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Robert Jason Plummer (born June 3, 1982, Staunton, Illinois) is an Illinois businessman who was defeated as the Republican Party's 2010 nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. He is a corporate executive for R.P. Lumber, owned by his father, Robert L. Plummer. In addition, Jason Plummer is an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Before his campaign for lieutenant governor, Jason Plummer was also the Chairman of the Madison County Republican Party.

Education and career

Plummer is an alumnus of the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Plummer claims that while a student, he founded a wireless internet company called Celerity, Inc., which provided broadband access to rural communities in Central and Southern Illinois. Research done by the Chicago Tribune in 2010, however, found that Jason Plummer was not listed as an officer in the company; in addition, Plummer's father incorporated the company. The Chicago Tribune report also indicated inconsistencies regarding Plummer's knowledge of whether or not the company had been sold. However, Celerity's former vice president, Tom Stiles, said that Jason was, in fact, involved in the company's day-to-day decisions.

After graduation, Plummer returned to his home of Edwardsville. As Vice-President of Corporate Development of his family's R.P. Lumber firm, Plummer coordinated economic development programs in Illinois, with a focus in property acquisition, commercial property management, light industrial expansion, warehousing, and the development of residential subdivisions, in addition to private equity investments. Plummer also founded a new R.P. Lumber division in Lincoln, Illinois, and has worked on other projects in Greenville, Champaign, Bloomington, Springfield, DeKalb, and Peoria. He is on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Lumber and Material Dealers Association.

Political involvement

Plummer was the vice-president of the student government at UIUC and led opposition to a campus event featuring William Ayers.

Also while an undergraduate at Illinois, Plummer was an intern for U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald, and an intern in Washington, D.C. for the Heritage Foundation.

Plummer has been involved in a number of political campaigns, both in Champaign County and in southern Illinois. In 2008, he was a candidate for Delegate to the Republican National Convention, pledged to presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

After years as a precinct committeeman in Madison County, Plummer was elected Chairman of the County Republican Party - which he led, until declaring his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor, in 2009.

In the Illinois Republican primary for Lieutenant Governor, held on February 2, 2010, Plummer finished first among six candidates, narrowly ahead of State Senator Matt Murphy. In the general election, he is on the ticket with State Senator Bill Brady, who won the Republican nomination for Governor of Illinois.

On the Democrat side, incumbent Governor Pat Quinn won re-nomination, and Scott Lee Cohen won the nomination for lieutenant governor. After Illinois Democratic Party officials pressured Cohen to give up his position however, the party chose Sheila Simon to fill the lieutenant governor candidacy spot. Also in that February primary, the Illinois Green Party nomination for lieutenant governor went to Don W. Crawford (who is running with gubernatorial nominee Rich Whitney). In the general election, Plummer also faces Libertarian lieutenant governor nominee Ed Rutledge (running with Lex Green), as well as Baxter Swilley (running on a ticket with Plummer's former Democrat counterpart Scott Lee Cohen, now an independent candidate for Governor).

Plummer's refusal to release his state and federal tax returns during the 2010 campaign became an issue during the fall, and again on October 25, when Chicago Tonight host Phil Ponce questioned Plummer about the issue during a forum for the two major-party candidates for lieutenant governor. Ponce pointed out that all the other major party candidates for governor and lieutenant governor had made their returns public. State law in Illinois, however, does not require that candidates release their tax returns.

The Chicago Sun-Times cited this factor as one reason for the newspaper endorsing Plummer's opponent.

Political positions

In the October 25 forum on Chicago Tonight, Plummer said that local school officials should be able to determine whether or not to teach creationism in schools. Plummer stated his belief that there were three instances in which abortions should be allowed: rape, incest, or protect a woman's health.

Personal

Plummer is a member of First Baptist Church of Maryville, where he coaches youth sports.

External links

• Jason Plummer for Lieutenant Governor — official campaign website
• Chicago Tribune profile
• Profile at OurCampaigns

GovLinks

Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:United States Navy officers Category:American business executives Category:Businesspeople from Illinois Category:Illinois Republicans Category:People from Edwardsville, Illinois Category:University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign alumni