Two of the Republican candidates for Governor spoke at the Marion County Republican Women’s Ronald Reagan Tribute Dinner on Saturday at the Marion County Fairgrounds Exhibit building.
Ted Dabrowski wants to make Illinois affordable to live in.
“For the last fifteen years, I’ve been working for both the Illinois Policy Institute and Wirepoints, and I’ve been fighting against these taxes that keep going higher, the losses of jobs that we’re having and companies leaving,” Dabrowski said. “I’ve been upset with schools in particular. They’re not teaching our kids to read anymore. I’ve been writing about it, researching it, working with grassroots groups, legislators, legislation, and I just saw things keep getting worse. I said, no, I can’t keep complaining. I’ve got to get in there and go lead. I’m ready to lead this state to where it should be. it should be a top five state in this country, not a bottom five state.”
Gubernatorial candidate Ted Dabrowski. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
Dabrowski says if elected the first thing he would do is appoint a commission to determine where the $16 billion has gone that has been added to the budget since JB Pritzker was elected seven years ago. Dabrowski says main priorities are cutting property taxes which are the highest in the country and finding out why the residents are paying the second highest gas tax. He also says he wants to cut the number of units of government, which is the highest in the nation.
State Senator Jason Plummer is heading Dabrowski’s campaign.
“I’ve known Ted for fifteen years,” Plummer said. “He’s just a dynamic leader, and I think he’s going to do great things for Illinois.”
Gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey of Xenia was the keynote speaker. He is challenging JB Pritzker for a second time.
“We’ve got to start rolling back the property tax,” Bailey said. “We’re going to actually come out with a plan, probably in about a month, as to exactly what that’s going to look like. We need to start initiating change to give people relief at the gas pump, relief in overall taxes. Illinois is the highest taxed state in the nation. That’s got to end, and it will. We have a lot of state workers around here. Protecting and giving people assurance of their pension and their future is going to happen. School choice, cleaning up public education.”
Bailey introduced the audience to his Lieutenant Governor running mate Aaron Del Mar who is currently Cook County Republican Party Chair and Palatine Township Road Commissioner. He’s looking forward to working with Bailey to fix Illinois.
Running mates Aaron Del Mar and Darren Bailey. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
“All the agency heads that have been doing mismanagement, that have been patronage jobs, are going to be released from their jobs,” Del Mar said. “You had 2200 people that were killed, children, under DCFS in the last 8 years under J.B. Pritzker. Darren Bailey is going to make that change on day 1. The federal funding that has been given to Illinois but not received by the state of Illinois because J.B. Pritzker would rather go around auditioning for president than sign one letter and send it to the White House so we can get more funding for school choice, homeschooling, and charter schools.”
Del Mar feels Bailey is the only candidate who can make generational changes.
A candidate for State Comptroller also spoke. Brian Drew is from Benton.
“The comptroller is basically the checkbook of the state of Illinois,” Drew said. “You don’t get to make laws or decide where the money goes. You do get to decide when, but also, every nickel of that 55-billion-dollar budget that went through all comes through the comptroller’s office, so I’ll know where all the waste is, and I’ll be able to expose the fraud.
State comptroller candidate Brian Drew. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
Drew has been an attorney for the past 25 years. He has sued Governor Pritzker over COVID-19 restrictions and to fight a ban on assault weapons.
Around 200 attended the event and also heard from Republican State Senate, State Representative, Judicial, and countywide candidates.
