By Patrick Ferrell

"Democratic congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson has picked up the endorsement of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

The endorsement could be key, as Republican Marty Ozinga's campaign has tried to paint Halvorson's positions as risky to senior citizens, saying in paid advertisements that she not only would support privatizing Social Security but would also consider taxing retirement income."

...

'"We should never tax retirement income, ever," Halvorson said bluntly. Continuing on about Social Security, she said: "Social Security should be a guarantee, not a gamble. Can you imagine if we had taken Social Security funds private like the Bush administration wanted to, and in this stock market?"

Meanwhile, new information is coming to light that shows Ozinga himself supports some sort of privatization, a position in contrast to quotes offered by his campaign manager weeks ago.

According to a WGLT radio story that aired on Sept. 11 and 12, Ozinga believes "personal investment accounts could be an add-on to Social Security, or even a component of the current system."'

...

"In addition to the stop in Kankakee, Halvorson made Social Security speeches Wednesday in Morris and Streator. In all cases, she was introduced by Max Richtman, executive vice president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

"We don't do this often," Richtman said of endorsing candidates. "We do them only when a candidate is very good on our issues."

Richtman said the committee is the second largest senior citizens advocacy group in the country behind AARP. Though the group has given almost 95 percent of its funding this election cycle to Democrats, Richtman said it is a bipartisan organization.

"I wanted to let you know that for many years now, our group was supportive of the current representative in this area," Richtman said. "Jerry Weller was really good on our issues, and I had a lot of access to him. Of course, he's Republican.""