Will County resident Henry Meers says frustration with both Democrats and Republicans led him to become the third Republican to announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination for the 11th District congressional seat currently held by Democrat Debbie Halvorson of Crete.

"I am not the handpicked candidate of Republican bosses," Meers said in a press release. "They have failed our party over and over with insider candidates pre-selected and jammed down the throats of the voting citizens."

Other candidates are David McAloon of Bourbonnais, who works as a television producer for his Tinley Park church, and Adam Kinzinger of Normal, a former McLean County Board member and an Air National Guard pilot.

Meers said he felt "compelled" to leave "the comforts of private life" to enter the race because of the policies being undertaken by the Democrat-controlled White House and Congress.

As a long-time conservative political observer and activist, Meers said he has never felt more worried and upset about the future of what he described as "our cherished country."

"Big government economic and social policies, coupled with the Democrats" ruthless lust for power, has placed this nation, our republic, in greater peril than any time in my memory."

Meers said Illinois has been practically destroyed by the Democrat machine operating out of Chicago. He sees the election of Democrat insider Halvorson to the 11th District seat as the leading edge of the machine"s advance on Will and the other counties of the 11th District.

"The Chicago gang had the city and then they took Cook County and Springfield — and now they have the White House," he charged. "It"s time we pushed back."

Meers also is frustrated with much of the GOP leadership in Illinois and Washington.

Meers said his campaign is a "call-to-arms" for the citizens. "We need to take back our party and our nation," he said.

Citing his financial and economic background, Meers said he is ready to go to Washington and challenge the Democrats from day one — point-by-point.

"I have spent my whole private, political, civic and business life as a student and advocate of our political and economic systems — and of sound consistent conservative principles and policies. I will not be intimidated by the phony rhetoric or seniority of members of the opposition. I will not be compromised by inside-the-beltway convolutions. Sound principles cannot be compromised; they can only be undermined. This is a time for confrontation on every issue, every day."

Meers said part of his motivation to enter the race was concern the other candidates who have entered the race are not up to the challenge.

"We seem to have good people running, but that does not mean they have sufficient understanding of economic complexities to be effective advocates. We might all agree on the general issues, but from what I have seen and heard, my opponents lack the depth of knowledge to go toe-to-toe with heavyweights like (Reps.) Barney Frank, Henry Waxman or Nancy Pelosi. They will not be able to hold their own in the all important committee debates."

Though he entered the race on his own volition, Meers already assumes a major advantage over his two announced opponents. His base is Will County, which accounts for more than half of the likely GOP vote in the 11th District. This advantage is seen in his early endorsement by Will County Board Chairman James Moustis, R-Frankfort, and Bill Walker, GOP leader of New Lenox Township. Walker is serving as Meers' campaign manager.

"I have known Henry for 25 years," said Moustis. "His grasp of economics and our nation"s guiding principles is more than impressive. We need a person like him in Congress."

Meet Henry Meers Henry Meers was born in Chicago in 1946. He grew up in Chicago and Lake Forest.

In 1965, he graduated from Lake Forest Academy. He attended The American University in Washington, D.C., and then spent several years abroad before graduating from Lake Forest College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1973.

Following college, he went to work for Benner Tea Corp. in Iowa before starting at Illinois Tool Works from 1973 to 1975 as an auditor.

In 1976 he married his wife, Cecily. He worked for Chicago Corporation on the Board of Options for six months and then went to work for A.G. Edwards from 1977 to 1978. In late 1978, he joined Merrill Lynch where he worked until 1990 in both retail and institutional sales.

After he left Merrill, Meers started his own soft drink company called Spectrum Dispensing. The company focused on developing a soft-drink dispensing system that he tried to commercialize in the late 1990s. Since then, Meers has been working with his brothers developing his farm.

Henry and his wife have raised their three boys on the family farm in Frankfort, which they moved to in 1981 shortly after the death of Meers' uncle who was a lifelong-resident of Will County.

Meeres and his wife both are members of the Infant Jesus of Prague Parish where their boys attended school from 1985 to 2005.

Meers has been active with Boy Scouts and in local politics by serving as a Republican precinct committeeman for the past 16 years; in addition, he was elected to the Frankfort Square Park District Board for four years.

Meers served as a director for the USO Board of Illinois during the 1980s. He is a life member of the National Rifle Association and is a member of the Illinois State Rifle Association.

Meers has a Web site at www.votemeers.us.