(lively music) (upbeat orchestral music) - Welcome to "Meet the Candidates," I'm Jennifer Fuller.

After more than two decades in office, Jesse White has announced he won't run for reelection in the Illinois Secretary of State's office.

That creates the only open seat in the races statewide, across the state of Illinois.

We're talking with one of the candidates in that race today, Republican Representative Dan Brady, who is the Republican nominee for Secretary of State.

His opponent is Democrat Alexi Giannoulias.

Representative, thanks for joining us.

- Thanks very much for having me, nice to be with you.

- Let's kind of start with an introduction of sorts.

Can you tell us a little bit about your career so far, and why you chose to run for Secretary of State?

- Sure, first off, I'm presently serving a state representative for the 105th legislative district, which is Bloomington-Normal, McLean, and Livingston County areas.

I've been the Deputy House Republican Leader since 2017, and was first elected as state representative in 2001.

Prior to that, I served in county government, and also in private business, in a funeral home business here in our community.

And so from those aspects of private business, government, and as a representative, I feel uniquely qualified with some of my life experiences and interaction with the Secretary of State's office.

That certainly qualifies me for best choice for your next Secretary of State.

- You mentioned that you have this legislative experience.

How would that inform your work as Secretary of State, and how would you work with the legislature on issues that you needed addressed?

- Well, first off, going back to county government, I first really got interaction with the Secretary of State's office, with the secretary I, where I worked with on many aspects of the operations of the office.

In particular as corner, my role with organ and tissue donation, working with families in one of the first times in their lives.

Obviously making those very difficult decisions about organ donation and working then through my time as corner with distracted driving for our teens, working with curriculum ideas with our public private independent driving schools to try and give a better behind the wheel experience for training for our young people.

Moving on to the level of state representative, my interaction then became with legislation and worked with the Secretary of State's office in particular in organ and tissue donation, dealing with first person consent also, which makes your one's wishes by me in Illinois.

I also was chief co-sponsor of legislation dealing with 16, 17 year olds being able to be part of the donor registry and to sign up, to be there with a parental consent for opt-out.

If that situation occurred also in particular with seniors, I had legislation just signed in the law recently last year that dealt with defensive driving training for them remotely in an eight hours credit course that would help them lower their insurance premiums.

Those are just a few areas that I've worked with the Secretary of State's office, not to mention my oversight role in working with the budget as it pertains to the Secretary of State's office.

- You've mentioned a lot of what this next question is all about.

The Illinois Secretary of State's office may be the most forward facing office for the general public in that they're dealing with driver services, facilities, organ donation, and other services that, the Secretary of State provides.

How does your experience make you the best person to handle the responsibility on a statewide level?

And what changes would you have in mind?

- Well, I think the ability to work it, is very key.

And I have that really that experience from the legislative side of things, not only working with secretary state's office one on one, but also with the state legislature, Republicans and Democrats, when it comes to legislation pertaining in the office, but also the operations of the office from a budgetary standpoint.

So that uniquely, I think qualifies me, gives me an experience that certainly my opponent does not have in this race.

But I would say that the operations side of things, this office touches more lives on a daily basis on residents, any other executive branch office in particular, roughly 20 some divisions make up the Secretary of State's office under the umbrella of the Secretary of State's office.

If we just take one of those, which most people are, have their greatest interaction with driver services, that is probably the key and takes up the biggest percentage of the budget for the state of Illinois and directs, thousands of employees across the state of Secretary of State's office.

In that role.

One of the things I would like to do in house by assembling is cross train those employees and fully staff, those drivers facilities across the state of Illinois, which hasn't been done in some time.

So our prioritization needs to be done there.

The other is talking about what this office does when it comes to businesses in the state of Illinois, not only from the index division, but everything down to becoming a recorder.

So there's many things that this office does in areas of improvement that I talked about will continue to and have concrete plans for.

- We hear this a lot.

There are people outside the city of Chicago and its suburbs that say there's a bit of a disconnect between the state's largest city and the rest of downstate and rural Illinois.

What do you think you could do in this role to help bring all of that together and really focus on one state?

- Well, certainly from a population base and from a service base, the larger members are in the suburbs when it comes to services and pressures on a driver's facilities.

But if we look just in the Cook and Collar counties alone, one of the things I've talked about is trying to partner with our community colleges across the state potential having more hub services, having services in areas that are from a public safety standpoint and handicapped accessibility, maybe better and help us control the hospital that roughly 10 and a half million we're spending on leases a year in the Secretary of State's office.

If we look in just the community Collar counties alone, there's roughly nine community college areas that could be helpful sites that bring all the technology needed, community service, public transportation, and the area in which I think a better work environment would be there and may wanna lease space.

All that is being provided by taxpayers right now.

And the digital improvements are there.

If those particular partnerships could be met, we might have a transition of a more immediate problem where the greatest pressures are of volume of business, of people waiting in lines of people trying to get services.

That would be an area, obviously if we could model that, complete that and use it in other areas across the state.

- Certainly one of the areas that you you've touched on just a little bit is when it comes to business growth and business development in the state of Illinois, there is the thought among some circles that Illinois is bad for business.

I have a kind of a two part question here for number one.

Do you agree that Illinois is bad for business?

And if so, what changes would you make?

How would you as Secretary of State make that better?

- Well, number one, I think Illinois is very difficult.

Business is obviously to grow.

Now we have a few diamonds in the rough in Illinois, and that's great, but it's not a very good climate for business to be able to thrive in, especially relocate themselves here to Illinois.

And I've faced that as a legislature, as a state legislator on numerous examples of legislation that I did not support that put the burden back on business again, when it comes to the tax side of things, when it comes to the side of overhead increasing overhead, which eventually goes to the consumer from the Secretary of State's office, what we could do within to control the budget, prioritize services and make those services more efficient.

That's where technology and digital side of technology comes in a great deal, but just one small example, trailer fees state were increased $136.

The legislature was able to take action myself included and reduce those fees and help the secretary state's office reduce down what the cost of those fees are.

The same type of concept could be done on renewals, maybe even on a temporary basis.

And these very difficult economic times to try and give some type of free even reduction in cost for those people that are going through.

Is it my groceries?

Do I renew the sticker or do I get my medicine?

And those are all decisions that are extremely difficult, but the secretary states office by controlling cost, certainly that have an avenue to make things easier when it comes to being able to drive vehicles and have those vehicles licensed in Illinois.

- Let's expand on that a little bit.

If we could.

My next question had to do with residents who are struggling with the high cost of inflation, whether it's food bills, housing, utilities, those sorts of things, not always things that the Secretary of State necessarily has control over, but what are ways that you think you could help with those people who are struggling just to make a ends meet?

- Well, we hear a lot about temporary reductions or freezes, whether that be grocery tax, whether that be gas tax, et cetera, the same principle could be applied to the secretary of state's office by that, I mean, a temporary suspension of, or reduction of the cost of renewal, of a license plate of the cost of new license plate and some type of formula that we could certainly have that would make that reduction of cost help them, whether it's even maybe, $50 in reductions that could help them.

The consumer from the standpoint of dealing with sector states off on renewals, on new plates, whatever the case may be trying to keep the money in the consumer's pocket, even on a temporary basis Sector State's office could be able to help because again, it's an office touches more lives on a daily basis, and more people are interacting, trying to make sure that they're legal on the roads of Illinois, and they have to take current on those type of things.

And those are all fees and those fees are all something that that's increased, put some temporary relief in place for them by the Secretary of State's office.

- One of the things that's been made more difficult because of the pandemic is the ability to interact face to face with state offices, including the Secretary of State's office.

What ideas do you have to make it easier for people to do business with the Secretary of State, even if they're not able to meet necessarily face to face?

- Well, overall there's many states that have moved cloud systems, a cloud system that would help from a technology standpoint, Illinois is woefully behind as we brought in the 21st century of the sector of state's office and its technology side.

But one of the other areas, obviously there's been appointments that move towards appointments online.

That's been helpful.

We need to continue to do more of that.

Even down to the, someone will tell you the very frustrating webpage for the Secretary of State's office improvements that could be done there.

And so I think by looking at what type of facilities we have, where the technology lies, it takes me back to my community college ideas partner with those community colleges and my particular legislative district department community college right now provides training for CDL commercial driver's license because of their space availability because of the campus effect that they have.

And we have the same thing across the state that we could at least look at partnering with.

If we can provide a safer environment, if we can provide an area that's more secure, handicap accessibility, better, and an area that already has built in technology, the taxpayers are paying for all with provided public transportation.

Those could be some great hubs that would certainly help and provide services better in a more efficient way in which to do it, but also from a cost side of things.

And the technology's already in place.

- Let's look at things on a little bit larger scale.

Do you have ideas on how you would work with regional counterparts as well as national counterparts to benefit Illinoisans and to kind of expand some of the programs that people find necessary?

- Let me give you one example of which we could certainly there's a national association of Secretary of States, but one thing that 25 other states have done across this country is they have implemented what's called E-Titling E-Titling means when you purchase a truck, a car, a motorcycle, some type of transportation mode in the state of Illinois, that title has to eventually get to a lean holder.

In other words, a bank, credit union.

And some of those are even out of state, but right now in Illinois, when you purchase that anywhere from eight weeks to longer, that paper title is sitting in the box waiting to be transferred through the process of the Secretary State's office to get to that lean holder.

That's really important when you're a bank and you're a credit union, and you're an individual to say, I don't know, technically where my title to my vehicle sits in the Secretary States office.

It hasn't been filed yet, especially if you're a meat law enforcement, they're trying to find out who actually owns this vehicle and they run your license plate.

That is something that we could do by E-Titling electronically, do this like 25 other states do across the country.

It's already been passed by the state legislature.

In fact, I voted on it.

It was modified once again for an extension to July 1st, 2022. yet we still have no E-Titling services in Illinois.

Not only does it mean efficiency of titles and helping to from the financial standpoint with lean holders, getting the paperwork to where it belong, but it also means issues for law enforcement.

And it also means the fact that we're tying business process data, Illinois, we can't more effectively and efficiently do this.

That'd be a priority of mine as well.

- I wanna give you an opportunity to expand a little bit on some of the workings that you can do within other state agencies as well.

Governments, a lot of times has a lot of areas of overlap.

So are there places that are within the Secretary of State's office that you could work with other agencies on, or perhaps allow those agencies to take over some of those responsibilities or vice versa?

- Well, there are a lot of people focus in on and believe that the Secretary of State's office has a more major role in voters, voting registration and voting in elections in the state of Illinois.

But it's very limited.

The Secretary of State's office is charged by federal government to create voter to register people to vote.

But the state board of elections is really where obviously the main crust of anything to do with elections in the state of Illinois happens.

Now, secretary state's office, usually it certifies an election, but those are all things that we should look at to see.

Does that really belong with the state board of elections?

And we focus back on making sure that we're doing the best we can efficiency for the motor appeals vehicles, divisions of the secretary state's office.

We want to make sure that if the federal government mandates something to us, obviously we're gonna comply.

But one small example would be that the, and the problem that the secretary states had when they tried to roll out and explain the Illinoians and what the certain process was going to be when it comes to voting in the state of Illinois, from the aspect of vote by mail, it was a complete mess when first rolled out.

Those type of things could be better left in the hands of something, a agency like the state board of elections.

We should look at those type of things.

- Certainly.

The Secretary of State is also tasked with registrations, for nonprofit organizations, businesses, lobbyists, and more.

Is there a way that that process can be made more efficient and effective?

And what ways would you change or modify it?

- Well, certainly let's, don't forget.

The Secretary of State is also the chief librarian of the state of Illinois.

Over 5,000 libraries.

The Secretary of State's office plays a role in across the state, but just simply, if you look at the fact of what the office is responsible for, there are all kinds of particular areas in which the operations of the office could be streamlined and become.

I think more efficient.

A lot of that came to your question centers around the responsibilities of the office and how we modify those offices and the responsibility of the office of those certain agencies.

That's all something we have to look at would be over 4,000 employees that make up the Secretary of State's office in Illinois.

- Sure.

When it comes to politics, the Secretary of State's office is often seen as nonpartisan because of the interaction that it has to have with the entire population.

How does your party affiliation and philosophy inform how you would lead the office and designate priorities?

- Well, I think that's key.

I think that's important.

Yes.

This is still an elected office, lot of people across Illinois, but I think if there's any constitutional office that might be looked at a little less in a partisan fashion, it's the Secretary of State's office cause of a number of people that it affects, when a mother or father has a child on organ donation waiting list, they don't care if that donation is coming from a Republican or a Democrat, or if the Secretary of State is either or Democrat or Republicans, what they care is that donor registry hotline is up, going, connected with the medical facilities and experts through gift of hope and others that it should be across the state of Illinois.

And when you look at your license plate, look at the red, white, and blue and a Lincoln's picture on a license plate.

What that means is I think the bipartisanship, the nonpartisanship that really most people expect.

They want the party of efficiency when they come to a Secretary of State facility and they deal with secretary of state's office, the R and D behind somebody's name, isn't what drives people to have a better experience.

What drives people to have a better experience is who's leading the office is gonna be responsible for the operation of that office and you have to be hands on.

And that's certainly been experience that I have certainly be something that I place for the future is your next Secretary of State.

- Could you talk a little bit about your experience within the party, whether it's leadership positions or working within those leadership positions and how you work across the aisle so that you can give us an example of how things might work if you're elected Secretary of State?

- Well, I've served in the state house as representative beginning in 2001, my entire time in the state house, I've been in the minority part.

I represent a district that has higher education, business, insurance, and all those particular areas of business that I represent need things from state government, need help.

Finance to construction comes to capital bills.

The list goes on.

I know being in the minority, I have to reach across that aisle and work with the majority party.

I have to find those connections, make those contacts to be able to represent my district.

I think having that experience as Secretary of State, as former state representative will be a key for me to be able to work with the legislature and know what I have to do, whom I need to work with to try and get something done, to improve the office, streamline the office, and do what really we are hearing from the people across the state of Illinois.

And the other aspect of that is that Jennifer is that as representative, I know one thing, a big volume of your calls and input from your constituents deals with the office of the Secretary State's office, having a legislative division within the Secretary State's office to help streamline and work with senators and representatives to the constituents directly to resolve those problems, makes everybody's life easier.

And obviously helps that constituent.

That's what that Senator, that representative wants to see.

And that's when they want that help from the Secretary of State's office, I live it and experience it every day of my life as state representative and take that knowledge with as Secretary of State.

- A lot of people think that especially large state agencies or constitutional offices, like the Secretary of State's office should be more forward thinking or at the very least prepared for things that potentially could change the way that business needs to be done.

The pandemic is a good example of that.

What things are you looking ahead to, if you're elected, that would be things that you think you need to prepare for, or that the office needs to be ready for?

- Well, the present situation, we find ourselves in coming off a pandemic, we can learn so much.

And that's what I wanna do.

I want to take when I become Secretary State, some of the key individuals in the Secretary of State's office and learn from the problems that went on during the Secretary of State's office, during that pandemic, meaning the facilities, for instance, the extended enclosure of facilities and the lack of being prepared to be able to do things online and how that made a problem even worse when it came to backlogs that they continue to struggle with today.

So that would be one area to learn from the past.

The other is prepared for the future.

What do we need to do and work with the legislature to say, this is a plan coming off of a pandemic.

This is a plan that shows the areas, everything from the extensions of the real idea act that had to happen cause of lack of planning and issues within the Secretary of State's office, the continuation learn from both things and present a plan that God forbid, we find ourselves in the situation, again, some horrific pandemics experience or something else that we have a plan in place that we can put almost almost like the preparation that terrorism task force goes through on a continual basis.

There has to be that playing.

And I think that would be a key in that step, in the right direction for sectoring state's office.

Gonna take a lot of work though, but surround yourself with good people.

There's not anything you can't overcome.

- One of the things that we hear a lot is that there's a disconnect between young people and the government, particularly when it comes to public service.

What would you suggest to young people to get involved with public service?

Obviously voting is one easy way to do that.

- Well, I think an example of that is in my state legislative office went on right now, high school student, that interns that has the opportunity to experience the operations of the state government office set up by high school.

Those type of interactions from a secretary state's office.

And I've talked to individuals that some of this was in place before we need to look at again, how can we bring the young people in to intern, into the Secretary of State's office, to get that exposure and to see what the office is responsible for.

And I'd also like to interact with the better with the Secretary of State's police division and getting them back in the classroom, talking about things related to driving services and talking about what it means to have a driver's license.

What is a title?

How is it important to make sure that these things are done and what happens when you get yourself in trouble and you get to administrative hearings and you lose that driver's licenses, what's it gonna mean to you in the future?

How you can't get yourself around the state, around your town or to work?

All those things are very, very important.

And I think reaching out to young people in a variety of ways along those lines shown what the office can do in particular with the sector of state's office is something I'd certainly like might develop one.

- We talked about this just a little bit earlier, but I wanted to circle back before we finish up.

And that is Illinois, in some cases appears to be an outlier when it comes to states across the Midwest.

How do you think you could work with other states to make sure that Illinois is working with its neighbors and is not something that kind of stands out differently from other states?

- Well, I mentioned that I've had already had discussions with the national association of Secretary of States across this country.

I've been able to ask questions, get some help, research, et cetera.

But I think what I talked about earlier, just E-Titling and services at electronically, what Illinois needs to do, look at those other 25 states and what they've done and how they did it.

And similar to what I've done in my legislative career.

Some other electronic legislation that I've had, in implementing systems.

And I think that by partnering with those, not trying to reinvent the wheel, but let's go to those that are out there are neighbors across this country.

And let's see what they've done in some of these areas that Illinois struggles with in particular Secretary of State's office.

And let's see what's what's out there that someone else may has already figured out and could help us and be a blueprint, how we can improve services in secretary state's office in Illinois.

- Representative.

Dan Brady is the Republican nominee for Illinois, Secretary of State representative.

Thank you for joining us.

- Thank you very much for having me, always a pleasure to be with you.

- And you can find all of our "Meet the Candidates" interviews by going online to WSIU.org and find us on our YouTube channel.

Until next time, I'm Jennifer Fuller.

Thanks for joining us.

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