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Sean Matlis

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This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Sean Matlis
Image of Sean Matlis

Independent

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Graduate

Weizmann Institute of Science

Ph.D

Boston University

Personal
Birthplace
Evanston, Ill.
Profession
Computational neuroscientist
Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Sean Matlis (independent) ran for election to the Illinois House of Representatives to represent District 18. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Matlis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Matlis was born in Evanston, Illinois. He earned a master's degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science, a master's degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and a Ph.D. from Boston University. His career experience includes working as a computational neuroscientist.[1]

Elections

2020

See also: Illinois House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Illinois House of Representatives District 18

Incumbent Robyn Gabel defeated Sean Matlis in the general election for Illinois House of Representatives District 18 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Robyn Gabel
Robyn Gabel (D) Candidate Connection
 
72.3
 
43,607
Image of Sean Matlis
Sean Matlis (Independent) Candidate Connection
 
27.7
 
16,699

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 60,306
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Watch the Candidate Conversation for this race!

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 18

Incumbent Robyn Gabel advanced from the Democratic primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 18 on March 17, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Robyn Gabel
Robyn Gabel Candidate Connection
 
100.0
 
23,991

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 23,991
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Sean Matlis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Matlis' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a scientist, not a politician, and I have no interest in a career in politics or pushing a party agenda in Illinois.

I decided to run as an Independent because everybody from both parties - Democrats and Republicans alike - knows that Illinois is in a downward spiral from which it will not be able to recover. The issues I support are issues that most Democrats and Republicans agree on, and focus on fighting corruption (ending the control that the Madigan machine has on the state and his party) and getting Illinois economically on track again.

Republicans obviously do not agree with Madigan's leadership. But most Democrats also do not like his leadership or the way that he controls which Democrat candidates can run and get elected. He controls the money in each district, and you cannot win without his support. If Democrats want to be represented by people they choose again, the only way they can do that is by voting in people who will oppose Madigan's control. People like me.
  • Fight the Madigan Machine. Enact Term Limits. Other ethics reforms are also important, like greater government transparency, lobbying reforms, and campaign finance reforms.
  • No to the Graduated Tax. Nobody trusts the officials in Springfield to stay true to their promises, because they never have before, and they have done nothing to balance the budget, and haven't passed a balanced budget in the last 18 years. The so-called savings for 97% of taxpayers amount to $50 or less. They have not earned our trust with a Constitutional amendment to give them higher taxes. They broke their promise on the tollway fare, the tax increase of 1989, and the tax increase of 2011. A tax hike will also motivate even more people and businesses to leave the state, because we are one of the most heavily taxed states in the nation overall.
  • Reform the state pension scheme. Currently it is a Ponzi scheme, and is ballooning to fatal levels. According to one source in 2015 it was 15% of the state budget, in 2020 it is 25% of the budget. This is quickly becoming impossible to solve. New state hires must be put on the same plan that people in the private sector have. This is the only way to preserve the pensions of people who have already been promised theirs, before the state runs out of money.
As a bilingual Hispanic with family in South America, born to three generations of immigrants, the freedoms and opportunities that the U.S. gives its citizens means a lot to me. The comparison of failed South and Central American states to the U.S. is very clear to me and present in my mind. They promised government fairness in socialism but delivered oppression, poverty, and misery instead. The issues of corruption and state caused poverty are very personal to me, and are very real threats. Every other policy that people want to enact, from the environment to healthcare, cannot be done without money, which comes from taxes from a thriving and successful population. That is why I know that we have to enact changes to fight corruption and to get the economy of Illinois back on track.
Many people don't know it, but John F. Kennedy fought hard to lower taxes. He argued that it would stimulate the economy, and that it was essential to strong economic growth. He was right.
Honesty, transparency, integrity, decisiveness, intelligence, the ability to collaborate, the ability to listen, having the interests of the people as the number one priority.
Representing the best interests of the constituents fairly, honestly, and effectively.
One of my first jobs was as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton supporting the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). I was able to help on a project working on limb regeneration. It was incredibly exciting.
Previous experience is always helpful, but it has to be balanced against a tendency to become part of the system, dependent on your position, and more concerned with getting elected again rather than voting for what is best for the state and your constituents. Politician was never meant to be a lifetime career, and these elected officials would vote differently if they knew they had to live under the laws they voted on rather than above them as a kind of elite aristocracy.
The two connected challenges will be to fight the corruption and party control that Illinois is known for, and which prevents any real changes from being enacted, and to balance the budget, pay of the pension debt, and bring Illinois back on track economically. It will take hard decisions and new blood.
The governor and the state legislature are two coequal branches of government, and should be able to work together, but also be checks on each other for power.
As an Independent my entire platform is built on working together with both Democrats and Republicans to bring about change in Illinois. Currently Madigan's party has a veto-proof majority, and this one-party rule is part of the reason Illinois has come to the brink of ruin. Powerful politicians who only have their own self interests in mind do not have any checks from another party. In addition, in general legislation must represent all the residents of a state, and to best do that requires cooperation between legislators.
Both parties talk a lot about redistricting fairly, and yet it doesn't happen. I favor an independent body to oversee fair redistricting that maximizes the inclusion of communities entirely within districts. In my district there are eight towns, and five of them are only a fragment. These maps are clearly chosen by Madigan to best enable his candidates to win. Maps should not divide communities, neighborhoods, cities, towns, or villages.
I am committed to serving a maximum of two terms, and to not participating in the state pension plan.
One of my constituents has a business in Chicago that he cannot sell because Chicago has raised the taxes twofold and enacted legislation requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars of changes to be made to the property. Through their legislation they have bankrupted a once successful small business. That is the future of Illinois if we do not act now.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 15, 2020.


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