Politics & Government

6th District Candidate Holding 'Meet Leslie' Event

Event slated for Jan. 28.

On Saturday Jan. 28, will host a “Meet Leslie” event at Arrowhead Golf Club, 26W151 Butterfield Road, in Wheaton.  The event, which features a discussion of issues important to residents of the 6th Congressional District, begins at 4 p.m. and will conclude at 6 p.m.  Drinks and appetizers will be served.  An RSVP is required to info@coolidgeforcongress.com.

Coolidge, a Democrat, held a similar event Saturday in Barrington that drew more than sixty people. She told the group that she is running for Congress because America has serious needs that are not being addressed in Washington.  “I watched the debt ceiling debacle this past summer and couldn’t believe that the Republicans in Congress seemed to think that pushing our country to the brink of financial default was a good idea.”

Coolidge is a CPA and retired partner of KPMG, one of the largest accounting firms in the world. She believes her experience makes her uniquely qualified to delve into the numbers and create the best solutions to our biggest problems:  lack of good jobs, continued weakness in the housing market, the threats to Social Security and Medicare, and making sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes. 

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The most important step we can take to putting America back to work, Coolidge said, is to invest in infrastructure projects, like new and repaired roads and rail.  Infrastructure development has an added benefit for Coolidge, an avid environmentalist, who believes we must begin to move toward a modern transportation system based around high-speed rail and other mass transit alternatives to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce our deficit at the same time.

Coolidge also pointed out that the 6th District, currently represented by Peter Roskam, has changed  boundaries to take in a large portion of the 8th Congressional District, including her home. “Voters in the old 8th District are experiencing buyers’ remorse about having elected Joe Walsh,” she said to applause and cheers. “Peter Roskam’s votes are almost identical with Joe Walsh’s.” She promised to provide supporters with much more information on Congressional Republican votes as the campaign progresses and encouraged them to volunteer for her campaign.

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Near the end of her talk, Coolidge was asked whether she was related to noted ultra-conservative President Calvin Coolidge and what that meant to her own life. She related a story about her middle-class upbringing and the financial aid she applied for when she was admitted to Harvard. One source of aid was an endowment made by descendants of John Coolidge, who had arrived in the new Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, which her mother thought would lead to a full scholarship for Leslie, especially after she proved that Leslie was related to him. Also through the process, the family did learn of their actual relationship to Calvin Coolidge which they’d always wondered about. All for naught as it turned out; the scholarship, which turned out to be a loan, was available only to men. It was a lesson in conservative values that Leslie has never forgotten. 

Leslie Coolidge for Congress provided this information.


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