Rep. Phil Hare (D)

The congressman from the 17th District is Phil Hare, a Democrat elected in 2006. Hare was born in Galesburg, the son of a machinist. He attended Black Hawk Community College in Moline and was a union leader at the Seaford Clothing Factory in Rock Island, where he cut lining for men’s suits for 13 years. The work could be hazardous, and during his time there, Hare says, he was one of only three employees with all 10 fingers intact. Hare went to work as an aide to Democratic Rep. Lane Evans and stayed 24 years, chiefly as his district director. Evans was the ranking minority member on the Veterans Affairs Committee and a leading prairie populist before suffering the debilitating effects of a long-running battle with Parkinson’s disease. A week after winning the March 2006 Democratic primary, Evans announced that he would not run for a 13th term. Evans endorsed Hare as his successor, and Hare picked up the backing of labor unions and the Rock Island Democratic Party as well. But he had serious primary competition from State Sen. John Sullivan, state Rep. Mike Boland and Rock Island Mayor Mark Schweibert.

Hare campaigned on health care and expanding renewable fuels. He supported abortion rights but favored restrictions, such as requiring parental notification for minors, and he opposed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Under Illinois law, precinct committeemen from the 17th District were authorized to choose the party’s replacement nominee for Evans in a weighted selection process. Hare says he spoke personally with nearly 350 of the roughly 400 eligible voters. He won 64% of the weighted vote to clinch the nomination. Boland criticized the “insider’s game” and pressure from party and union leaders to support Hare. In the general election, Hare faced former Quad Cities television news anchor Andrea Zinga, but her campaign never really threatened Hare. Zinga struggled to raise money, and the national GOP took no interest in the race. Hare won 57% to 43% for Zinga.

In the House, Hare votes near the center of the Democratic Caucus. He has pursued his former boss’s interest in veterans’ issues, with proposals for automatic payment of at least a portion of a disabled veteran’s claim at the time it is filed and for making veterans’ programs mandatory rather than discretionary spending. Hare also managed to win approval for a new veterans’ clinic in his district, an impressive feat for a freshman lawmaker. Following reports of bonuses to senior officials at the Veterans Administration, he cited the backlog of claims from soldiers plus security breaches at the department. In May 2007, Hare called for the resignation of Veterans Secretary Jim Nicholson.

On other issues, he was an outspoken critic of international trade agreements and publicly took issue with fellow Democrats who supported them. “I didn’t come out here to be a backbencher,” he said. When supporters said that the proposed free-trade deal with Colombia would help the Caterpillar plant in Hare’s district, Hare said he believed the opposite would be true for workers at the plant. “Somebody’s got to stand up for the American worker” and the adverse impact of past deals, he said. On the home front, he worked to secure as many earmarks as he could, despite controversy in recent years about the special provisions that lawmakers tuck into spending bills for their districts. “I don’t consider it pork,” he told the Quad-City Times. “My job is to get every penny I can back to this district.” Hare had no Republican opponent in 2008.