Another Effort Underway to Remove Tracy as GOP Chairman
Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy at a 2023 meeting. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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A group of Illinois Republican State Central Committeemen and Committeewomen is working to oust Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy, multiple sources tell The Illinoize.
Tracy survived a vote of no confidence in May of 2023 after a group of committeemen, including Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville), former Cook County GOP Chairman and 2022 candidate for Lt. Governor Aaron Del Mar, and former State Representative and failed gubernatorial and congressional candidate Jeanne Ives led the effort against Tracy.
Multiple sources say at least Del Mar and Plummer are involved in the latest push. Plummer did not return a phone call from The Illinoize Tuesday. Del Mar declined comment.
The latest complaints arise from Tracy’s handling of allegations against party Vice Chair Mark Shaw, who is accused of voting for himself and arranging for delegate badges at the Illinois Republican convention in May though they were not appointed delegates. Shaw was running for RNC National Committeeman, a race he eventually lost.
Shaw is the 10th District GOP State Committeeman, and numerous calls have come for Shaw to resign as Vice Chairman and a vote could come Monday to remove him from his leadership position. No mechanism exists to remove him as state central committeeman.
Tracy’s critics say he has not been forceful enough in his handling of the Shaw situation and have criticized his leadership.
Tracy sent an e-mail to State Central Committee members Sunday claiming he was following their direction asking Shaw to resign as party Vice Chair.
“After our June 6 meeting, a strong majority of the weighted vote of the [State Central Committee] directed me to ask your fellow SCC member Mark Shaw to resign his position as Vice Chair of the Illinois Republican Party. Accordingly, I told Mark that I have been directed to ask him to resign,” Tracy wrote. “Mark is assessing this request. The matter will be considered at our next SCC meeting. We will afford Mark and all others due process in all of these proceedings.”
“That’s just weak,” one committee member responded on the condition of anonymity.
Tracy narrowly survived his previous challenge as his opponents were able to clear 50% of the weighted vote but not the 60% needed to remove him.
Rhonda Belford, the GOP County Chair in Hardin County, State Central Committeewoman for the 12th District, and the newly elected GOP National Committeewoman says she’s concerned with the direction of the state party.
“I'm concerned where we're heading. We keep wanting to throw the baby out with the bath water. We have to get to the root of the problem,” she said. “It's not always the leader. It's supposed to be a team sport. But the leader has to lead through strength.”
Belford voted to keep Tracy in his position last May but was non-committal to his current status.
The party’s Finance Chairman, Vince Kolber, has also resigned in the wake of the Shaw scandal. Kolber finished third in the race for RNC National Committeeman.
Tracy said he is following the lead of the State Central Committee on Shaw’s status as he doesn’t have the authority to remove Shaw as Vice Chair, nor does he have a vote to do so, calling himself “neutral.”
“I have asked Mark to resign, but that is his decision,” Tracy said. “That power resides solely with the [State Central Committee.] There is a due process, whether Mark wants to follow that process out or resign in the meantime, that is a Mark Shaw decision.”
Tracy says with headwinds facing the GOP in the state this fall, this is a bad time for division at the top of the party.
“It absolutely does distract. It impacts every aspect and every operation of the party,” Tracy said. “When you have these kinds of coup attempts, power struggles, disunity, retribution after an election, it does nothing, absolutely nothing, to advance the ball for party unity.”
Tracy responded to some of his critics calling them “in it for personal advancement or money or any other wrong reason.”
Tracy says the majority of Republicans in the state don’t want intraparty fighting.
It isn’t clear if the issue will be brought to a vote at Monday’s State Central Committee meeting, but we’re told it could come in the next couple of weeks.
