Illinois state Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) | File photo
Illinois state Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) | File photo
A Downstate senator insists that he was not informed of new coronavirus restrictions targeting the Metro East region on which Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently tweeted about “working with local officials.”
“Neither have other legislators, county officials or municipal officials,” Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) told the Metro East Sun. “I continue to stay in close touch with leaders in all eight counties that I represent. I have regular phone calls. I talk to people. I'm not saying the governor hasn't talked to anyone but I don't know anyone who has talked to the governor.”
Plummer was responding to Pritzker's Aug. 16 post on Twitter stating that the governor was, “Working with local officials in the Metro East region and across the border in St. Louis, we are implementing stricter mitigations that account for the unique factors in this region.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker
| File photo
Plummer, who represents the 54th Senate District, which includes the Illinois side of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, Effingham and some or all of Bond, Clinton, Fayette, Madison, Marion, St. Clair and Washington counties, noted that Pritzker has no jurisdiction over the Missouri side of St. Louis.
“The governor of Illinois struggles to understand the authority of his office and he struggles to stay focused on his job,” Plummer said. “He'd much rather appear on CNN and make national news than get the state back up and running and making sure people are getting their unemployment and making sure that he's providing access to the information that his citizens demand.”
Plummer responded on Twitter to Pritzker's new restrictions with a tweet of his own also on Aug. 16.
“This is a joke,” the senator wrote. “Please specifically name the elected officials you've talked to in the last week in these counties, @GovPritzker.”
“From day one, the problem with this administration has been that they have sidelined the representatives of the people and they have decided to run the whole show out of the governor's office, and that's not the way our system of government is supposed to function,” said Plummer. “There's no transparency. There's limited communication, if any, and they raise more questions than they answer, which is problematic because no one is saying this isn't a crisis, but right now the main crisis I see is a crisis in leadership because Gov. Pritzker has failed.”
Statewide, there have been 211,889 coronavirus cases and 7,806 deaths, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health dashboard.
“The pandemic is serious, right?” Plummer asked. “People are sick. People are getting hurt, but you know what else is serious? People are losing their homes. People are out of work. Single moms are trying to figure out how to balance a job while their kids are at home, not in school. There's a mental health crisis going on. Addictions are up. Suicides are up, and the governor's whistling in the wind.”
The state moved into Phase 4 of Gov. Pritzker’s reopening plan, Restore Illinois, on June 26. This phase permits indoor dining at restaurants, health and fitness centers, movies and theaters, museums and zoos, and increases the allowable size of gatherings to up to 50 people. Phase 4 also allows travel, child care centers and schools to reopen but only under guidance by the Illinois Department of Health.