Peoria Standard

Incumbent state Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) recently was endorsed by several local and state officials in her November re-election bid for the 93rd District seat. 

Hammond’s endorsements were announced at a news conference in Macomb attended by Macomb Mayor Mike Inman, U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), and state Reps. C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville) and Randy Frese (R-Paloma). Hammond is running against Macomb Democrat John Curtis.

“It is extremely important to me,” Hammond told The McDonough County Voice.

Hammond said the support she received from the officials and the community is extremely important to her,  according to The McDonough County Voice.

“I am honored; I don’t take you for granted, and I can tell you I never will take you for granted," Hammond told The McDonough County Voice. "I am humbled by the support you have given me over the years and certainly humbled by the support you are showing me here today.”

Inman shared how Hammond and Macomb’s city government worked together despite their difference in political views and beliefs. The mayor stressed that Hammond’s primary focus lies in what is good for her constituents.

“We try to get things done, and I think we’ve been successful at that,” Inman told The McDonough County Voice. “And that’s the kind of person I see behind us here, that’s Norine Hammond. She’s about bringing people together and getting solutions.”

LaHood, who represents the 18th Congressional District, said Hammond's dedication and determination to help her constituents shine brightly in her actions. LaHood added that Hammond strives to extend support to all members of the community and touch base with all the sectors in an effort to check on everyone’s welfare.

“We worked together on a lot of projects and there is no finer elected official than what we have in Norine Hammond,” LaHood told The McDonough County Voice.

“She cares deeply about her constituency, she cares deeply about her community," LaHood told The McDonough County Voice. "It doesn’t matter what it is, it could be agriculture, it could be Western Illinois, it could be Amtrak, it could be senior citizens. She puts a priority on taking care of her district, and she goes to Springfield and represents that constituency.”

Part of Hammond's re-election platform is addressing the budget crisis of the state. Hammond acknowledged that the General Assembly will be pushed to make more challenging decisions in the next months.

“There are a lot of votes that are behind us that were not easy, but there are certainly a lot of issues that we are going to be facing that are going to require some very difficult decisions,” Hammond told The McDonough County Voice.

“I think that it is important that we work on that in a bipartisan and bicameral way," Hammond said. "And that is the way we are going to turn the state of Illinois around, and we have to do that in the very near future because we cannot continue the kind of debt we have today.”

In an effort to provide for the operations of the state government and to fund the public school districts for another full year, Gov. Bruce Rauner and the legislators agreed to implement a stopgap budget stretching to six months.

However, Hammond said that the 16-member budget committee of the General Assembly has yet to meet again after the stopgap budget was passed in June. She noted that House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) has not set any date for a budget committee hearing.

“The speaker has not set a date for us,” Hammond said after the news conference. “In my opinion, it needs to happen, absolutely. But I do not believe that the speaker is going to allow that to happen before the election.”

Hammond has been in office since December 2010 when was appointed to replace the late Richard Myers. Her constituency covers Macomb, Galesburg, Abingdon, Mount Sterling, Havana, and Rushville.