Hamilton GOP chair stepping down for ‘worklife balance’
HAMILTON >> Ileana Schirmer is stepping down as chairwoman of the Hamilton GOP.
She notified party members of her decision, telling The Trentonian in a phone interview Wednesday that she was juggling too many responsibilities and needed to prioritize what was important in her life.
Schirmer took on more responsibility at her day job working for a pharmaceutical company and sought a better “work-life balance” that allows her attend more of her son’s baseball games.
She called her family “priority No. 1.”
Wearing many hats, the former township councilwoman and ex-Mayor Yaede critic still serves on the Hamilton zoning board and is vying for another fouryear term as Mercer County state committeewoman.
She leads Trenton GOP chairwoman Jennifer Williams by 26 votes with all districts reporting, according to unofficial results.
The township committee will decide in the coming weeks who succeeds Schirmer, who was installed as chair last year following the exit of Yaede backer Dennis Pone.
Schirmer was contemplating stepping down for months and was ready to pull the trigger earlier in the year but held off until now.
“We did a lot of things that had to be done and cleaned up stuff,” Schirmer said. “When I look at my plate, there’s stuff I have to get off it. There’s a work lifebalance. As you get older, priorities change.”
Former Hamilton GOP mayoral candidate David Henderson said he was shocked and disappointed to learn of Schirmer’s decision to step away.
The former loyalist was critical of the timing of Schirmer’s announcement despite previously receiving her backing in his bid to unseat Yaede in 2019.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Henderson said. “She has been at odds with everyone . ... If she wins the state committeewoman [seat], is she going to resign that, too?
“It’s really no loss because she hasn’t done anything while she was chair.
Not one meeting, fundraiser or Zoom call. Everybody’s friends until after they’re not. I don’t know what happened.”