Metro East Sun

As the Republican Party struggles to have a meaningful voice in Illinois state politics, some members who are in office are saying it’s time for the party to step back and review what it is doing.

In a Facebook post this month, State Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Staunton) called out some of the structural issues the party is facing. 

“We must reform the Illinois Republican Party and affiliated organizations such as the political arms of the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus and Illinois House Republicans if the GOP is ever to become a governing party again in the Land of Lincoln,” he wrote in his post.  

He referenced a meeting with former AG nominee Thomas DeVore and former Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady for a PBS broadcast on WTTW News. 

“The beating we took (on Election Day) — not in the Metro East, mind you — must be a clarion call to rid the party of grifters, hangers on, anyone comfortable with the status quo, and those focused on self rather than service,” Plummer said. “Republican voters, volunteers, and donors must demand competence, hard work, selflessness, strong character, and results from elected officials, party officials, staff, and consultants.”

Plummer uploaded a video that allowed him to expand his opinion.

"Tom is exactly right we have a structural problem here in Illinois,” he said in the video. “Regardless of the election cycle, regardless of names that that you know people like to talk about. The fact of the matter is what we've done in Republican politics would be equivalent to sending the Chicago Cubs out onto the field without bats or gloves - you know you got to put your team in a position to win, and that includes county party organizations, precinct committeemen, get-out-the-vote efforts, all of that blocking attack on your basic politics.” 

With the challenges that loom in the state, he said it’s time to change.

He discussed how politics is influencing the public school system in Chicago.

"As a society, we sit back and watch young kids being set up for a hard life because of politics,” he said earlier in a Metro East Sun report. “In Illinois, education is often no longer about providing students the knowledge and skills they need to be productive members of society. It's often about political donations, unions, votes, patronage and jobs, budgets, indoctrination, and many other things, none of which are focused on kids."  

Plummer, heading into the election, shared information from a Wirepoints analysis of the state's unemployment figures. The most recent data ranked Illinois' unemployment rate as the worst in the nation. 

”I literally don't know what could be more compelling to the average Illinoisan," Plummer wrote in the post. "Yes for jobs and lower taxes, no for corruption and higher taxes. Vote Republican.”