From The Chairman
Thank you to all of the golfers, sponsors, and volunteers that made our 3rd Annual Chairman’s Golf Tournament a success! We had wonderful weather, a great turnout, and Annie Frey, from 97.1 FM Talk, broadcasted her show on-site. You can find Annie’s interview with Cheryl Mathews, St. Clair County Republican Party Chairman; Ed McLean, Monroe County Republican Party Chairman; and Ray Wesley, Madison County Republican Party Chairman on our YouTube Channel.
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It’s time to begin planning for the 2024 General Election! There are many Federal, State, and County positions that will be on the ballot, and we need strong Republican candidates for each of them. Please take a look at the list of positions below and consider running for one of them! The IL GOP will be holding training for all candidates and precinct committeemen (PCs) on Saturday, August 19th from 10AM to 2PM at the Holiday Inn Express at 1000 Plummer Drive in Edwardsville. There is no charge to attend and a light breakfast and lunch will be provided. Please see the event flyer below.
Please save the dates for the Republican Day event at the IL State Fair on Thursday, August 17th at the IL State Fairgrounds and for our annual Reagan Day Dinner on Thursday, September 28th at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Fairview Heights! Please see below for information on the Republican Day event. Tickets and sponsorships for the Reagan Day Dinner are available on our website. We hope to see you at both events!
Thanks for all you do in helping us turn St. Clair County red!
Cheryl Mathews
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St. Clair County Republican Party Core Values
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Petition Circulation For The 2024 Presidential Election Starts In Three Months!
Candidates running for office in the 2024 Presidential Election will begin circulating petitions in early September 2023 with the signed petitions being due in late November 2023. Republican candidates are needed for the following offices:
US House of Representatives
IL 13th Congressional District
IL State House of Representatives
IL State 112th Legislative District
IL State 113th Legislative District
St. Clair County Countywide Positions
County Chairman
State’s Attorney
Coroner
Circuit Clerk
Auditor
County Recorder
Board of Review (x2)
St. Clair County Board Districts
District 1
District 6
District 7
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 16
If you’re interested in running for one of these offices, please contact Michael Butler, our Vice-Chairman for Elections, at elections@scilgop.com.
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County Board News for May 2023 – By Phil Henning, County Board District 19
1. The Board approved a legal services contract to the Law Offices of Christopher Cueto, Lloyd M. Cueto and the Environmental Litigation Group for professional services.
2. The Board approved the purchase of 8+ acres of land not to exceed $740, 975 from the Archdiocese of Belleville. Located along IL 13/15 and adjacent to the St Clair County Housing Office and on 1123 Comwest Drive, this will be the site for the new County Animal Services facility. This will allow more outdoor exercise space and additional indoor kennel space for the increased demand. Right now the dogs have to be walked outdoors by volunteers.
3. Additional lane widening of Frank Scott Parkway East from Greenmount Road to Old Collinsville Road was approved. The road will be four lanes with a center turn lane.
4. We recognized Ms. Briana Morales with a Proclamation as Illinois Teacher of the Year. Briana instructs special education classes at District 189.
5. We recognized the 70th Anniversary of NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Racing) and presented a proclamation to Mr. Curtis Francois, owner of the “World Wide Technology Raceway” in Madison, IL. The second annual NASCAR Enjoy Illinois 300 race is this weekend, along with other races and events. Note that the raceway is located in both St Clair and Madison counties.
6. We approved $14 million in COVID relief funds to be spend upgrading the county owned (10% by Belleville) Belle-Clair Fairgrounds.
7. Improvements are planned for Sullivan Drive between Frank Scott Parkway West and Huntwood Drive with IDOT participating with the County. This is partially funded by Federal Aid Funds.
8. We approved multiple requests for below surface broadband cable installations.
9. Structural repairs will be made on Triple Lakes Road over Prairie du Pont Creek for $326,000.
10. We obligated Covid relief funds of $4.3 million towards the design, engineering and construction of a new Animal Control Facility (to be placed on the land in item 2).
11. We obligated Covid relief funds of $1,000,000 to acquire, remediate and improve the former US Army Reserve Center in Belleville for public uses and purposes. Right now I don’t know the exact plans of this facility.
12. Ed Cockrell, District 20 Board Member complimented the county staff along with Chairman Kern on the hard work and dedication in managing solar farms and facilities in the County. We had to re-write and approve a new ordinance to conform to more state control over solar farms and individual installations in county unincorporated areas. Mr. Kern took delight in “at least one agreement with Ed” and all of us applauded this in a mix of humor. Ed also stated that wind turbines will be highly restricted in our area due to the Mississippi River flyway for migratory birds.
13. I and several other board members and county officials toured the new and massive Tyson Foods production plant on Tucker Drive in Caseyville (adjacent to an existing plant). This is a state-of-the art production facility for frozen food for brand name and private label items such as breakfast burritos and other ready to prepare and eat items. Miron Construction is the general contractor and their project manager said over 1,000 individual construction and trades workers have assisted in the construction of the plant. The plant is just off I-64.
14. The new extension of the Mid America air terminal and gates will open on 13 June 2023. I’ll have more details after this visit.
15. The jail population increased slightly but the juvenile detention facility remained stable at about 38 residents daily.
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General Assembly Passes Budget that Reflects Misplaced Priorities – By Jason Plummer, State Senator 55th District
Late last week, the Illinois General Assembly passed the state’s budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, which represents the largest spending plan in Illinois history at $50.6 billion. The proposal now heads to the Governor to be signed.
In the Senate, the plan received bipartisan opposition, in which Senate Republicans said the budget further reflects the Majority Party’s misplaced priorities and continues to expand the size of government with new programs at a time when revenues are slowing, and a recession is looming. Senator Plummer says this excessive spending is not sustainable and taxpayers will likely be on the hook down the road.
While Senate Republicans were pleased to be at the budget negotiating table this year, as they sought to create a state budget that reflects the priorities of their constituents, the budget that passed missed the mark.
Instead of providing better services to the developmentally disabled community, the FY24 budget prioritizes a program that provides free healthcare to undocumented immigrants, costing taxpayers hundreds of million of dollars. The spending plan also includes more than $300 million in Democrat-only projects and a $400 million slush fund for the Governor but fails to provide the necessary incentives to retain the state’s employers and bring new businesses and jobs to Illinois.
“This was a budget process that made very clear the priorities of the two parties. We advocated for priorities that benefit all of Illinois, like funding services for our state’s most vulnerable citizens, protecting an important scholarship program for children in failing schools to get a better education, relief for families struggling to pay their electric bills, improvements to our business climate to help grow jobs, and help for our family farms,” said Plummer. “The majority party refused, and instead, they handed us a budget that did not fully fund our hospitals, but provides hundreds of millions of dollars for free gold-plated healthcare for people who aren’t even citizens, hundreds of millions more in pork projects just for Democratic districts, and a 400-million-dollar slush fund for the Governor to give to businesses that align with him politically. Worse yet, this budget isn’t even close to being balanced.”
“The truth is that the people of Illinois don’t need a Democratic budget, they don’t need a Republican budget, they need a budget that works for everyone in Illinois. What they got instead is unacceptable, it’s embarrassing, and it’s shameful,” concluded Plummer.
The FY24 budget, if signed into law, will take effect at the start of the new fiscal year beginning July 1, 2023.
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Be Informed! – By Jennifer Korte
Within 5 months, IL politicians voted themselves a $16,330 per year pay raise – costing IL taxpayers more than $3M extra each year just for our State Senators and Representatives. It does not include their other colleagues’ pay raises.
Call to Action: Call Gov. Pritzker and tell him to veto the politicians’ pay raises at 217-782-6830 or 217-782-0244.
State legislators called their monstrosity a balanced budget, but with our total unfunded pension liabilities of $140B and all of the new services for illegal immigrants, IL’s budget is anything but balanced.
According to The Center Square, “The overall cost of taxpayers subsidizing health care for undocumented residents was estimated to be more than $1 billion. However, state Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, told a committee that number isn’t fully known.”
Some of the known illegal immigrant funding in the budget:
$38M for Integration Services for Migrants, page 466
$1,126,700 for Refuge Social Services, page 465
$204,000 for Refuge Social Services, page 466
$50.6M for Refugee Resettlement, page 500
$4.4M for Migrant Child Care Services including prior year costs, page 506
$42.5M for legal representation, technological assistance, shelter, transportation, basic health, first aid, case management, COVID testing, interpretation/translation services and workplace readiness for asylum seekers, page 530
$514,000 for Refuge Healthcare, page 603
$2.2M for legal assistance to migrant persons, page 899
$2.5M for Refugee Healthcare, page 603
$1.5M for Refugee Healthcare, page 602
You can fund more information from Jennifer on her Facebook page.
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Republican Day at the IL State Fair on Thursday, August 17th
The gates open for the Republican Day event on the Director’s Lawn at 11:30AM, and the program starts at noon. The first 1000 people to register for the event at Republican Day will receive free tickets for:
1) FREE admission onto the fairgrounds (you pay for parking)
2) A FREE BBQ lunch at the Republican Day event
3) Admission into the Republican Day Rally event itself
Everyone else over the first 1,000 registrants will be issued a simple ticket allowing them admission into the Republican Day event but NOT free admission onto the fairgrounds and NOT a free BBQ lunch. You will find out if you have a FREE fairgrounds/lunch ticket on Saturday, August 12th via your email.
We hope to see you there!
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Math and Reading Proficiency for IL High School Students Plunges Below 30%
Illinois is in the minority of states graduating a higher percentage of students during the first two years of the pandemic. But state data shows those high school students’ SAT scores are dropping and a smaller percentage are immediately continuing onto higher education.
Specifically, IL high school students proficiency in reading and math have plunged below 30% lowering their chances for good-paying jobs to support themselves and their future families.
Unfortunately, IL Democrats consider this a successful public education system for our children and grandchildren.
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The Republican Women’s Club Of St. Clair County Invites All Republican Women To Attend Their Monthly Meetings
The Republican Women’s Club of St. Clair County meets on the first Monday of each month at O’Fallon Food Hall & Tap House, 1214 Central Park Dr, O Fallon. Supper and fellowship begin at 6PM, and the meeting starts at 7PM.
Please join us as we work together, have fun, and share information in a positive setting. You will meet fellow Republicans, Republican candidates, and Republican elected officials at our meetings and gain valuable knowledge on important issues related to St. Clair County.
For more info, please contact Mary Thurman, President, by phone at 618-550-5751 or via email at mompower49@hotmail.com.
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St. Clair County Republican Party 2023 Sustaining Membership
At our 2023 Lincoln Day Gala, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy congratulated the St. Clair County Republican Party for flipping the Illinois 56th State Senate District seat to Erica Conway Harriss and the Illinois 114th State House District seat to Kevin Schmidt. St. Clair County was one of the few places in Illinois where Republicans made gains at the state level in the 2022 Midterm Elections. In St. Clair County, we had the strongest slate of candidates on the ballot in our Party’s recent history with candidates for all but one countywide position and all but three County Board seats. We came very close to flipping three countywide positions and winning new County Board seats.
In large part, these successes were attributable to the financial support that we received in 2022 from Republicans in St. Clair County. That support allowed us to host monthly Candidate Table events across the County in order to introduce our local candidates to County voters. We also hosted Illinois Governor and US Senate Forums to introduce our statewide candidates to voters in southern Illinois. Donations allowed us to mail out tens of thousands of voter education cards to County voters to ensure they knew the Republicans running for office at the County and State levels. Our new website, stclaircountyrepublicans.com, was built with funds donated by County Republicans.
As we look ahead to the 2024 Presidential Election, we have a lot of work to do in 2023 to prepare for the 2024 Presidential Election. Our goal is straightforward, we want to increase the number of votes for Republican candidates from St. Clair County voters in order to win seats at the County, State, and National levels. Specifically, we will be focused on creating an effective Vote By Mail (VBM) program in St. Clair County, on expanding our outreach to independent and soft Democrat voters in St. Clair County, and on broadly communicating our Republican value proposition.
In order to ensure we’re able to accomplish these goals, please consider becoming a 2023 Sustaining Member of the St. Clair County Republican Party. Our website’s Sustaining Membership Page describes our nine different Sustaining Membership levels and the gifts associated with each.
We’re making progress in St. Clair County. However, we have much more to do to stop the attack on our southern Illinois values from Chicago Democrats. We can do this if we work together and stand for what we believe. Thanks for your continued support in turning St. Clair County red!
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Do You Have Information That Is Of Interest To Our Members?
If so, please send it to us at marketing@scilgop.com so that can publish it in an upcoming issue of the St. Clair County Republican Party Membership Newsletter.
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