Justin Sinner, a senior political science major and president of the college republicans sat down with Daily Eastern News associate news editor Nicole Milstead to talk about today’s election. EIU College Democrats president Travis Bounds was unable to make the interview due to illness.

Question: Why are you a Republican?

Answer: I have always been a Republican every since I can remember which is funny because my parents are both Democrats. I have always been a big capitalist and I have always loathed socialism and big government. I love it. The fundamental difference between us has always been the role of government.

Q: What do the College Republicans do?

A: What do we do? While in election cycles we are busy, busy. Besides attending fundraisers all the time for candidates, we have a real local focus here a lot of our support comes from the community not so much the student body. There are obviously a lot of liberal students on campus, and we are the counter culture here. Right now we are doing a big blitz of Mattoon, that is were you drop stuff on doors. On Friday, we did a protest of Blagojevich on campus. On Election Day, we are doing phones.

Q: How are you involved in Election Day?

A: On Election Day, none of us are judges, (but) one of us might be a pole watcher. We get phone lists of registered republicans, and we are the people who are like “Hi did you vote yet today ma’am or sir?” And then what we are going to do as our Republican central committee, which we have a wonderful relationship with much better than the Dems ever had especially last year, we are all going to the back room, we rented out, of Styx (Panther Paw) where we get the live feed from the court house, and we watch the election results come in. And then we will all get to breathe a nice sigh of relief.

Q: Do you support your party’s candidate for governor?

A: Oh God! Do I! I supported her in the primaries. Her campaign could have been a little better, but people do not realize her budget plan is pretty concise. If you look at Blagojevich he has canceled all these debates, he started using attack ads after the primaries I mean it’s insane. We are in a crisis here in the state of Illinois, our budget is the major issue. People who have never voted republican in their lives are voting Topinka. Our pensions are raped, all these funds are diverted, I don’t know how he did it. Take license plates that say U of I a portion is supposed to go to a fund to help students, no diverted to general revenue. Kid’s Care I wish Topinka’s campaign would focus more on that. A 24-hour residency requirement means anyone in the United States could come stay in a hotel over night and get free health care. And look at business, businesses don’t even give out member plus one or family plans anymore. They’ll just say take it to All Kids, plus he’s under more federal investigations than any other governor – more than Ryan. And Lisa Madigan sent him a letter saying we want your subpoenas to be public. He said no.

And Jesse White is also under investigation for hiring eight family members. They talk about this cultural of corruption; they don’t have anything on Topinka like they have on Blagojevich.

Q: Is Coles County a Republican or Democratic county?

A: It’s a Republican county, a very Republican county. I mean look at the towns. You look at Arcola ., Ashmore ., Charleston. That’s why I said we focus on the community.

I mean the community is great. And a lot of people come here – I’m from Chicago, which is weird; a lot of people don’t expect me to be from there – but (students) come here and they have this elitist attitude of “oh look at these country folk.” And its like you’re supposed to be tolerant and a liberal. You know? But they have no problem making fun of hillbillies.

Q: Are there any close races here in Coles County?

A: Actually there are, the sheriffs race is pretty heated, which is surprising because Chub Conner isn’t from Coles County. He’s from Douglas County. He doesn’t even work for the Coles County Sheriff office, which is really weird to me. And I know Darrell pretty well now. He’s a great guy, he’s been with the force forever. When he starts, he’s not going to have to learn things.

I figure if you don’t look at the parties – regardless of what party you are, you’re running the sheriff’s office – if you look at job qualifications, I’d have to say Darrell is the way to go. But it’s been pretty close. Also Edwards and Keyes I’m a little worried about – the treasure for county .. Otherwise we’ve got clerk. We’ve got the chance to take the entire county board this year if we can beat French or at least trim down the Dems on the board cause the board’s been getting pretty annoying lately because of the Dems. Obviously the governor’s race is up for grabs.

Q: How do you think the Illinois government will change if your candidate wins for governor?

A: Here’s a good change, someone who lives in the mansion. I’ve been in these people’s offices. I’ve walked into Topinka’s office as treasure stuff everywhere, papers, books, commotion. Jesse white’s office is the largest office – even larger than the governors – tons of stuff going on. Blagojevich’s office – empty desk. All he has is one Elvis doll sitting there in the back. You know they call him the governor in Chicago for a reason. All of our departments (at Eastern) are on the 2001 budgets and now the UPI wants raises. What are we supposed to do? That’s out of our pocket. We have an F in higher education funding. It’s just sickening. We are paying too much right now, and I think that should be enough to motivate college students. Also we’re going to have the politics of common sense. You know Topinka is a very liberal Republican, and she’s a woman. . But I think we need more women represented in government. . She’s been treasurer, (so) maybe we’ll have a normal budget.