Local politicians visited the ComEd Rockford Training Center on Monday January 25th. Rockford Mayor Thomas McNamara, Representatives Maurice West II and David Vella were shown the facility by IBEW 15 President Terry McGoldrick, Vice-President Billy Phillips and Melissa Washington, ComEd Senior Vice-President Government & External Affairs.
Tom McNamara, the forty-first mayor of Rockford and former Third Ward Alderman, took office in 2017 after winning a four-way race in a landslide with sixty-eight percent of the vote. He is seeking re-election this year.
Maurice West II was first elected to represent House District 67 covering the metropolitan Rockford area in 2018. His AFL CIO voting record is 90% pro-labor. West was re-elected in 2020 by two-thirds of the vote.
David Vella won a tight race by 239 votes out of a total 53,301 votes cast in 2020. His career experience includes working as a public defender with Winnebago County, an attorney with the Vella & Lund law firm, Rockford Literary Council member, and board president of Keith Country Day School.
The Rockford Training Center, which opened in 2013, was built at a cost of eight million dollars as part of the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act passed by the Illinois legislature in 2011. More site visits are planned to give officials a chance to meet our members who generate and deliver electricity.