Republican

Dave Barnes

Belleville

Age: 61

Married

Children: 2

Job: Insurance sales, service since 1979

Phone: (618) 410-0588

Web: www.davebarnes4senator.com

Facebook: Dave Barnes For State Senator

Twitter: davebarnes4

E-mail: dave@davebarnes4senator.com

Education: Limited college

Previous offices: St. Clair Township trustee

Qualifications: I am self-employed and have been for most of my life. I'm a public servant, not a politician. I feel that everyone in my district is equally important. I will work hard to restore jobs to this great state by rolling back the 67 percent personal income tax increase that took on average $1,000 out of the workers' yearly paycheck. Making this great state once again a place that we can be proud to live, work, and raise our families. I will take my five solutions to Springfield and start bringing jobs and opportunities back to Illinois: 1. New jobs bring new revenue. We have to fill in revenue gaps with jobs, not new taxes; 2. Create a competitive environment for business by implementing serious lawsuit reform, ethics reform, fixing workers' compensation and Medicaid fraud, to make our state competitive now and in the future; 3. We need real pension reform, not pension rearrangement. We need to honor our commitments to those who are collecting pensions, while fixing the program to make it sustainable for future generations; 4. Live by our state's constitutionally mandated balanced budget. If we only spend what we have, we will no longer generate budget deficits; 5. Stop the borrowing. If we stop borrowing, we will stop adding to our debt, our children's debt, and our grandchildren's debt.

Top issues: Jobs, pensions, tax reform, energy.