James Marter Challenges Adam Kinzinger in the 16th Congressional District Primary

Written by John Biver

Politics has changed within the past two years and that is a very good thing. If you’re a conservative and don’t think much of President Donald Trump, you cannot deny he’s someone who wishes to get things done. Not a common trait among conservative politicians, at least not since Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich left the field.

Here in Illinois, Governor Bruce Rauner has behaved in such a way that conservatives are finally waking up, speaking up, and stepping up. Third term state Rep. Jeanne Ives has entered the race for governor against millionaire Bruce. (Read more HERE.)

In the 16th congressional district, businessman James Marter has decided to give Adam Kinzinger a challenge in the March GOP primary.

If Marter’s name is familiar to you, it’s because he was a candidate in the 2016 primary against liberal Republican U.S. Senator Mark Kirk. Marter currently serves as the Kendall County Republican Chairman.

Recently, Marter reached out to Illinois Family Action about his candidacy, and we spoke with him to find out why he had decided to enter the race.

Why challenge Adam Kinzinger?

I’m running because Kinzinger hasn’t lived up to his purported conservative values. He ran as a tea party conservative against the incumbent conservative Don Manzullo.

It’s important to note that people in the district asked me to run, including none other than State Central Committee member John McGlasson from the 16th congressional district.

Looking at Kinzinger’s voting record over the past couple of sessions of the Congress — there were Continuing Resolution votes — spending bills — and some of those were the biggest in American history.

Congressman Kinzinger voted for those bills. Those bills also included funding for planned parenthood. As we know during the Bush years there was no funding for planned parenthood. Other Congressmen, for example Randy Hultgren, voted against them.

We have a Republican congressman voting for a bill that has funding for planned parenthood. We have a Republican congressman voting for a bill that is fiscally irresponsible.

Voters might be fooled by one of the national pro-life organizations that gives Kinzinger a 100 percent rating. “I don’t know how they do it,” Marter said, “they are giving him a pass for voting for planned parenthood funding.”

On the topic of repealing Obamacare, Marter gets animated regarding Kinzinger’s record.

He seems to have no problem with Obamacare. For years Republican congressmen have run on a platform of repealing it — but where is the repeal? Kinzinger did vote for the bill that passed the House earlier this year but we all know that was not a repeal bill.

Kinzinger has become part of the inside the beltway Washington establishment. They don’t care about the people that are paying the bills. He hasn’t had to buy health insurance for his family like I have. He hasn’t seen the 268% increase in premiums. This year it will probably be over 300% up from the price I was paying the year before Obamacare took effect.

This year for a family of three I paid $25,000; next year it’ll probably be $26 or $27k. He’s never had to deal with that. He’s not fighting to fix that.

He’s out of touch with families in the district, and he doesn’t know what it’s like to face those kinds of increases.

Congressman Kinzinger’s website admits that “Americans continue to face a health care crisis.” It seems like a fair question to ask why this is the case when Republicans now control both houses of Congress and the White House.

Marter turned the conservation to the rating scorecard provided by Conservative Review, which he considers the “gold standard.”

They show you the details of what votes they’re using to rate the members of Congress. Kinzinger gets a score of 36%, a big fat ‘F’.

The only thing I’ll give him is that my last opponent, Mark Kirk, was at rated 18%.

Kinzinger’s staff says that if you look at the Conservative Review scores, all the Republicans are bad. Well, I agree with CR, most of them are bad and need to be replaced.

Republicans in Congress are always on defense. They don’t know how to go on offense.

Running against Mark Kirk was an uphill battle. This time I’ve got people around me that want me to do this. They’re working for me. We’re a lot farther ahead than last time.

When questioned about his not actually residing in the 16th district, Marter reminds everyone that Kinzinger ran in 2012 from outside of the 16th district.

I don’t live in the district and I’m not hiding that fact. I have a flyer out that says where I do live. Living in the district is not a Constitutional requirement.

Kinzinger first ran in 2010 and took out an incumbent Democrat. But after redistricting, he decided not to work on holding the seat for Republicans. Instead, he ran against conservative Congressman Don Manzullo.

Kinzinger ran as a tea party candidate and as a conservative, Marter said:

He made promises. But like so many others in Congress, he ran on our values but is not standing up for them.

Lately he’s been moving to the right in what he’s saying – he has even started to embrace President Trump. He should’ve done that in the presidential race last year, but he didn’t.

James Marter said that these are just a few of the reasons why he’s running. “We need to take our party back for conservative Republican values, that’s why I’m in the race.”

James Marter came out against Governor Bruce Rauner in a Facebook post back in August, and then again in September after Rauner legalized taxpayer funding of abortion. Kinzinger has announced his support for Rauner’s reelection.

For more information, please visit his Facebook page HERE.

Have you given the IFA weekly podcast a listen yet? Illinois Family Spotlight highlights cultural and political issues of particular interest and relevance to Christian conservatives in Illinois. You can find Spotlight on podcast applications like Google Play Music, iTunes, SoundCloud, Pocket Casts, and Stitcher.  You can also listen to our podcasts HERE on our website.

Please subscribe to IFA’s podcasts.