Incumbent U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis has represented Illinois' 7th Congressional District since 1997.Prior to his election to Congress, Davis served on the Chicago City Council and the Cook County Board of Commissioners. He sits on the Committee of Ways and Means and the Committee on Government Reform; Davis is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Progressive Caucus.
He met Windy City Times for a brief interview in his North Lawndale office. Last year, Davis considered a run for Cook County Board President before deciding to seek re-election to his Congressional seat.
Windy City Times: What made you decide not to run for the Cook County board?
Danny Davis: There were too many people in the race who think a great deal like I do. And then I guess one person who does not think as much like I do. And so if there are four people in the race who think close to the same way, it means that people who would be supporting them would split up the vote severely and it would increase the likelihood of the other candidate winning. Terry O'Brien is more conservative on social issues, social needs, social causes, needs of the poor and all, than [ any of ] the other four candidates. And it simply has to do with our heritage: where we grew up, how we grew up, what we know, what we understand, how we understand it.
WCT: Are you happy to see the purchase of Thomson Correctional Facitility by the federal government [ to house Guantanomo inmates ] ?
Danny Davis: I'm not happy. Only thing that makes me happy is two little boys who call me Pappy—one I'll name Biscuit, the other I'll name Gravy. But I think it meets a need. I'm in full support of it. First of all, you can't lead where you don't go, and you can't teach what you don't know. And so if President Obama is going to say we're going to close down Guantanamo, we're going to get out of Gitmo, we're going to bring the terrorist prisoners someplace else, we're going to bring them to the United States—well, why not demonstrate that you mean what you say by bringing them where you live rather than saying, go somewhere else where somebody else lives. It also gets the state of Illinois some money for the purchase, as well as in terms of the jobs that will be created. So I think it's a boon, quite frankly, for the state of Illinois.
WCT: What's your take on the healthcare bill?
Danny Davis: Obviously the Senate has scaled down the bill that we wrote in the House. I happen to be a member of the Ways and Means Committee, so I was very involved in writing the healthcare bill that came out of the House. We wanted a public option; the Senate will not have one. But I'm going to vote for this bill when we get back and reconcile. It's much better than not having one.
WCT: It sounds like one of the next big things on the congressional agenda is immigration reform.
Danny Davis: Yeah, it is. I support the immigration bill that Luis Gutierrez has put together. I believe in comprehensive immigration. I believe that America is still big enough to subscribe to the notions that Emma Lazarus had in her poem when she wrote [ "The New Colossus" ] , "Give me your tired, your huddled masses yearning to be free"—the inscription we put on the Statue of Liberty when people were flocking to this country from other countries. And while we don't have as much latitude and as much openness now as we had then, I do think we have some. I think that everybody has to abide by the law. We shouldn't be disrupting—splitting up—families, and we should be providing opportunities to people who have been here to obtain citizenship. So I'm in favor of comprehensive immigration, I support the bill that Gutierrez has introduced and we're going to work to try to get as much of it included in whatever becomes a final bill.
WCT: Do you think the way that the healthcare debate went—what do you think that means for the immigration bill? It was kind of acrimonious, right?
Danny Davis: Oh, it's going to be acrimonious. One of the hot-button issues in America is immigration. So we're going to have some knock-down, drag-out slug-fests, on immigration, no doubt about it. People are afraid, people don't want immigrants coming to the country. Different people have different spins. Many people in the African-American community think, for example, that immigrants from South or Central America and people from Eastern Europe undercut the labor market and reduce the level of pay that you get for doing low-wage jobs and low-wage work, and so they've got a phobia. There are other people who think that immigrants will overcrowd our social service infrastructure, and we won't be able to do the things we need to do there. So immigration is a big issue, it's a big problem, and we are going to have some knock-down, drag-out fights about it.
WCT: One of the things we've been hearing a lot about—about immigration reform—is this provision to allow same-sex partners to sponsor one another for citizenship.
Danny Davis: Let me tell you: same-sex partners, I am in full support of efforts that have been made, efforts that could be made. I've been in support of human-rights legislation and issues practically ever since I've been in public office. I think that people who are same-sex partners should be able to have the same rights and privileges as everybody else, whether they're coming from another country or whether they live in another country or whether they immigrate to the United States, no matter what.
WCT: That didn't make it into the Gutierrez bill, but is that something you'd support?
Danny Davis: It is something that I would support without a doubt. I have no difficulty with it whatsoever. I've supported these kinds of concepts for a long time. For me, they're nothing new.
WCT: What are the other big issues for you this year? What are you running on?
Danny Davis: The biggest issue is creating jobs: jobs, jobs, job creation, job creation, job creation, job creation.
WCT: How has your district been affected by the economic slowdown?
Danny Davis: My district has lost more than—I'll bet you—200,000 good-paying, solid jobs in the last forty years. My district used to be an industrial corridor. 10,000 [ used to work ] right here, every day. This used to be headquarters for [ Sears, Roebuck and Co. ] .
WCT: This building?
Danny Davis: This building. This office—across the other side—was the office that Arthur Wood, who was the chairman and president of Sears—this office here was the treasurer's office. See that safe there? That's why that safe is there. This was the treasurer's suite on this side. There used to be 20,000 people who worked at Western Electric every day. So all of these things have changed.
See davisforcongress.us.
