Jason Plummer ran for elective office for the first time in 2010, modestly targeting the office of Lt. Governor for his maiden voyage. He was 27 years old at the time and provided some memorable campaign footage, such as this interview (:28 to :50 is an example of his penetrating insight):
http://www.youtube.com/....
Despite roughly a million dollars contributed by his daddy (http://www.followthemoney.org/....), he narrowly lost the race to Sheila Simon, daughter of the late Senator Paul Simon.
Now Jason simply wants to serve the people of Illinois so when Jerry Costello decided to call it quits earlier this year after 22 years in Congress, Jason heard the seductive siren of politics calling him again. More below the ornamental geegaw.
IL-12 is newly re-drawn but not likely to change much in the way of its electorate. Costello was more Blue Dog than not. But it ought to be a lot easier to buy a seat in Congress than win a statewide race, so Jason's hat is in the ring.
Illinois somehow ended up with the first-in-the-nation deadline for candidate filing for 2012 races, reached yesterday. According to the Illinois State Board of Elections Jason's address in the district is 5816 Arrow Ridge in Fairview Heights.
View Larger Map
As you can see he's got deep roots in the district. If I were a longtime resident of the district (I live in an adjacent one) I'd certainly feel good about Jason's representing me, given our common heritage and all.
Won't someone put this poor boy on the public dole by electing him to Congress in 2012? Evidently, daddy doesn't trust him to work in the family business and in these tough economic times a sinecure isn't all that easy to find.