Prairie State Wire

All Republican Committeeman John McGlasson says he is likely to get out of his call for a special meeting of the state GOP after the shellacking the party took in November is a chance to speak his mind at the party’s regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 9 in Bolingbrook. If he can make his way onto the agenda.

“Never heard back from anyone,” McGlasson, referring to his request for a special meeting, told Prairie State Wire. “I’m completely discouraged. I’ll try to give my viewpoints at the regular party meeting, if I get a chance.”

The conservative McGlasson, committeeman from the 16th Congressional District, seconded fellow Committeeman’s Sean Morrison’s call for a special meeting after the embarrassing revelation in mid-December that Bruce Rauner sought someone to take his place on the ballot soon after his near loss to former State Rep. Jeanne Ives, a Republican of Wheaton, in the March primary. Again, he heard nothing.

John McGlasson

“We should be out looking hard for someone to challenge (U.S. Senator Dick) Durbin in 2020,” he said. “A good, enthusiastic candidate will help other candidates in down-ticket races. Maybe we could take a few of the House seats back. But they seem to be content with the way things are.”

McGlasson needs five of the 18 Republican Central Committee members to call a special meeting of the party. He says with Bob Winchester’s legal claim for his Committee spot in the 15th Congressional District still in legal limbo, he doesn’t have them.

“It is my opinion that the party needs to return to its roots as expressed in our party platform,” he said. “And we need to search for a leader that will lead us back to the basics of conservatism.”

McGlasson said that a move is on to have Ives speak in Bolingbrook, but she told the Prairie State Wire that she has yet to receive an invitation.

“I would tell them that they are disorganized and rudderless,” Ives said. “We need a fiscal contract with Illinoisans and a strategy to carry it out.”

“We need new leadership,” she added, “after that bloodbath in November, and (the) revelation about Rauner. They (party leaders) can’t claim ignorance about that. He’s been funding the party for years.”