South West Illinois News

Marine Corps veteran Paul Schimpf, running for state Senate in the 58th District, is pushing for a Blue Lives Matter initiative introduced by state Sen. David Luechtefeld (R-Okawville) in the wake of police officer attacks in Texas and Louisiana.

 

“Sen. Luechtefeld is going to be introducing legislation that we’re calling Blue Lives Matter legislation to add law enforcement personnel, firefighters and EMS personnel to the list of protected categories under the Illinois hate crime statute,” Schimpf said in a radio interview with WXAN. “The reason for this is as you know recently there has been a series of events where there have been attacks on police officers in Texas and Louisiana, and those attacks in my mind clearly fit the definition of a hate crime.”

 

Schimpf, a former military attorney, said the attacks should be considered hate crimes because they are premeditated “based on the simple fact that they were law enforcement in the line of duty.”

 

The Blue Lives Matter initiative is not new legislation. It is an initiative to expand the list of protected people in the list of hate crimes statute, despite what opponents might say.

 

“I understand that there are differences in opinion on whether if we really need hate crimes legislation," Schimpf said. "The argument is that murderers murder; it doesn’t matter who the person is. The reality is that we have this hate crime statute on the books. If we’ve got it on the books, we may as well add our law enforcement, firefighters and EMS personnel in that.”

 

Schimpf, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, is raising awareness for the Blue Lives Matter legislation in the fall veto session; and if it does not go through, he promises voters that he will re-introduce the legislation in the spring should he be elected.

 

Schimpf’s campaign also revealed other topics he is touching on during his campaign in the run up to the November election. In particular, he pointed out key issues regarding the coal industry in southern Illinois and economic growth in the state.

 

“I am willing to unequivocally state that I oppose the Obama administration’s cap and trade proposals, and their EPA regulations that have done so much to devastate our southern Illinois coal industry,” Schimpf said.

 

If elected, Schimpf has vowed to bring jobs back to the state of Illinois in the wake of its economic turmoil.

 

“I think that we need to make some tweaks to our worker’s comp system so that Illinois could be competitive with Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana," Schimpf said. "Those are the states that are taking our jobs away. The problem that Illinois has is that the job creators are either no longer coming to Illinois or they’re leaving our state.”

 

In addition, Schimpf said he is disappointed in the recent 4-3 ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court against the Independent Map Amendment and hopes to see court justices doing a better job in the “badly fractured Illinois court.”

 

Schimpf also said he supports term limits while his opponent, former Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, does not.