SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – With 15 days until the primary elections on March 21, four Republican gubernatorial candidates debated Tuesday night, each saying how they would improve the state economy and business climate.

The debate was held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in Springfield, Ill., and was sponsored by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. Topics ranged from funding roads, reducing and repealing taxes and fees, and funding education. Candidates in attendance included State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, State Senator Bill Brady and businessmen Jim Oberweis and Ron Gidwitz.

Sugar Grove native Jim Oberweis said he is not a politician and would come into the governor’s office as a reformer and restated his pledge to not accept campaign donations. When asked about former Gov. George Ryan’s ongoing trial, Oberweis said that he has seen two Republican and two Democrat governors on trial.

“This governor (Rod Blagojevich) seems bound and determined that he’s going to break that tie,” Oberweis said.

When asked about recent allegations made by former Deputy Treasurer Martin Kovarik about shredding documents and state employees doing campaign work in the state treasurer’s office, State Treasurer Topinka said that none of the allegations were true.

“We do not shred official documents,” Topinka said. “We respect them.”

Topinka also said that in her office, employees do not do political work on company time and refuted Kovarik’s statements.

“Kovarik was a tax cheat and unfortunately we had to terminate him,” Topinka said.

State Sen. Brady (R-Bloomington) described himself as a mainstream conservative and pledged not to increase taxes and to repeal business fees to help the state economy.

When asked about the rising health care costs for small businesses, Brady said he would reform medical malpractice lawsuits, reform the Medicaid system and fight against mandates that increase premiums.

“Our policies ought to motivate people to be on health care,” Brady said.

Businessman Ron Gidwitz said the Illinois job climate and economy was made lousy by Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration.

“We are a high cost state and the governor has made it higher by closing loopholes,” Gidwitz said. “We need to roll back the loopholes he closed to make Illinois more viable.”

Gidwitz also said he would reform education and that test scores showed some schools with ample resources are not doing their jobs to educate students and accountability in education must be increased.

Topinka and Brady both opposed affirmative action quotas in admissions to public universities. Brady said the universities should be used to recruit and attract minorities, and Topinka said that while opportunities needed to be opened up to minorities, the issue should not be forced with a quota.

On subsidizing ethanol in Illinois, Oberweis clarified his position from a prior statement he made in 2001, saying that he never opposed ethanol, but generally was opposed to subsidies.

“We must do whatever we can to reduce our dependency on foreign oil,” Oberweis said. “We need to move to a free market.”