Episode 19 • L3 IRL • Marsie Geldert-Murphey

[00:00:23] Left Leaning Ladies, and I'm joined by Amy, Chelsa, and Lisa, and we are here with Marsie Geldert-Murphey, who is running for state senate. So let me do a little introduction for her before we hand it over to her. So Marsie, welcome to Left Leaning Ladies. We're really excited to have you with us today. You bring a very unique perspective to this race. You're a civil engineer, a former

[00:00:50] president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a union member, and someone with firsthand experience navigating serious health challenges. Your career has focused on solving complex problems and improving the systems people rely on every single day. And now you're bringing that experience to the Metro East at a time when the region is facing major economic challenges,

[00:01:16] infrastructure, and workforce challenges as well. We are looking forward to learning more about what motivated you to run, what you believe Springfield has been missing, and how you would turn your professional experience into meaningful results for families across your district. So welcome to Left Leaning Ladies, Marsie. Thank you very much, and thank you all for having me on. I'm just so

[00:01:42] grateful. I'm really excited to have our conversation tonight. Thank you so much. I know it's always difficult to tear away from all of the canvassing and all of the things that candidates have to do. There's very little time left before the election, and so we do appreciate your time. We're going to jump right in with some great questions. Okay. Marcy, you've spent your career solving complex infrastructure problems, including serving

[00:02:12] as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. What made you decide that the best way to make a difference for the Metro East was to run for state senate? And what do you see that career politicians might be missing? Well, great question. There's a lot loaded in that question. You know, really, how this whole thing started was I have always been involved with being a trusted advisor to legislators,

[00:02:41] but primarily on the federal side. So with the American Society of Civil Engineers, before I ran for president, and you do have to run for president, and you do have to get elected, ASCE represents 177 countries, and there's over 165,000 members. Yeah. So that was an interesting, that was my only other

[00:03:05] election, you know, air quotes, before. But when I was, my kids saw me going to Washington, D.C. and talking to legislators about infrastructure, you know, support and funding and, you know, professional licensure for civil engineers as well, and issues like that. And my youngest son kept asking, why don't

[00:03:32] you help us here? Why don't you help us here, you know, at the local level or the state level? And I guess I was, I kind of thought, well, I've never been really asked, and I always had the opportunity to do this more nationally. So he planted the first seed. And then as I started to get more involved locally and at the state level and finding out some of the things I'd like to see differently

[00:04:01] and trying to get an audience with some of our state representatives and senators. I work throughout the state, so not just in this district or region. I was realizing that, you know, no matter where you go, whether it's national, local, or state, they don't have the background or experience, and we can't expect them to really, you know, that an engineer does. And

[00:04:29] the more I thought about it, an engineer really is a good profession to be a legislator. We know about infrastructure. We know about skilled labor. We know about construction. We know about funding. We know about grants. We know about all of the agencies that we work with throughout the state or federal level to get projects done. I mean, who better, really, to help serve us than someone who has all of

[00:04:57] that experience? So my son and I were at a town hall that Nikki Buzinski and Katie Stewart were at, and they had made an appeal to everyone in the audience, you all should consider running. And he elbowed me, and he goes, Mom? And I said, Okay, let's do this. Let's, you know, so it's been a practice really of drinking from the fire hose because I've never done this before. So I had to

[00:05:25] learn the system. But as an engineer, I'm great at, you know, figuring out complex systems and boiling it and distilling it down to the simplest approach. And so I took that same approach with this along with my youngest son, Miles, who's been with me every step of the way. But getting back to your question, what do, what do I think I can bring to Springfield is just that knowledge of, you know,

[00:05:55] what it takes, politicians are great at understanding funding, we need this much money to do XYZ. And then you'll see him, well, I brought this money down. But do they really understand, number one, how much money is truly needed, unless someone tells them, right? And number two, in the area of infrastructure and infrastructure improvement and growth. And number two, how do they once the money's

[00:06:21] here? Do they understand how it actually gets on the ground and projects are being built? I understand that. And I understand why we have $4 billion sitting in the road fund right now. And we need to get that on the streets and projects out the door. And I understand some of the hurdles that our system has, that we have created in Illinois ourselves, that we have to fix so that we can be able to do the things

[00:06:49] that we need to do. Yeah, I mean, it's not always just a matter of throwing money at the problem, there are underlying issues that have to be solved. And, and I so agree with you. Well, and, you know, we always we have these complex issues, and we think there's a simple answer. And it's not that it has to be a complex answer, but it's not a singular siloed, simple solution.

[00:07:15] Exactly. And especially in a state like this, where there are so many municipalities, we all have to be able to work together and communicate and that, you know, it, it's a, it's a problem to be solved. Right, right. Yeah. And I'm excited to, I'm really excited and thrilled to at the potential to have the opportunity to get in there and make a difference. And I know I can,

[00:07:39] I really know I can. Yes. Um, you spoke. Yeah, I believe you too. Um, I loved hearing you speak at the forum that we attended. Um, you just are so knowledgeable and so, um, enthusiastic about what you can do. And I just love that. Um, so I, you spent your career, uh, you've talked about

[00:08:03] Metro East being overlooked and underutilized with Alton Steel shutting down and Granite City Steel Mill struggling. What specifically would you do as a state Senator to attract new industries? Well, there's a number of ways I believe that we can do this. Um, we have, uh, a program called Edge that basically is an incentive program for job producing, um, industry to come in and businesses

[00:08:29] to come in or existing, um, businesses to expand. And what I would like to do is I would like to expand on that legislation and put some, I call them golden handcuffs because we're in this short-term doom loop everywhere, not just in this community, this district, this state, even it's, it's our whole country. We are driven by what I call the next quarterly report. So corporate entities are always

[00:08:57] looking at what is our profit loss statement at the next quarterly report. What is our stock value? And it's hard to get people thinking beyond that. If you think back in the day when a lot of industry was first growing and rising in the first industrial revolution, we had a lot of leaders, not all of them, but we had a lot of leaders who looked beyond their tenure, who thought about what will this

[00:09:27] look like 50 years from now, a hundred years from now? What am I leaving for future generations? And we've really gotten away from that. So I think that's what we're getting wrong here. We are constantly trying to get to that next quarter or get to that next six months. And particularly with politicians, I realized that, you know, they get in that cycle of when, when am I going to be running for office again? What, what can I show that I've done instead of really sitting down

[00:09:56] and figuring out what can we do to make this area reach its full potential? We have six, all six class one railroads. And by that, I mean, all the major freight rail companies are here in Illinois. There's only two states in the country, in the United States that have access to all six class

[00:10:21] one railroads, Illinois and Missouri. So we have access to all of that freight movement, all of that freight potential here. We also have the Missouri river and the Mississippi river. So when you're talking about manufacturing and movement of goods, both materials coming in and

[00:10:43] products going out, we have a super, a multimodal super highway here. We also have, we have several airports. One that is specifically for cargo movement at Mid-America airport at the joint use. So we are well positioned to be a premier freight hub. And I'm not just talking about warehousing

[00:11:10] and moving goods, but I'm talking about producing industrial production and movement of those products. And we just need someone who understands that and who can go out and work with all of the entities that we have both in the bi-state area, like the bi-state freight, you know, industry,

[00:11:34] the freight district that Mary Lamey is head of. I actually met with her and I talked to her about what can we do, you know, how can we make these improvements? And I had some great ideas about industries that we can, you know, entice to come here. There's, and I don't want to go into too many grotesque details because I'm an engineer and I'll get into the weeds, but there are opportunities here

[00:12:02] to not just keep doing the same old thing. You know, Granite City Steel is a good example. They don't produce structural steel there, but can we have a conversation about them producing that? And what would it take? What would, what can we do to help them to produce that so that we can produce steel that then we can use in our bridge construction or infrastructure construction here?

[00:12:27] Because we have a demand here. So if I can take that $4 billion, we're not going to get all of it, obviously, but if I can get a good portion of it down here in the Metro East area and we're building projects and they're getting on the street and we're using that steel that we need, then all of a sudden we've, we've got a supply and demand, you know, equation. So I want to look at that. I want to look at,

[00:12:52] at those opportunities. We have industry that shut down like Alton Steel. Why can't we, we've already, why can't we take those locations and pre-permit them? You know, go in as a state or as a region or as an area and say, we're going to look and see what it would take for someone to come and do a similar type of industry here, but you're not going to have to go through all the hoops. We'll take care of that for you. Let's take care of that. So you can just come in,

[00:13:21] locate and hit the ground running. So we need someone who can think about all the hurdles and the hoops that businesses have to go to locate here. You know, everybody gets fixated on property tax and I'm not saying that property tax is not a big issue, but they think that's why people aren't locating here. It's much, once again, it's much more complex than that. So it's an easy story to tell.

[00:13:50] You know, my husband always says things don't need to be true to be said, right? So there's a lot of things that are said, but are not necessarily true if you really dig down into it. Well, as an engineer, I have to have real truth. I have to have ground truth. I have to have real data. I can't design the

[00:14:16] bridges that I've, the bridge foundations that I've designed. I can't design the roadways that I have been a part of designing if I do not have ground truth. So that's how I operate. Hyperbole doesn't work for me. Drama doesn't work for me. I have to have real data and real information. And so when we have someone in Springfield who can take real data, real information, and a real understanding

[00:14:40] understanding of industrial needs and industrial growth and economic development, and using the tools that we have here in the state, and we have many of them. And we have an amazing, amazing group of skilled labor here who would love to come to work. You know, we've had some people laid off. I want more skilled labor here. I want us to work with the high schools and the community colleges to get more apprenticeship

[00:15:07] programs here. We rely heavily on the commercial side, right? You have to, we say, hey, you hire these folks. You put them through the apprenticeship program. You pay them. And then we'll make sure that we have the work to hire them. Well, why don't we have a cooperative program with the unions, the high schools, and the community colleges so that when these students are going through the apprenticeship program and get out, they really can have real jobs. And we're not relying on the

[00:15:36] commercial side alone. I'm not saying that I'm a bull fan girl. It's not an either or. It's not either this or that. I'm saying let's do both. And if we do both, we are a powerhouse here waiting to happen. That is not hyperbole. When you look at what Kansas City is doing, when you look at what Nashville is doing, Savannah is another one now that they've got their big seaport that's going on there. We have the

[00:16:05] same potential here. We just don't have leadership with the vision and the drive and the knowledge to make it happen. You have already touched a lot on how you want to strengthen unions and you want to expand good paying union jobs and strengthen apprenticeship programs. How would you work with

[00:16:31] labor unions and community colleges and get them all to come to the same table? But also, how would you respond to people who say that like that's a waste of time or don't believe in unions? Well, you know, it's interesting. So once again, this answers a lot of the complaints, if you will, that people have. Number one, they say that property taxes are too high, right? That housing is not

[00:16:58] affordable, you know, that people can't get starter homes. Well, number one, if we create a demand for more skilled labor and we're working with the union, the unions are happy. The unions are happy to work with us to get a greater apprenticeship program and to have a pipeline. You know, they want more labor. They want that skilled labor. They want to make this happen, you know? So if they have another partner

[00:17:24] who is committed, they're on board for that. And I was a teamster and my husband retired a teamster, well, retired from IDOT and he was the 916 when he retired from IDOT. So we appreciate the union and we know what the union has done for our family. And so we want to do that for everyone else. So then all of a sudden you've got these young people, they have a really good paying job.

[00:17:49] They've got a job that gives them benefits. They have a job where they can start a family, buy a home. They can afford to send their child to childcare so they both can have a fulfilling career, you know, both partners. And then guess what? Our revenue base, our tax base grows.

[00:18:12] So then certain segments of our population aren't bearing the burden of that tax burden, right? If we, you know, we always can use property tax reform. That's more done at the local level. There's only a few levers we have at the state level, but at the state level, we can grow,

[00:18:35] you know, industry. We can help enhance the attraction of industry locate here and grow that base. And we get people so polarized on talking points, you know, without understanding that what we're talking about is we're talking about building community and building industry back to where

[00:18:59] it was before we were there before we can get there and even get to a better place than we are now. But you have to have people with vision and you have to have people with an understanding of how to get the unions together, how to get industry together, how to get, you know, the private businesses to be on board, how to get everyone who is all part of this

[00:19:24] and needs to be an integral part of this to be involved and supporting it. You know, getting back to affordable housing. If there's a demand for affordable housing, the developers will build affordable housing. You know, if instead of being, you know, us saying you have to, you have to build this, which we do wish they would. But if you create a demand for it, they're going to supply it.

[00:19:51] Right. Yeah. And we have to do something because people are moving away. They're moving away because there's no jobs. And even, even people like it used to be in our area, you could go to St. Louis and you could go to Springfield to work. That's not really an option anymore. There are not, my husband is a laborer as well, and there are just not that many opportunities. And the school's enrollment is down. It's just, it's an ongoing problem that needs to be solved.

[00:20:20] And I, like you said, the property taxes, yes, they, they affect, you know, what goes on with housing and everything. But if there was something to supplement those property taxes, there would be, it would, we would be so much better off. And yeah, we've lost a lot of great industries around here. In fact, the one in our small town just closed and it put many people out of work and it's been around forever. So I hope you get elected that you can bring all of that back.

[00:20:51] Well, thank you, Amy. And the other thing is about these closings, when I was literally driving to a meeting in Alton, when I heard about Alton Steel closing, I immediately started making phone calls. I called four or five people that I knew and I said, what's going on? What's happening? Did, did, you know, did you talk to them about the edge program? Did, you know, I was like, I, I was really like real time trying to figure out what's going on here. And, and the whole point

[00:21:19] of me bringing that up is, and, and your industry shutting down is, it is my job as a legislator not to have surprises, not to have these gotcha moments. I would get in to this job. I would reach out to all of the major employers, all the major industry. I want to know what's going on. I want you to have, I want you to know that I am going to be a partner with you. So you've got to be honest

[00:21:46] with me and tell me what, what are you needing? What are you seeing? What needs to change so that we can keep you strong and growing here as well? That's our job. So the fact that we had leadership and legislators who didn't know this was happening, you know, and then that was their, that was their answer. Well, we didn't know about it. Both the rep and the senator didn't know

[00:22:12] about it. It's like, how did you not know? How did you not know? Why, why are you reacting to this? I mean, this is a major employer in our district. And so we need to have, as an engineer, if I'm called in and I'm asked to do a project, a bridge or a roadway or an interchange in an area, I have to find out what is the next 20 years look like in that area. Because we have to design the road, the

[00:22:39] interchange, you know, all of the, the, the lanes and, and how many lanes it all has to be projected on what is the growth going to look like here? Or are there other industries like you, are you having traffic here that may not be here in 20 years? We need to understand that. So that's how, that's how our brain works. We're constantly like trying to understand, okay, I'm going to come in

[00:23:04] here. I'm going to design this and it has to last. It has to work for a long time. And we need to be doing that as lawmakers. You can't just keep looking to the next quarter or the next month or reacting to something that's happening. You have to be ahead of the game. You've got to be proactive. You've got to be having conversations and you know, what I'm seeing too, as part of running for office.

[00:23:33] I'm hearing this a lot. People saying, well, you know, I've, I've never had someone running for Senate even talk to me before. And I'm shocked. It's just mind blowing. I'm really shocked. And I said, well, I'm, I'm sorry to hear that. I said, if, if you, if you vote for me and put me in office, you're going to be hearing from me a lot. The other thing we do as engineers, we have what we call public involvement meetings. So when we do a project, we have to hear from the public. We

[00:24:03] have to hear from the stakeholders. We have to hear from the major employers. We have to understand how are you using this roadway or this bridge so that we can make sure that the design we have is serving the stakeholders, as we say, and is making sure that it's going to serve them for the period of time that it's design life is designed for. And so I, I just, I get so excited, which sounds crazy.

[00:24:33] Cause they're, I, when I talk to other engineers, they're like, why would you do this? And I go, no, we really need, we need more of us. We really do. I love it, Marcy. I love it. You get me pumped up. Well, that's, that's the other thing is that I want us to not lose hope for this area because it's, it's easy to tear in engineering. It's really easy to tear down a bridge, right? To demo it.

[00:25:00] It's a lot easier than building it. So we've got to remember that when we're talking with people about this area, it's really easy to cut down, to tear down than it is to build up and to grow. That is much more difficult and much more complicated. So you need to have a special kind of person in the role to grow and to build and to reach potential because anybody can tear down.

[00:25:28] Anybody can go and tear down. Anybody can cut the knees off of somebody else. That's easy. That's lazy, quite honestly, but really getting in there, understanding the issues, understanding the needs and, and understanding the, the, the, the complex issues that we have to address. That takes determination. It takes intelligence and it takes discipline. And so that's what we need

[00:25:56] and we desperately need it. Totally agree. And what I'm hearing like loud and clear is the relationship building with people is really going to be key. Um, yeah. And I important in all may not be important in Granite city may not be important at Fairview Heights, but what's important in Maryville, you know, may not be in Hartford. I mean, you have to understand every community's needs and every community's desires.

[00:26:26] That's our job. At the very least someone you should have a trusted person in that community to let you know what's going on. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And not showing up to work and the doors are barred or chained, you know, like I can't imagine. Exactly. Oh, I know. I was sick. I just can't imagine. I was sick about that. I can't either. I can't either. And you know, when I, I've heard,

[00:26:54] I've heard politicians say, well, I want, I want my kids, you know, and I, and I do want, I want what's best for my kids, but I want what's best for all our kids. I want, I want all our kids to be in a community that is robust and thriving and that they want to stay and raise their family and bring in the next generations. That's what I want to do for all of us.

[00:27:20] Yeah, for sure. Well, we've talked a lot about infrastructure. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Jobs and infrastructure are very important. I mean, that's, that's obviously true. And that's part of why people may stay or may leave, but healthcare is also a serious issue. And we have a lot of healthcare deserts in this area. And you shared that you had had a serious accident that left you in a coma and would have left you with very high medical bills. Had you not had a good job?

[00:27:48] Do you have a plan going forward to try to make healthcare affordable for everyone? Well, you know, this is another one where we're going to have to get a lot of people at the table. So this is not something that can be driven from behind, so to speak. So I, once again, I'm trying to make sure that we've got the opportunity for people to have good paying jobs with benefits, number one, and that with those benefits, especially if they're in the union, I can speak from,

[00:28:17] like you said, my own experience. I, we would have, we would have had a medical bankruptcy. Our family would have, if we did not have that good union health insurance when I had that terrible accident. So one of the things that I would like to do, number one is work with our rural hospitals in particular that are being devastated by the cuts that are happening at the federal level.

[00:28:43] And that's another reason why we need to really be mindful about what we're doing at the local level and how we're approaching some of the, you know, issues that we have, because those cuts to Medicaid are going to affect our disabled community and our elderly the most. And then we're going to have those who don't have the means to pay for it. So we're going to have to be looking at the ability to,

[00:29:11] you know, we've already got some of the caps on the, on the prescription drugs, but we're going to have to look at how we manage the, the, the middle costs that are infused in our, our healthcare. And by that, I mean, you know, we have non-medical professionals that are deciding whether people

[00:29:35] get care or not. And we used to rely on the federal side to put stop gaps against some of that behavior. We're going to have to do it at the state level. We're just going to have to, because we, we cannot rely on the federal government right now to help us in this crisis that is approaching. As a matter of fact, the federal government is putting us in a greater crisis. You know, a lot of these cuts,

[00:30:01] they made sure are happening after the midterms, which is, you know, if, if you're going to have a policy and you're going to have a plan, stand behind it, stand behind it. Don't play games. No one that stood behind anything. Right. Stop playing games with people's lives, you know? And so we have to make sure, I believe that,

[00:30:24] that I'm, I'm, I'm very upset that the United States is the only developed country that doesn't have universal healthcare or single payer healthcare. Um, and we have so many developed countries who do, and it, you know, and, and people once again, um, of course, with the bot farms being bombed out in Russia, maybe this won't happen so much, but people are buying some of the,

[00:30:50] the stories that they hear about people who are in these countries where they have really good healthcare. Well, you have to wait. Well, let me tell you what, after my accident, I had to have my spine reconstructed. I couldn't have the spinal surgery because I had the traumatic brain injury in the coma. So I had to recover from that before they could reconstruct my spine. Well, guess how long

[00:31:15] it took me to get into a doctor so that I could get the surgery six months. It took me six months to get in to see the doctor. And then it took me another three months to have a surgery. I was walking around with a potential injury that could have paralyzed me from the waist down because I had to wait. Even with the great insurance that I have, I had to wait to get in to see a doctor. So when people

[00:31:41] tell me, oh, well, they have to wait, so do we, and that's good health insurance. So don't buy what, what don't pick up what they're putting down because there's this nonsense. We shouldn't be, we shouldn't be in the state that we're in. And then we have executives at these healthcare companies

[00:32:02] that are making multi-millions of dollars in, you know, in, in stocks too. And, and, and, and, and when we, when we say that we're going to help out some of these, these industries so that they can help us with the trickle down, which, you know, has never happened, then we help them. And what do they do? They, they basically buy back their stock so that they're enriching themselves. They're not helping us.

[00:32:32] Mm-mm. Mining their pockets. I don't recognize what's going on here, folks. Very true. Did that answer your question, Lisa? Yes, I think so. I think you're going to go and work as hard as you can to make something happen. I will get in there and I will fight. And, and I am really good at collaborating. So I will find who

[00:32:56] are the smartest people in that area that we need to have at the table. And I'm not intimidated by talking to people who are a lot smarter than I am. You know, that's how this works. We have to have a lot of brilliant minds at the table to get, to get a solution that's going to make it better for all of us. You're not intimidated by much. You're a female civil engineer. I've worked with engineers

[00:33:22] for years. I know what you've been up against. Yeah, it's not, it doesn't pay off to be intimidated. It does not. Shifting gears a little bit, you've identified fully funding public education and protecting women's reproductive care as priorities. If elected, what would you push for in these areas?

[00:33:45] Well, number one, you know, if you look at the, the, the education funding, you'll see that many of our schools are running at about 80%, some less 65%. I want to make sure that we get fully funded down here. And, and we, we cannot have teachers going on Amazon and begging for regular needed

[00:34:11] supplies in the classroom or going on donor sites so they can get the supplies they need for their neuro neuro neurodivergent students. You know, that makes me crazy. And I take that very personally because when you start out on the right foot and you are having strong education, everything else falls

[00:34:37] into place. It really does. We do not understand. And I don't know why in this country, we haven't figured it out when we educate at a very young age. And I love that the smart start program that the, the state has started where we're going to have three and four year olds that are able to have preschool. And I know that it's, it's been, it's being piloted right now. I want that to be fully

[00:35:07] implemented throughout the state. And certainly within this district, because we have a lot of parents that can't work because they can't afford the daycare because they're not getting paid enough to cover the daycare. And maybe that job doesn't give them health insurance either. So then they're having to go out on the market, which has been drastically reduced by the way, and pay more for

[00:35:31] that and pay for childcare. And so if we can, if they know they can take their children to a pre-K school that is a public education with certified skilled teachers that are fully funded, so they know they're safe and they're getting a great start, how great for that. And then they can go to work and they know

[00:35:55] that their kids are safe and being well cared for and getting that fresh, awesome start that they need. So we have got to realize that that is of utter importance to make sure that we're giving all of our kids, all of our kids, a great start. All of our kids. If you want to send your kids to Catholic school, that's fantastic. Or private school, that's fantastic. But public funds need to go to

[00:36:24] public schools. And we need to make sure that our public schools are the best. If we have public public education that can reach its full potential as well, we are not going to have the problems that we're having right now. We are not. It's going to take away a lot of the problems, both for our families, for the family's affordability, for the family's quality of life, and for the future of those

[00:36:51] children. And so we have got to understand where our priorities are. We've got our priorities all mixed up. You know, we just really do. And I, you know, I grew up where we struggled. You know, I was the first one who was able to go to college and college isn't for everyone. That's why I fully support apprenticeship programs and skilled labor. But my parents wanted to, they wanted to go to college

[00:37:19] and weren't able to. And we had to wait in line and get, you know, government cheese and government butter and the powdered milk. And, and we, we relied on that. You know, that was back in the day when we didn't have, you know, the snap or the link cards. And so we, we relied on the government to help us out. And my parents both worked. My mom was not a stay at home mom. And we, so I, I get what, what families

[00:37:44] are going through right now. I get it. I really, really get it. And so it frustrates me that I'm sitting here at this age and still trying to fight for what we should have been working on over the last 50 years so that we are not still having people struggle to just survive. I want people to thrive.

[00:38:08] I always say that I want people to thrive, not survive. I want people to, I want to support people who want to make it, not people who have already made it. I want to work for the people who want to make it. We wanted to make it. You know, my family wanted to make it. And so we worked really, really hard and we had some systems in place. So I was able to, but I see those slowly being torn and clawed

[00:38:38] away. So we're not giving the next generation, the same opportunities that we had. And that's not right. And it's not good for all of us. It's not sustainable. No. What about your views on reproductive care? How you would make that a priority? Well, you know, once again, I see the statistics where maternal health, we are once again, falling on the list of, you know, industrial nations

[00:39:06] and, and, um, on our maternal health care is going down. And it's because we are no longer relying on a person to talk to their medical professional and to make decisions about their own bodies with a medical professional. And instead we're infusing people's feels and thoughts. Once again, I'm going to go

[00:39:35] back to the data. I am a ground truth data person. So I want to sit down with my doctor. I want my doctor to have the ability to give me all the advice and the information I need. And I want to have access to all that is capable to help keep me healthy and me alive and everyone else who goes and talks to their

[00:40:01] doctor. They should, the government should have no place in that at all. I don't understand where people who say, don't tread on me are all of a sudden wanting doctors not to be giving medical advice, but government officials to be giving medical advice and, and legislators to be deciding what, what

[00:40:24] medicine and what procedures we can have. There are women who are losing their lives because they can't get the care that they need because we already know that at top, at topic pregnancies, you need an abortion. We also know that if a woman can't have the care that they need, they may not be able to have

[00:40:48] children again, and they want to have children. It's just, it's insanity to me. You know, if, if you have strong views about something that is going to make the choices about how you're going to treat your body, that's fine. That's what's great about our country. You can have that. You can have that choice

[00:41:11] for yourself. For yourself. You can't inflict that choice on me or on anyone else, and that's where we have got to understand that loud and clear. Absolutely. Well, you're obviously not a career politician, and Springfield, Springfield is full of career politicians with their own cliques and groups

[00:41:39] and priorities. How do you think your skill set will translate in Springfield to help you get things done? Well, they better buckle up, buttercup, because I can't tell you how many times I walked out. I will never forget this. I walked out on a bridge where they had some foundation issues, some geotechnical

[00:42:01] issues, and, and I, I was sent by my company at the time because I had the expertise, and, and everyone out there was looking for the engineer who was going to help them with this problem. I said, well, she's here. She's here. I can help you, and I can't tell you how many times I have walked into that type of scenario where I have to, once again, prove myself, prove that I've got my master's in geotechnical engineering.

[00:42:30] I actually got an honorary doctorate in civil engineering from S&T because they know of the work that I've done, you know, and, and I've been a real strong advocate of technical advancement and, and superior, you know, knowledge on the geotechnical engineering side, and yet to this day, I have to prove myself every time. So it's kind of funny because I see other people really getting more

[00:42:59] upset about it than I am. You know, they'll be like, I can't believe that happened. I can't believe that people are, I'm like, doesn't bother me at all. I'm just, I'm here to solve a problem. I will solve the problem. Other people's feels, as I say about it, I can't worry about that. And, and more times than not, I have had people who didn't know that I was the expert that was coming in apologize

[00:43:25] to me. And I say, well, I appreciate that. You know, it goes back to the, if, if I react to that, if I, if I'm ill, ill behaved by that, I'm not doing anybody who comes after me and has to deal with the same, you know, um, just, just discrimination, essentially, you know, it's unconscious bias. I dealt with that all the time. So going into Springfield and going into these legislators,

[00:43:55] I will win them over because I'm going to share with them the ideas that I have that nobody else is going to give them that they maybe haven't heard before. I, and, and the ideas that I have are not just going to help district 56. They're going to help all of Illinois. So I believe that I can win them over just by helping them understand new ways of doing things. When you're, when you're in a click or when you're in a cohort or when you're in an echo chamber, you don't hear new,

[00:44:23] fresh, innovative ideas. You know, you're just hearing the same thing over and over again. And so I'm going to be that fresh new voice from the outside with innovative ideas. And some will be put off by it. I get that. That's okay. But those who aren't that they will want to work with me. I know it and I will learn from them too. I need to learn the process, right? I have to go in and learn. I'm

[00:44:50] going to want to do things quickly. And I know I'm not going to be able to. I mean, I know that. I used to work at IDA. I've worked at the DOT, right? I understand how the government works. I've worked on the private side. I've worked on the government side and I've worked with a lot of state agencies. I get it. You know, we're not going to be moving at a rapid pace, but what I have understood is you have to constantly be exerting that pressure to move forward. Constantly. You never let up.

[00:45:19] You can never let up. Yep. And you just keep pushing and moving forward. And I've been doing that my whole career. And I will do that when I go up to Springfield. And I really do look forward to having some really strong and good relationships with legislators up there. I've already had several reach out to me. There's some really good people serving up there who do have the best interests of

[00:45:44] the residents of the state involved. There's a lot of them. And I'm looking forward to working with them. You know, am I a politician? No. And I'm sure some of the things that they're more savvy about, I won't be. And that's okay too. Because there's a lot of things that they're not going to know that I'm going to have a lot of knowledge about, particularly, as I said, when it comes to infrastructure and getting that money out the door and into projects and building things. So,

[00:46:13] so it's going to be a two-way street. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. You could bring a lot to the table. I hope you get the chance. Thank you. I hope so too. I really do. I have one question left and we're going to do a quick fire round after that. Marcy, yeah, this question is very special. We've never done this on the pod before, but when people in your district found out that you were going to be on the pod,

[00:46:41] I did get a question from one of your constituents who prefers not to be named. So I will read her question here and see what you think about it. Okay. One question I hear from people who want to get involved in public service is the role money plays in politics. I'm deeply concerned that campaign financing creates barriers for Americans who want to run for office, but don't have significant

[00:47:06] financial resources or access to wealthy donors. Do you believe our campaign's finance system needs reform? If so, what specific changes would you support to make running for public office more accessible and ensure that elected officials remain accountable to the people that they represent? Oh, what a great question. I mean, I couldn't agree more and really it even starts at the national

[00:47:33] level. I wish that we would not have all of this money and especially the dark money coming in. I think it's just been such a shame. And I also think, I can tell you as someone who was not originally endorsed even by the party that I am running under and I affiliate with during the primary,

[00:48:03] I was not endorsed by the Democratic Party. And so as you can well imagine, that meant the people weren't donating to our campaign. So I had to basically self-fund. And I had a lot of people asking, well, how'd you get those ads? You know, you ran a lot of ads on Facebook. I said, I paid for them. I had to do that myself. And even now, you know, people want to know what the polls look like.

[00:48:32] Are you looking okay? Are you doing well? You know, and then they'll decide if they're going to fund you. It's, and I don't have a lot of these major donors already, you know, lined up because I have this relationship, which actually doesn't bother me a whole lot because I work really, really hard, always have. Civil engineers are hard workers. And so I've just been knocking on doors ever since then.

[00:49:00] But I would love to see reforms so that we are actually beholden to the constituents and the people that we're representing when we go into office. I haven't done a lot of research on this, so I'm not going to throw something just off the top of my head. But I would be open if somebody has

[00:49:25] some great draft legislation that they would like to consider, I would really be open to looking at that and talking to them. Because I do believe in my heart that there are a lot of people who would be willing to serve who could bring so much knowledge and experience to the role of a legislator, but they don't want to deal with all of that. And, you know, it's very polarized right now.

[00:49:54] I was terrified when I first started knocking on doors. I wasn't sure how I'd be received. I really wasn't. But I am used to having difficult conversations. And I'm used to people not being happy sometimes with some of the work that we do, you know, when you're closing a road, or you're detouring a road, or, you know, you're taking some ride away. We always have to deal with

[00:50:18] those kinds of conversations. And so I just started knocking on doors. But what I what really was the biggest surprise for me was how wonderful the vast majority of people were. They really, and still have been, I was knocking on doors right before I got on this call. And people saying, Oh, I'm so grateful you came to my door, I wanted to talk to you. And asking questions and really wanting to understand,

[00:50:45] you know, what my background is, and what they you know, and then and hear their issues. There was one woman, she is caring for her grandson, she's 80. Her grandson is in his 40s. He is bedridden. He has severe disabilities. And she is going check to check right now, relying on Medicaid. She's terrified about what's going to happen with these changes at the, you know, end of the year. And I think as a

[00:51:15] legislator, if you don't go around and have these conversations and really understand what real people are dealing with on a day to day basis. And that was the second person in that day, I think it was Sunday was when I ran into her. And I ran into another person who was taking care of their parent in the same situation. And they're terrified. They don't know how they're going to do it.

[00:51:43] And so, you know, we have to understand that we have got to stay connected on not just when we're running for office. I told everyone that when I talked to him, I go, where are you going to see me? If you get me into office, you're going to see me. And it's not just going to be during election. I want to talk to people a lot. I want to be out in the communities. I want to know what is happening. That is the only way. And you all know this. Everybody knows this who's listening.

[00:52:13] If you don't have, just like you were saying before, if you don't have that trusted advisor, or that, you know, I used to watch the show Bewitched and, you know, the Mrs. Kravitz in the neighborhood, the Gen Zs won't know what I'm talking about. But, you know, that kind of neighbor who knows everything that's going on, and they just have all the knowledge, you know, so you need to have, you need to be connected to those people, those folks who have their finger on the pulse

[00:52:41] of the community. And then you'll hear what's going on before it becomes a disaster, or before it gets too out of hand. And that is in amongst many realms, whether it's, we're talking public safety, well-being, you know, word about that we're hearing about some of the employers in the area, you know, we're just getting some of the word about it. You'll catch it ahead of time. And then

[00:53:08] I can, I can be proactive about it. I kind of went off on a tangent there. So I don't know if I answered. That's what podcasts are for. We want to hear you. But, but I, you know, getting back to the money in politics, I agree what what's happening now is, is, is just, it's a disgrace and an abomination to what we what, you know, this, this experiment that

[00:53:35] we have here in the United States of America has always been a work in progress, right? It's always to build upon past lessons and past mistakes. And, and so I feel like we're really at a watershed moment here, where we have to reject some of the, the behaviors and some of the greed and some of the

[00:54:02] avarice that has driven us to the path that we're on right now. Absolutely. And Marcy, I know that you that this is not something that is on your platform. And it's not something you've researched deeply or anything like that. But one thing that we find on the podcast is, and it is that people who listen to it want to know you as a person and how you're thinking about things. So if it does come across your desk or across in less legislation, they know how you will react. So I think it's important

[00:54:31] to ask those questions. Oh, absolutely. I'm I welcome, you know, all questions, all inquiries. I love it. I love to have, you know, one of the things that I'm very blessed by, I grew up in a family where my parents were on opposite sides of the ideological aisle, and their parents were opposite of them. And so it was always funny. And we had robust conversations and every challenge everybody,

[00:54:59] why do you think that way? Nobody was ever treated stupid. Nobody was ever nobody got angry. I mean, we loved it. We really had these, like amazing conversations. My mom's sister, youngest sister, she, she is, my mom passed away very young from breast cancer, but she's still, my auntie is still a really good friend of mine. And she goes, I loved your conversations with dad, which was my

[00:55:26] grandpa. Because my grandpa and I did not see eye to eye on a lot of issues, but we were deeply respected and respected and loved each other. And so we would really kind of challenge each other. And she goes, I loved listening to you have those conversations with dad. She's so special. It was, it was, and it really helped me form my thoughts. And, and what I loved about my grandpa too,

[00:55:54] is that even though he thought a certain way, he didn't expect me to think that way. He just wanted to make sure that I had good reasons for why I thought differently. Yeah. As long as you can support what you're behind. Exactly. All right, Marcy, are you ready for quick fire round?

[00:56:18] I hope so. That comes to mind. Oh my gosh. Coffee or tea? Oh, coffee. Okay. City life or small town living? Oh, that's a tough one. Small town living for the vast majority, but I love to go visit the city. Okay. What's one thing about the Metro East that you, that makes you proud? Oh my gosh. Well,

[00:56:42] I talked about it. The two rivers, we've got all this industry and we've got amazing people here. We really do. Good people here. Yes. What's a skill you have that would surprise people? Ooh. Well, I am really great at canning. I grow my own vegetables and I do a lot of canning and pickling. So we live

[00:57:09] off a lot of my jars of food throughout the winter. That's cool. I wish I could do that. If you could solve one problem in Illinois overnight, what would it be? Oh my goodness. There's so many things, but you know, really if I could solve one,

[00:57:32] it would be that, that, that nobody would go hungry. Nobody would, no child adult and nobody would go hungry. Everybody would have enough to eat. That would be wonderful. I, I would love to live in a place where there aren't hungry and starving children. It'd be really wonderful. Um, what's one thing you want voters to remember when they leave the polls?

[00:57:59] Ooh, to leave the polls. Well, I hope that they feel really, really good about voting for me. No, I'm serious. I hope they feel really, really good about it because, um, what you see is what you get with me. So I, I promise you when I tell you what I'm going to do, I will do it. I believe that I can see that like you're an authentic person and I think authenticity is

[00:58:26] magnetic and that's why so many people love you. And I think that's why so many people will vote for you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Is that all the questions? Yeah. You did amazing. We do want to thank you for your time, Marcy. I know that this is a very, very busy time for you and we wanted to wish you the best of luck in these next couple of weeks and getting people out

[00:58:52] to vote. And hopefully we will be cheering you on when we hear the results. Thank you. That, that is the most important thing is people need to vote. Our young people need to vote. Our young people have so much power that they is so unrealized that they don't know. And if they vote, it will be realized they just got to vote. I just saw your great ad for voting and how you, you give yourself

[00:59:22] power through voting and it was very, very well done. I saw that right before she came on too. I think we're all seeing it. You've made our algorithm. We shared it. It was great. Oh, great. Oh, that's what I saw. I was like, I loved that. I watched it right before we came on. Yeah. That's fantastic. Thank you all so much. This has been wonderful and you all are amazing. And I'm so proud of you and the

[00:59:50] work that you're doing. It's so important. You all keep up the good work that you're doing too. Please. We need you. Thank you. Best of luck to you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye now. Bye. Bye. Bye.