ROCKFORD (WIFR) --A woman from a crowded congressional candidate race makes her first stop in Rockford since announcing she's running for a seat in the newly mapped 17th District.

Moline councilwoman Cheri Bustos stopped at the Rockford Library today as part of her four city, two day tour of the district which stretches from the Illinois/Wisconsin border to Peoria.

Bustos is a former newspaper reporter and current health care executive, but she stresses she is not a politician and plans to go out of her way to get the public involved with events like annual economic summits.

Press Release from Cheri Bustos' Office
Saying she will provide “new leadership that will put people’s interests first,” former hospital executive and current East Moline Council member Cheri Bustos announced her candidacy for the United States Congress in the March 2012 Democratic Primary.

“I am running because I believe the new direction Americans demand requires bold new leadership to guide us there—leadership committed to creating practical solutions for problems important to working families and the middle class,” Bustos said. “I can provide the leadership to put people back to work, restore and reinvigorate the middle class and to move forward together.”

Bustos cited pocketbook issues such as jobs, financial security and health care as the focus of her campaign. “I believe our government and economic system must work for people first, must put their interests first,” Bustos said. “Government can no longer allow Wall Street to exploit our economy and then leave us to languish as an afterthought to some elitist, out-of-touch, economic theory. In the America I envision, the people’s interest will come first.”

As part of her focus on economic issues, Bustos plans an Annual Economic Summit in what she calls the “Manufacturing Triangle,” anchored by the three major communities in the new 17th District: the Quad-Cities, Peoria and Rockford.

“We will bring together leaders and innovators from education, business, labor, health care and government from across the district, and we will generate ideas, and even be bold enough to find solutions, on how to make this area the destination for manufacturing jobs and clusters of economic resurgence,” Bustos said. “We have what it takes—right here in northern, western and central Illinois—to be a hub for manufacturing , not just in the Midwest, but in the United States. We have the skilled workforce, the work ethic, the brainpower from our educational institutions, the infrastructure and the innovation capacity.”

Bustos brings a unique background to the race for Congress. She has worked in senior-level positions in health care for the past decade. “I have a hands-on perspective of the problems in health care and the challenges – and even opportunities -- of reform,” Bustos said. “I believe my professional connection to health care will help guide and frame issues that face our country and specifically our senior citizens in a more practical manner that would apply common-sense thinking to solve our problems.”

Through June 2011, Bustos was the Vice President of Public Relations and Communications at IHS, the nation’s sixth largest nondenominational health system with annual revenues of $2.3 billion and nearly 20,000 employees. Bustos recently resigned the position to dedicate more time to run for Congress.

Prior to her appointment with IHS in January 2008, Bustos was the Senior Director of Corporate Communications for Trinity Regional Health System, Rock Island, Ill., serving in that role for more than six years.

Bustos began her career as a journalist for 17 years, reporting on crime, city and state government, health, investigations and other issues of importance. Most of her reporting and editing career was spent at the mid-sized daily newspaper, the Quad-City Times in the Quad-Cities. Bustos was honored over the years with many statewide journalism awards, and a national award, for her investigative reporting. She led the Quad-City Times education coverage to “Best in the State” as judged by the state’s Newspaper Association.

She also serves as an Alderman on the City Council in East Moline, Ill. Bustos is serving in her second, four-year term. She is a past member of the East Moline Citizens Advisory Committee and the East Moline Plan Commission.

Bustos and her husband, Gerry, a captain with the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department and the founder and commander of the Quad-City Bomb Squad, have three sons: Tony, an engineering software sales manager in the Chicago area; Nick, a recent graduate of Illinois College with a bachelor’s degree in management and organizational leadership and a minor in Spanish; and Joey, a sophomore at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.