Candidate has record with payday lenders
John Fritchey, candidate in the Illinois 5th Congressional District race, got an endorsement from the AFL-CIO today. The organization cited his voting record regarding payday loan reform and other financial legislation among its reasons for endorsing him.
Obvious answer for skeptics
Fritchey in the past has voted for certain limitations on payday loans. However, he represented Cash America when it applied for special use permit in order to open a pawn shop. Cash America also owns a payday lending operation in addition to operating pawn shops.
Progress Illinois asks the following question:
If Fritchey is an opponent of predatory lending, why is he assisting this company’s expansion?
To me, the answer seems pretty clear. Fritchey is well versed in payday lending law and payday loan reform, but he doesn’t consider payday loans a form of predatory lending.
Is there a contradiction here?
So why would Fritchey vote to place limits on payday loans if he doesn’t think they are predatory lenders? People seem to forget sometimes that everything in life isn’t always black and white. Just because he believes there should be certain forms of regulation doesn’t mean that he thinks the organizations are inherently bad.
Regulation and support can coexist
John Fritchey
All types of other industries are subject to regulations. For instance, the government has placed new regulations on banks and other traditional lenders. However, the government is also supplying them with billions in bailout money. So it is possible to support regulation of certain industries and help them at the same time.
It’s refreshing to find someone who supports payday loan reform but also sees the industry as a needed financial service.
An AFL-CIO endorsement is a pretty powerful thing, especially in a traditionally strong union region like the upper Midwest. That’s a union stronghold – getting their “OK” is a valuable thing. It’s also nice to see that he wants to have business still be operable and fair, not a bad idea at all instead of running entire industries out of a state.