By Illinois Review
Ever since news broke that embattled Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy was resigning effective July 19th, Illinois GOP state central committee member Jeanne Ives has been working the phones trying to gauge support as she considers a potential run for the party’s top spot – despite spending the last two years angering the very base that made her, and was instrumental in Tracy’s decision to resign.
In December of 2022, Ives stunned a room full of over 200 grassroots activists during a SSC meeting when she defended then IL GOP Finance Chairman Vince Kolber, who had just insulted the grassroots for not donating money to the state party – yelling – in an almost out of body experience that, “Vince is not your problem! This man gave me $750,000 when I ran against Gov. Bruce Rauner!”
Just months before challenging Gov. Rauner in the GOP primary, Ives was seen smiling for a photo with her soon-to-be Republican political opponent. Rauner – bruised and damaged during a vicious primary against Ives, would lose his re-election to political newcomer JB Pritzker by 16 points – just two years before the pandemic and Gov. Pritzker’s shutdown orders and mask mandates.
Last September, Ives endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president during the 2024 presidential primary, despite the wildly popular former president Donald Trump leading in the polls among Republicans over his political opponents, including DeSantis by over 30 points. And when Ives learned that the president’s son – Donald Trump Jr. was coming to Illinois to promote Letters to Trump last October, her team made requests to interview Trump Jr. on her radio show, and to speak on stage during the event. When the requests were turned down, and this publication accurately reported about it, she became angry – and went on Facebook attacking the event featuring Trump Jr. and falsely alleged that the hosts couldn’t sell tickets.
And since that time, her popularity has been in decline, and her radio show, which is streamed live on Facebook, receives very little engagement. On May 26th, her 2-hour show received only five likes and two shares. But that has since changed because after this publication reported on it, Ives is now paying to boost her posts to make it appear as if her Facebook posts are more popular than they really are. In other words, she’s now paying for likes and comments.
And over the last two years, Ives continues to trash this publication – the leading conservative news publication in the state. In an interview with Crain’s Chicago Business in April of 2023, Ives offered a stunning on-the-record quote when asked to comment about IR, stating, “I don’t read their garbage.” Sources also confirm to IR that during that same time frame last Spring, Ives proposed in a private meeting that the SSC ban this publication, including then publisher Scott Kaspar and editor-in-chief Mark Vargas from attending all future IL GOP meetings. The proposal was immediately shot down and the discussion shifted to another topic.
Censoring media outlets is typical in third world countries ruled by dictators – and for Ives to suggest that the state party censor the leading conservative news publication in Illinois because she is bothered by the facts is alarming. In Russia, President Vladamir Putin signed into law legislation that criminalizes news publications from reporting on anything that contradicts, or is critical of his administration. In China, a country that leads the world in jailing reporters, there are an estimated 274 journalists currently in prison for reporting on stories that angered the ruling Communist political party – and citizen journalist Zhang Zahn sits in a Chinese prison for her reporting the facts during the pandemic. And in Iran, there are 41 journalists in prison for writing stories that exposed the corruption of Iranian authorities.
Ever since her election to the Republican State Central Committee in 2022, Ives has abandoned her grassroots base for the IL GOP elites – becoming part of the establishment instead of opposing it.
And never one to shy away from controversy, the former grassroots activist has never called on Don Tracy to resign – despite her base advocating for it.
She never called on Kolber – who votes in Wisconsin and Illinois as a full time resident of both states simultaneously – to apologize for saying such offensive remarks to the grassroots during the SSC meeting in December of 2022.
She never called on former Chicago GOP Chairman Steve Boulton to walk back his recently discovered Facebook comment in 2015 when he compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
And she never called out former SSC member Mark Shaw, who faked a delegate badge and threatened to beat up a fellow state central committee member during the IL GOP state convention last month – and demanded that he resign. In fact, during the state convention, Ives cut a deal and backed Shaw for national committeeman over the grassroots-backed candidate Dean White. And in early June, when the grassroots sent her emails about investigating Shaw’s behavior, Ives angrily posted a comment on her Facebook page, writing, “canned emails get a canned response.” The comment drew an immediate backlash as Republicans fired back calling Ives’ comment “ignorant” and “belittling” to the constituents she’s supposed to represent.
While Ives is busy making phone calls trying to gauge support for a potential run at party chairwoman, sources have shared with this publication that she has very little support from SSC members – and that her elevation to state party chair is more than a long shot – it’s an impossibility.
An IL GOP Search Committee will work to identify the new chair or co-chair following Tracy’s shock resignation late on Wednesday.
