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| Affiliation | Green |
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| Name | Jesus Correa, VII |
| Address |
Rockford, Illinois , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
00, 1979
(46 years)
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| Contributor | ev |
| Last Modifed | ev
Apr 02, 2009 12:47am |
| Tags |
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| Info | Correa makes run for mayor
Green Party candidate Jesus Correa VII never expected to get this far in the campaign. He expected someone would have knocked him off the ballot with a challenge to his candidacy long ago.
An artist and comedian, Correa is out of work after being fired from a job as a dishwasher at Octane downtown for sleeping through a shift and failing to call in.
A high-school dropout who said he later earned his general equivalency diploma, Correa knows he says things a mayoral candidate probably shouldn’t. For instance, he said he isn’t completely sure he could do the job if elected.
“Every once in a while I think so, but most of the time, I don’t,” Correa said. “I am not sure I want to be mayor. I don’t feel like I would know what to do. About 25 percent of the time, I think maybe I could do it. But I am getting engaged. I’m talking to people and understanding people’s problems more clearly than I ever had before.”
An activist, Correa said he has unfairly been attacked for pursuing his campaign.
“There was a girl yelling at me the other day, berating me for taking attention and votes away from a real candidate,” Correa said. “I said, ‘I am as legitimate a candidate as anyone else.’ ”
He said he has some good ideas about attracting artists to live downtown and training out-of-work manufacturing workers to produce green technologies and products.
Correa also tends to think outside the box. In questionnaire responses, he suggests offering vouchers that allow residents to buy materials necessary for them to fill potholes in their neighborhoods themselves.
As a teenager, family problems led to troubles at school. A student in the Auburn Gifted Academy, he said he was exhausted after sleepless nights and began skipping school. He eventually dropped out.
He has taken some college courses and has plans to earn a degree and perhaps become a social worker helping troubled youth.
“I just had nobody to talk to,” Correa said. “They just figured I was a screwup kid. … I’m planning on going back to college, was going to be a social worker, help kids with problems I had and make sure they don’t drop out like I did.”
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