text: Democratic Hopefuls Start Campaigns Early - tribunedigital-chicagotribune
  Democratic Hopefuls Start Campaigns Early
  July 25, 1996|By Jean Latz Griffin, Tribune Staff Writer.
  Underdogs try harder. So it is no surprise that two Democrats running in heavily Republican territory released their platforms this week--more than three months before the November election.
  James Kappel, who is trying to oust state Rep. Ann Hughes (R-Woodstock) in the 63rd District, would introduce a 10-year wage freeze on all "state-elected and higher-echelon bureaucratic officials" if elected, according to his platform.
  Kappel, a carpet layer who has attended McHenry Community College and Northern Illinois University, would develop a state program to provide four years of college in exchange for four years of public service.
  "My No. 1 priority is to reopen the political system to the average person," Kappel said.
  Hughes, secretary/treasurer of Hughes Seed Farms, was elected to the House in 1993.
  She received a rating of 100 percent from the Illinois Chamber of Commerce in 1995, a 15 percent rating from the AFL-CIO, a 100 percent rating from the Farm Bureau and a 9 percent rating from the Illinois Public Action Council.
  Betty Hull, an English professor at Harper Community College in Palatine, is opposing U.S. Rep. Philip Crane (R-Ill.) in the 8th House District.
  One of the issues on which she strongly disagrees with Crane is funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
  Crane, who has been in Congress since 1969, has led a fight to abolish funding for the two agencies, arguing that the Founding Fathers did not intend for tax money to be used for the arts.
  But Hull, who writes and analyzes science fiction, supports federal funding for the arts because of their importance "to maintain sanity and provide communal experience."