One of the first questions posed to the Democratic candidates at yesterday's 5th Congressional District forum had to do with what provisions in the House stimulus proposal they thought would most benefit the district's residents.  While you can listen to the whole event over at WBEZ's site, we've clipped some of the more interesting responses:

First of the bat was Cook Co. Commissioner Mike Quigley, who highlighted the transit portion of the bill (an issue near and dear to our heart here at Progress Illinois).  Listen:

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In his answer, State Rep. John Fritchey agreed with Quigley, but devoted his answer to the importance of the estimated $500 million in federal funds slated for the Chicago Public Schools.  Listen:

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State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz noted that the stimulus would help clear the state's backlog of payments to Medicaid providers (we've written repeatedly about the damaging reimbursement ripple effect caused by these unpaid bills).  Listen:

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Finally, Tom Geoghegan broadly endorsed the stimulus as necessary to "prevent the economy from melting down," but emphasized that our next step should be to deal with the suffocating consumer debt across America:

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We'll have more from the forum later.  In the meantime, you can listen to the whole event here or read over our live-blog here.