FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 6, 2002

For further information: 708-848-6657

      Environmental Activist and Animal Advocate
      Proposes Wide-Ranging Legislative Program

Les Cut-the-Taxes Golden has been named by Chicago and suburban Republican committeeman to run as the GOP candidate for state representative in the new 78th district. Oak Park Republican Committeeman Steve Meyer had been encouraging Golden for several months to run for the office and Golden eventually agreed.

Golden was motivated in large part by frustration, "I have many ideas for the betterment of Illinois, and I continually write letters about the blindness of government to the destruction of our environment and our wildlife and pets, and the need for fiscal sense. But, although people tell me they read my letters and like my ideas, they don't turn into public policy. If I'm elected, I hope some of my environmental and animal rights ideas will become the law."

Golden was the unanimous selection of the Republican committeemen in the 78th district to fill the vacancy in nomination created when no Republican filed to run in the March 19 primary election.

The 78th state representative district includes Oak Park north of Washington Blvd. as well as River Forest north of Iowa St. and parts of Austin, Galewood, and suburban Melrose Park, Stone Park, and Northlake.

Meyer noted, "Allegations of irregularities in the Democratic party primary in the 78th district have scarred the integrity of the cornerstone of our democracy, the electoral process. I and other local Republican committeemen are seeking federal involvement so that qualified candidates like Les Golden will be protected from the possibility of voter fraud in the November general election."

As President of the Oak Park Citizens Active for a Responsible Electorate (CARE) from 1989-1992, Golden earned the reputation as a tireless spokesman for sensible taxation policy, environmentalist, and slatemaker. Every local election Oak Park in those years fielded a complete slate of CARE candidates. The lead character in a local Oak Park newspaper�s comic strip, later turned into a play by its author, was "Moe Silver," leader of the "LOVE" party, a tireless slatemaker modeled after Golden. He also organized the Taxpayers United of River Forest (TURF) in 1991. Together these organizations elected 5 individuals to public office.

Although possibly known best for his positions on sensible taxation policy, Golden's proudest public achievement from these years remains the banning of pesticides from the parks and recreation centers in Oak Park in 1991. Put into force on April 16, 1991, the first day that his CARE party exercised the majority (with a non-CARE ally) on the Park Board, that ban remains in effect today. "Girl soccer players can play on the fields knowing that their children will not have pesticide-induced birth defects. Babies can crawl on the grass with their parents knowing they will not chew on grass that will lead to asthma and digestive problems. And the wildlife and dogs can scamper, feed, and play in the park, and I know they won't die the slow death of Donna Jawor's dog," said Golden. (The anti-pesticide activist�s dog died of toxic poisoning received in an Oak Park park.)

Extending that ban to all the parks in Illinois is one of Golden's legislative goals. "The sad truth," said Golden, "is that the farmlands of the Mississippi River, the Mississippi delta, and the shrimp and fish beds of the Gulf of Mexico are polluted by the run-off of pesticides from a dozen states, including Illinois. Oak Park's ban has a very small effect on that regional scale. If Illinois can ban pesticides, it can be a model for all the Mississippi River states and then we might achieve a truly momentous goal with national repercussions."

Meyer, the Oak Park Republican Committeeman, remarked, "It�s refreshing to see someone of Les� extensive educational background to be more interested in the common good than himself. Les' legislative agenda is one of the most ambitious I've seen in my years in state and local politics. It's obvious just glancing at it that Les isn't another political-wannabe looking for a job, but a long-time Oak Parker who really wants to improve his community, and his state."

Golden, whose family has resided in the same Oak Park home since 1948, has a legislative program that reflects in its approach the training of a Masters degree from Cornell University in engineering physics and Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley, in astrophysics. He also attended Northwestern�s Kellogg Graduate School of Management on fellowship.

His program has four over-all goals, breaking the devastating cycle of drug abuse, crimes, and poverty; making Illinois a better place to live by improving the educational product of its schools and safeguarding the environment; stimulating the Illinois economy; and reducing the size of government and the tax burden. Under these headings are 14 specific goals he wants to achieve.

He then has proposed no less than 60 pieces of legislation geared to achieving those 14 goals. The goals and the pieces of legislation to achieve them are cross-referenced.

All are available for viewing on Les Golden's temporary website, "geocities.com/goldenforstaterepresentative." Included as well are extensive biographical material, articles by and about Golden, a sampling of his editorial cartoons, many of which have been published by the WEDNESDAY JOURNAL, and a description of his knowledge-gathering world travels. It also includes excerpts from the judicial decision which led Golden to go to court to make his nickname "Cut the Taxes" his legal middle name.

"I hope people, especially those who usually vote Democratic, will go to my website and study my issues. I am socially liberal, and fiscally conservative. I hope they find a kinship with my well-articulated passion on these issues and will support me," said Golden. Golden will release details of each aspect of his program approaching the November 5 general election.

For one example, Golden was written up locally for his retrieval of computer equipment, books, and supplies from Oak Park�s Mann School dumpster and then contacting an activist in the black community who distributed those items to inner-city schools. He wants such a sharing program to become public policy. "I want a law in which the wealthy school districts in the 78^th district, that is, Oak Park and River Forest, are directed to have a structured means, perhaps an internet website, to notify the poor districts in the district of the availability of instructional materials and to provide for their transfer, and I would like to see similar sharing programs statewide.

"It's a sin that books, computers, desks, computer software, and supplies end up in landfills rather than the shelf-bare schools that need them," said Golden. "That 'broken' Hewlett-Packard printer that I recovered should have been sent to Austin High School as training material in a computer technician class, not to some landfill. It could have inspired some school kid to lead a productive life rather than to become a drug dealer."

That legislation is one step in achieving Golden's goal of reducing the inequity in educational opportunity for wealthy and poor school districts. "I believe you can make as much progress by attacking a problem in small incremental steps as by funding billion-dollar, bureaucratic morasses," he said. "One small step for a legislator, one giant step for Illinois," Golden says, recalling his background working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Golden proposes an environmentally-sane alternative to the Peotone or O'Hare airport projects, the establishment of an Illinois "Manhattan Project" to develop alternate energy sources for the 21st century, the consolidation of law enforcement agencies for more efficient response to emergencies, a sister program between Illinois and Arab cities to dispel the irrational hatred of America in those countries, making participation in dog fighting a felony rather than misdemeanor, and a myriad of other legislation. Using his Masters degree education from Cornell University, he even proposes legislation requiring a design for skyscrapers to safeguard them against collapse, from a well-received paper he submitted to civil engineering journals.

The "Manhattan Project" concept stems from his teaching courses on energy and the environment as a university professor since the early 1980's. "Within 20 years, or 50 years, or 75 years, depending on the parameters, we will run out of petroleum. The earth will only be able to sustain 300 to 500 million people, as it did for thousands of years before the age of petroleum began in the 19th century. That means unimaginable famine, wars, disease, leading to the death of 90% of all human beings, not to mention what those wars will do to the earth and its non-human inhabitants," said Golden.

"We must begin now to commit funds to the only viable alternative, a network of solar power satellites. Because our elected officials serve terms of 2, 4, or 6 years, and spend too much time coddling their constituents on more immediate issues to ensure their reelection and political careers, they lack this long-term perspective. The federal government is showing no action, so I suggest it becomes Illinois' project," says Golden.

Golden, who has pledged to serve only one term in office so as to be able to focus on such issues, envisions a high-tech effort using the resources of the physics and engineering departments of the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and Fermi and Argonne laboratories. "As in the Manhattan Project in World War II, this expertise would gather with one goal in mind, the research and development of a solar power satellite network," said Golden.

In keeping with the logic of his goals and legislative proposals, such a piece of legislation would help achieve several of Golden's goals. It would provide good jobs for Illinois residents, it would help decrease the imbalance between taxpayer money going to Washington D.C. and that returning to Illinois, and, by removing our dependence on foreign oil, it would help in the fight against terrorism.

Golden, whose political philosphy includes the mantra that "serving as an elected official should be a short-term privilege, not a long-term career," will devote all his energies to passage of his proposed legislation, not to reelection. "From the day I arrive in Springfield," he says, "I will be spending the bulk of my time with the bill-righting legal staff, not with the political action groups or fundraising lobbies," says Golden.

The "Manhattan Project" for Illinois is consistent with another of the elements of Golden's political philosophy. "I think that political leadership is the ability to foresee a problem and prevent it, not to react to a problem after it has occurred by spending millions and billions of taxpayer money to fix it," said Golden. "Unfortunately, that's how government seems to work," Golden says, pointing to the Enron collapse and the 9/11 attack on America. "When we run out of oil -- and it's going to happen -- one can only imagine the calamity that will occur worldwide. I can't imagine a greater contribution to civilization than Illinois developing such a project," said Golden.

"We're very pleased that Les accepted our offer to represent Oak Park downstate. People of his intellect and passion come along far too seldom in this business," said Meyer, the Oak Park Republican committeeman.

For further information:

708-848-6657

geocities.com/goldenforstaterepresentative