After Kay Wojcik decided to go from the Illinois
House to the Senate, it left an empty seat. It was
soon decided that Paul Froelich, a Schaumburg
Precinct committeeman, would replace her. Taking
office in February, he didn’t have as many
opportunities to find his way around Springfield as
other new members of the legislature did when they
arrived in December to prepare.
"Consequently, I have to try and learn more on my
own and ask lots of questions to try and get up to
speed," Froelich says of coming to the Capitol one
month after session had already begun.
Speaking with me during the same week of Anthony
DeLuca’s Republican win in Chicago Heights, he also
reflected on who he is and how others should see
him.
"I’m somebody who’s learning and growing, trying
to reduce my mistakes, involved in my church. I’ve
been married for over 25 years, and I’m the father
of three girls," he said. "I haven’t been back in
(his district) much, but I go back and deal with
phone calls and letters that I’ve accumulated at the
district office, and I go to events in the district.
Since I’m so new, it’s going to take awhile. A lot
of people don’t know I’m there yet."
Q: What did you do today in
session?
A: It was a typical day. I started in committee
- we had one amendment in committee, which I
opposed. It’s a bill that would essentially remove
statute limitations for civil suits for somebody who
was sexually abused as a child, a bit of a strange
bill, because it says that they report to put some
kind of a time limit in, but the time doesn’t start
from when an adult recognizes they were sexually
abused. It’s some other process that may take place
where you realize all the harm it did, and once that
happens, then the clock starts ticking, and it
seemed pretty arbitrary. I oppose the amendment,
although it did pass, and now it goes to the full
House. In a way, it’s a philosophical issue. Should
you have a statute of limitations for civil lawsuits
or for criminal cases? It’s saying if you report you
were injured, and it happened more than "x" number
of years ago, then it’s too late to sue somebody
about it. I think there ought to be some kind of
statute of limitation.
That was in the morning, then I went to session
and voted on maybe 40 or so bills. Most of them
passed. One proposal from the utility companies that
wanted to be able to raise rates on their customers
went down big. Over 100 people (there’s 118 in the
house) voted no on a bill by Rep. Steve Davis, so he
got the trophy, it’s called the "century club
trophy". If one of your bills gets more than 100 no
votes, then it’s a traveling trophy, recognition to
somebody who has a spectacular failure.
It’s fairly lively in the House. There’s mostly
good-natured activities between members and
occasional shouting, but most of the bills so far
haven’t been really emotional or divisive, at least
not today.
Q: Although other new
representatives started in the House during January,
you began on February 4. What was different with
your experience compared to the others?
A: I missed out on freshman orientation. They
have a program in December for newly elected
freshmen to give them an idea about how to do the
job. Consequently, I have to try and learn more on
my own and ask lots of questions to try and get up
to speed. It gave them time to get more bills in. By
the time I got in, the deadline was coming up, so I
didn’t get a chance to introduce as many bills as
others. On the other hand, some Republicans think
there’s too many laws, that we just keep making
more. I don’t think I’ll evaluate myself by the
volume of laws that I get involved in, and
hopefully, voters will feel the same way.
Q: You said you think the
legal smoking age in Illinois should be raised from
18 to 19. Why do you believe this should be done?
A: I favored raising the smoking age for a long
time, and that’s because right now, the age is 18.
The bill I sponsored that passed the House will
raise it to 19. The main reason is that most 18-year
olds, at least part of the year, are still in high
school. We know younger smokers under 18 probably
get their cigarettes from somebody older than them
who buys for them. It makes it just too easy for
underage kids to have access to them when you’ve got
high school kids who can legally buy cigarettes, so
by raising it to 19, we make access by minors a
little harder. In addition, we know the vast
majority of smokers begins before 18, and not many
start after they’re 18 or older. The thinking is if
we can encourage young people to delay smoking,
there’s a good chance they’ll never start, and so I
see that in the long run, this should be a
lifesaving measure.
Q: You also mentioned that
there should be legislation that establishes more
liability to adults who provide beer to minors and
for a third party’s right to sue. While starting a
Students Against Drunk Driving when you were a
teacher, why did you get involved with the issue of
drunk driving?
A: A relative of mine was badly injured by a
drunk driver. That’s the reason that I got involved
as an activist in 1982, helped to found a nonprofit
citizens group fighting drunk driving, and I’ve been
involved with the issue one way or another ever
since. I was a teacher and got the first SADD group
going in my high school district, and it’s still
going. I thought it was something I had an interest
in that was worth getting some high school kids
involved with. I’ve really been involved with the
underage drug prevention for a long time.
Q: You taught high school
for 13 years. What made you want to go into
politics?
A: I became a social studies teacher because I
had an interest in politics in the first place, so
it just was kind of a natural progression. I enjoyed
teaching about government and political science (I
have a degree in political science), and it was a
natural movement in being involved in politics and
eventually running for office. I ran first for
school board after I had taken leave from teaching -
that was the first of four offices I’ve been elected
to. I’ve got quite a bit of experience in local
government and understanding how local government
works and how to run elections too
Q: You are part of the
Republican party back in your township. How can
Illinois Republicans come back after a major loss to
the Democrats in the last elections?
A: We could learn from Anthony DeLuca in Chicago
Heights, who was just elected mayor on Tuesday as a
Republican in an area that has been strongly turning
Democratic. It’s a town that’s majority minority. He
figured out a way to attract significant numbers of
black and Hispanic voters to win a victory against a
Democratic opponent. Republicans must learn how we
must be deliberate in appealing to black and
Hispanic voters. To me, it’s not an option if we’re
going to regain majority party status in this state.
Of course, remember I’m from Cook County, where the
need is even more imperative because we’ll never win
a majority in Cook County as long as we’re a
predominantly white party that very few minorities
want to support.
My big election was in 1998 when I was elected
Schaumburg Township Republican Committeeman, and my
township is bigger than most counties in Illinois in
population. I beat a guy who had been in 32 years.
That was a big upset. I think hardly anyone expected
me to win, including my opponent, but that victory
helped to open other doors, including getting to the
state legislature. That wouldn’t have happened had I
not won that earlier race as party leader.
In my township, I am doing what I am talking
about as far as minority outreach. We started a
Hispanic Republican organization in Schaumburg
Township, an Indo-American organization. We elected
an Indo-American to our township board in 2001; we
just ran a Puerto Rico for library board. Now, he
didn’t win Tuesday, but he didn’t finish last
either. He ran a competitive race. I think that’s
the kind of thing that Republicans have to be
deliberate about. That’s why I was so happy to hear
about the big victory in Chicago Heights, a
Republican in a very diverse town who wasn’t
expected to win and took the Democrats by surprise.
I think that’s great, and we can all learn a lot
from what newly elected Mayor DeLuca accomplished
there.
Q: If given the opportunity
to run for a higher office, would you? Why or why
not?
A: I don’t foresee running for higher office at
this point. I’m not absolutely positive that I never
would, but I don’t anticipate doing so, I don’t have
my sights set on any other office. I think serving
in the legislature is a high calling and something
I’ve been preparing for one way or another for most
of my adult life.
Politics
Today 
Politics
Today: State Rep. Paul
Froelich (R-Schaumburg)