed. Democrats have run this state and Chicago into the ground. I hope this is a beginning.

[ConservingFreedom]

Oreo! </sarcasm>

[PhilCollins]

I lived near San Diego, 1996-2001. Now, I live near Mundelein, IL. I hope that Sen. Oberweis will do better against Sen. Durbin than Durbin’s 2008 GOP opponent did, 29%. I think that one conservative, William Kelly, will run for mayor of Chicago in 2015.