NFIB

Illinois state treasurer and former small-business owner Judy Baar Topinka earned the endorsement of the Illinois Save America's Free Enterprise Trust (NFIB/Illinois' political action committee), which means the support of thousands of small-business owners across the state. Topinka recently toured Sisbro, Inc., a Quincy-area trucking company.

With an established voting record as an elected official dating back to 1981, Topinka has supported small-business issues an average of 86 percent of the time. This compares with Blagojevich's dismal small-business support rate of only 26 percent, when averaging his voting records from both the Illinois House and the U.S. Congress.

"In every campaign, candidates for office covet the NFIB endorsement and I am honored to have it in this critical election," Topinka said. "I owned a small business and know it requires incredibly hard work, discipline and dedication to be successful.  The last thing small businesses need is government getting in the way of opportunity and economic expansion.”

As state treasurer, Topinka was key in doubling the resources for banks to help businesses in local communities, creating thousands of jobs for Illinois through the state Treasurer's Economic Loan Program and STEP Small Business, which deposit state dollars into local financial institutions that agree to loan money at below market rates to businesses creating jobs and growing the Illinois economy.