Illinois Republican chairman plans to step down
Tim Schneider told top Republicans on Saturday that he intends to stepdown as Illinois GOP chairman, setting up a search for a successor as early as next month.
Schneider, a former Cook County commissioner and Hanover Township trustee from Streamwood, was installed as chairman in May 2014 as the choice of thengovernor candidate Bruce Rauner after the wealthy private equity investor secured the GOP nomination en route to serving one term as governor.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to lead this party for the past six years. The Illinois Republican Party is an important force for change in a state that so desperately needs it,” Schneider said in a statement.
“During my tenure, the ILGOP has stood for reform — term limits, fair maps, and the end to the rampant corruption plaguing our state. And we were united around our conservative values of smaller government, lower taxes, and personal responsibility.”
Schneider’s announcement came during a virtual meeting of the Republican State Central Committee. It caught some members by surprise, given that the GOP avoided serious damage in the Nov. 3 general election while successfully pushing the defeat of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed graduated-rate income tax and preventing the retention of Democratic Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride.
But under Schneider, the state GOP also was not able to capitalize on the money Rauner used during his tenure to heavily subsidize the party and turn it into appreciable gains. Rauner’s 2018 loss to Pritzker left Illinois in oneparty control.
Sources said Schneider, who embraced President Donald Trump’s reelection and weathered the controversial years of Rauner’s tenure, was facing opposition from more conservative hard-liners within the state GOP hierarchy.
The sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the meeting, said a push was made to name Lake County GOP Chairman Mark Shaw to replace Schneider as chairman during Saturday’s meeting, but those efforts fell short.
Two years ago, Lake Forest’s Shaw sought to challenge Schneider for the party’s chairmanship. But in a compromise brokered by Rauner, Shaw backed off and accepted the newly created title of party co- chairman for “conservative and grassroots outreach.”
At the time, Rauner, who was seeking reelection, fell out of favor with party conservatives over his support of legislation that expanded abortion and LGBTQ rights. Those positions almost cost him renomination after narrowly defeating former state Rep. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton in the GOP primary.
Shaw has been a controversial figure. In September, his county GOP organization touted a Republican fundraiser on Facebook, saying, “An invigorated Republican electorate enjoyed a beautiful fundraiser … ‘without fear and without masks!’” The posting included a video of the indoor and outdoor event, which featured few people wearing masks despite guidelines dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Twoweeks after the 2017 Las Vegas massacre of concertgoers that killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others, Shaw’s county GOP organization held a fundraiser where at least a dozen firearms were raffled off. Shaw said some of the money raised at the event would be donated to Las Vegas first responders.
With immediate support for Shaw lacking among top Republicans on Saturday, the party leaders agreed to form a search committee, which will present its recommendations for a new chairman on Jan. 9. Schneider’s term was to run through May 2022.
“I believe the ILGOP is in a great position to take this momentum (of 2020) and regain the governor’s mansion, win a U.S. Senate seat, win majority control of the Supreme Court for the first time, and put up a strong fight in other races up and down the ballot in 2022,” Schneider said.