People in Illinois have been seeing the ubiquitous Raja for Senate television ads for months. But on Saturday more than 100 Oak Park Democrats got to see Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-8th District, in person when he spoke at the monthly meeting of the Democratic Party of Oak Park at the main branch of the Oak Park Public Library.
Krishnamoorthi had been invited to appear at the September DPOP meeting where his opponents U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-2nd District, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton spoke, but he canceled the night before because of a scheduling conflict. A staffer on Krishnamoorthi’s campaign said Krishnamoorthi attended a senior citizen bingo event that morning on the south side of Chicago.
Oak Park Democrats seemed impressed as they gave Krishnamoorthi a standing ovation at the end of his approximately 30 minute appearance that consisted of a version of his stump speech and time answering questions.
“I liked his messaging, I thought it was very clear and he is very on top of the issues that matter to me and he understands the complexity of representing Democrats,” said Pat Baccerllieri, of Oak Park.
Krishnamoorthi, 52, was born in India and came to the United States when he was just three months old. He tied his and his parents immigrant background to his message emphasizing economic issues in his pitch to the Oak Park Democrats while also harshly criticizing President Donald Trump. Krishnamoorthi’s father became a professor at Bradley University. Krishnamoorthi grew up in Buffalo and Peoria before earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton and a law degree from Harvard.
Krishnamoorthi, who was elected to Congress in 2016 from a northwest suburban district, said that he wants government to help people as they cope with economic problems, saying that Democrats must address people’s “pain points.”
He said he also wants the federal government to be modernized and made more efficient.
“We have to be the ones that say government has to do better,” Krishnamoorthi said. “Government has to be viewed as a partner not an obstacle.”
Krishnamoorthi said the Democratic Party should return to its roots as the party of economic opportunity.
“We have to be the party with an aspiration, and a hope and a goal in mind for what our country can be,” Krishnamoorthi said. “We don’t want to be the party that is just, kind of, you know, seen or perceived as the party of grievance or the party that is trying to settle scores like Donald Trump. We want to be the party that is trying to take us to the next destination.”
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In a brief interview after his appearance, Krishnamoorthi reiterated that economic issues are the focus of his campaign.
“I am a radical common sense prosperity Democrat,” Krishnamoorthi said. I believe that government has to be an indispensable partner in people’s individual pursuit of the American Dream. It can’t be an obstacle.”
In his speech and answering questions from Oak Park Democrats, Krishnamoorthi railed at what he described as the chaos of the Trump administration. He called Trump the biggest bully of them all.
“We have to stand up to Trump,” Krishnamoorthi said, adding that reforms must be enacted to make sure no future president can abrogate emergency powers like Trump has.
“We need to architect almost a post-Watergate set of reforms to make sure we never, ever go through this again,” Krishnamoorthi said.
While Krishnamoorthi said that he supports a secure border he also called for a path to citizenship for undocumented people who have lived in the United States for decades.
“Yes we need to have immigration enforcement but ICE is out of control,” Krishnamoorthi said, adding that he has sponsored legislation to force federal agents to not wear masks and to establish an office of inspector general at ICE.
Krishnamoorthi called for mid-decade redistricting to be banned.
He also said that government regulation and oversight of business is necessary.
“We have to bring accountability to this government,” Krishnamoorthi said. “I’ve spent a decade in Congress standing up to bullies and bad actors whether it’s the e-cigarette industry that tried to hook a generation of youth onto vapes, or the food conglomerates that tried to merge and tried to hike prices and hurt workers or poison our baby food with toxic metals.”
Krishnamoorthi is considered the frontrunner in the March Democratic primary, mostly because of his overwhelming fundraising advantage. According to the Federal Election Commission, his Senate campaign has raised nearly $24.9 million thus far compared to just over $2.7 million for Kelly and nearly $2.1 million for Stratton.
Unlike Krishnamoorthi and Kelly, Stratton does not accept donations from corporate political action committees, a stance that recently earned her the endorsement from the group End Citizens United.
Krishnamoorthi said Saturday he supports overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that allows corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaigns. Krishnamoorthi rejected the notion that he is beholden to corporate donors, saying that he has thousands of individual donors and a record of cracking down on corporate bad actors.
“I’ve been privileged to receive support from tens and tens of thousands of individual donors from across the country,” Krishnamoorthi said.
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Krishnamoorthi was an early supporter of Barack Obama, volunteering on Obama’s losing campaign for Congress in 2000 against Bobby Rush. A few years later Krishnamoorthi served as the policy director for Obama’s successful 2004 Senate campaign.
Dorothy Loutfi, of Oak Park, said she saw some similarities between Krishnamoorthi and Obama
“He was Obamaesque,” Loutfi said. “I just found him very invigorating, engaging.”
Bob Skolnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.