IL-03: Republican Fricilone Endorsed By Chicago Police Union

HOMER GLEN, IL — Mike Fricilone, who’s running on the Republican ticket in the 3rd Illinois Congressional District race, has won the endorsement of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7. This latest endorsement by the Chicago police union comes on the heels of Fricilone’s endorsements by the Will County Sheriff’s Union and Illinois State FOP District 11.

Fricilone is running against Democrat Marie Newman, who beat 8-term incumbent Dan Lipinski in the March primary. He recently called on Newman to disavow the “Defund the Police” movement and called her views a “straight rip-off of the most extreme socialists in Washington including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez."

In an endorsement statement, Chicago FOP President John Catanzara called Fricilone “the public safety candidate” in the race to replace Congressman Dan Lipinski.

“[Fricilone’s] opponent, socialist Marie Newman, is funded and endorsed by multiple ‘defund the police’ politicians and organizations. This summer, while Marie Newman supporters were rioting and looting all over the city and Newman sided with the criminals, Mike took the time to write a letter of support to the FOP and its members. He understands that police are working day and night, under extreme pressure, to keep families safe. We enthusiastically endorse Mike Fricilone for Congress and encourage voters to vote for him this fall.”

The Chicago police union has also endorsed Donald Trump for president in the Nov. 3 election. Catanzara, an ardent Trump supporter, called the leadership of Mayor Lori Lightfoot a "failure" in a letter to the president this summer, and said he believes a Trump victory in November would mean more for the city's police officers than it did in 2016.

"(Democrats) have absolutely run [Chicago] into the ground, and they will not take blame in any way, shape or form," Catanzara told Patch last week. "It's always somebody else's fault. It's the finger-pointing way, it's the Chicago way."

Earlier this summer, Fricilone penned an open letter to police following heavy protesting and multiple rounds of looting in Chicago and nationally. Acknowledging the consensus within the law enforcement community at all levels for the need for improvement, “the foolish idea being floated around by my opponent and her supporters of ‘defunding the police,’ is 100 percent wrong, disrespectful to those who wear the badge, and negligent to vulnerable citizens who need the support of cops on a daily basis,” Fricilone said.

Fricilone further accuses Newman of not sharing the “mainstream and commonsense values” of the residents in the 3rd Congressional District. He has also promised to join the same caucus in Congress that Dan Lipinski was part of, the Problem Solvers Caucus, because he will be a “member of Congress that actually takes action and solves problems in a bipartisan manner.”

“I am honored to have the support of Chicago’s police officers in addition to receiving the endorsement of both the Will County Sheriffs Union, and Illinois State FOP District 11. Marie Newman’s plan to defund the police is extreme, disrespectful to those who protect our communities, and negligent to vulnerable citizens who need the support of police on a daily basis. We rely on the men and women who wear police uniforms to keep our families and neighborhoods safe from violence and crime. Each day that law enforcement officers go to work, their loved ones pray for their safe return home. I believe they are heroes, not villains, and when I am your mainstream voice in Congress, I will work closely with our law enforcement to ensure our families are safe.”

Fricilone is a Will County Board member and the Republican Leader of the Will County Board. He says that he is running for Congress to bring “mainstream and commonsense ideas to Washington to move our community forward.” Fricilone is a 30-year member of St Bernard’s Parish in Homer Glen, president and a charter member of the Lockport High School Charitable Foundation, and has spent the last six years on the board of directors of the Will County Children’s Advocacy Center.