When voters in northwestern Illinois go to the polls in November, there may be a third name on the ballot for Congress. This week, Bill Fawell, from Galena announced he's running for the 17th District seat now held by East Moline democrat Cheri Bustos.
Running from the Constitution Party, Fawell says all of our problems these days are caused by the federal government, and the only solution is for the people to take back control.
"Originally I wanted to get candidates to embrace it, but everybody's afraid of it because it's new and different. Everyone is locked into our systemic failing system. Then I realized I would have to go out and run because it's a message that resonates immediately with people. When I talk to people about what's wrong with the government, I say, 'You know what, the problem is we have a government that rules the people.' And everyone says, 'Yeah, that's exactly right.'"
When the recession damaged his real estate business, Fawell decided to get involved. First he wrote a book, "The New American Revolution: the Constitutional Overthrow of the US Government."
And he's preparing to publish a follow-up, "The Science of Liberty - American Reformation and Renaissance." As a third party candidate, Fawell will have to gather 14,000 signatures by early June, to get on the ballot.
Ideally you could get 2,000 citizens that say 'You know what, I'm tired of what's going on in America and I really want things to change.' If you had 2,000 people and each one gets 10 signatures, which is very easy to do, bang you're there."