Tom Hanson, who received 22 percent of the vote in the November 2008 election, is vying for the 5th Congressional seat again. A successful real-estate broker, Hanson has no prior legislative experience.
Windy City Times: Do you feel like conditions have changed between the November election and now? Do you feel like you have a better chance now?
Tom Hanson: A lot of things have changed dramatically since then. I think people might be really unhappy about Illinois, Cook, and Chicago politics. Because it seems like our politics, just point blank, a lot of them are corrupt. It's just business as usual: I'll do this favor for you if you do this favor for me. And it doesn't seem like it's in the voters' interest.
WCT: And you see yourself as more of an outsider?
TH: I'm an outsider. I'm going to say what I think. I'm not going to appease people. I'm not going to placate people. I don't want campaign money from people. I don't—because I don't want to owe any favors to anybody.
WCT: Could you explain a little more to me about being a "liberal Republican," and what that means?
TH: My self-brand. I'm like the Brad Pitt of the Republican Party. I'm for gay rights and for civil unions. I'd like to fast-track immigrants that want to become citizens. And I'm for women's rights. I'm against abortion, but I'm pro-choice. I believe that's a woman's decision. And I don't believe my personal opinion about something should affect other people's rights. Now fiscally, I'm a little bit like a Reaganite, where I believe in being fiscally responsible. The problem with the Republican Party is that they've been great about lowering taxes, but they could never reign in the spending. When Reagan lowered the highest income tax rate from 70 down to 28 percent, which is incredible, it created 20 million jobs. A few weeks ago they were talking about four million jobs, now they're talking about 3 million jobs, where 600,000 jobs are going to be governmental jobs. We're just expanding government. We're socializing the economy. … It's a whole big deal. We're now socialists.
WCT: You said that you're pro-choice, and it said on your website that you favor abortion rights but that you would vote for all restrictions that are permissible under Roe vs Wade. What does that mean? Like what sort of restrictions would you like to see?
TH: I'm not for late-term abortions, and I'm not for if they abort and the baby lives. If they wait to abort and it lives, I'm against killing the baby. So I'm for these restrictions. I don't think Roe vs. Wade will ever be cancelled. I don't think that's ever going to happen. But personally I'm against abortion, but like I said, it's a woman's choice. I'll just leave it up to the women to decide. I mean—that's just the way I am.
WCT: And what is your position on same-sex marriage? Are you in favor of "marriage" or are you in favor of "civil unions"?
TH: I'm in favor of civil unions, and then marriage is really up to the church. I don't feel like I should govern a church.
WCT: But marriage is a legal term, right?
TH: Marriage is a contract. I don't want to get into that—church and state, I think they're separate. I think John McCain was trying to answer that with Ellen Degeneres. He said, "I'm for civil unions, I'm for civil unions," and somehow she got into that marriage thing and said, "I still don't feel right, I still don't feel right." We attend a church, it's a non-denominational Christian church, so they accept people of all faiths. But I don't want to get into a religion thing. I hope that answers your question. I mean if there's a church out there that says, you know, we can marry gay people—great, sure.
WCT: Barack Obama's been talking about wanting to change the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, and I was wondering what your position on that is.
TH: I'm not sure where anybody's at on that. I mean, look—I'm not an expert on everything. And the reason I'm a liberal Republican is that I'm willing to sit down and listen to people. So if anybody can give me a better idea, something I can get on the bandwagon for, I'll be happy for it. I don't know. What do people want? Just to keep it simple?
WCT: It seems like everybody's sort of dissatisfied with Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
TH: I guess Don't Ask, Don't Tell basically says if you're gay, don't say you're gay. Or don't tell you're gay. And it's restrictive. Whereas you should be able to go into the military and not feel like you're being penalized for who or what you are. In the military, it's the strictest form of equality that I think you can get, because you get your merits based on what you can do. I mean if you're in combat, and let's say there's a guy next to you who's gay that jumps on a hand grenade for you, or risks his life to protect you—there shouldn't be any inequality in the military. I mean, there are gay people in the military. It doesn't matter whether you're black, white, green or gay or whatever.
WCT: Do you support the inclusion of trans people in ENDA?
TH: I'm against discrimination, period. That's it. I mean, I'm a licensed Illinois broker, and we're regulated by the state of Illinois. We cannot discriminate—age, sex, gender, whatever. I'm against discrimination. So, if somebody gets hired and they end up being a transgender, you know, I don't think you should fire somebody because of that. People are people. God loves everybody. The door's always open. So, that's where I'm coming from. God loves everybody.
See www.tomhansonforcongress.com .
