As a businessman and a lifelong local, Jason Kasiar, a Republican House candidate for District 118, knows how tired people are of establishment politics that have made their lives more difficult.
He took his “first jump into politics” because he appreciates the closeness of the community, and he said it needs someone who will step up in Springfield.
“We’ve got to fight for each other,” Kasiar, of Eldorado, told Southwest Illinois News. “I’ve lived here my whole life. I know these people on an intimate level because we take care of our customers here at my pharmacy like they’re family. I know what they want. They understand if we don’t stand up now, nothing’s going to change. We’re going to have the same mess.”
That mess includes overspending — an attitude he can’t get behind after all his years in business. At a time when independent pharmacies have become rare, he’s grown his business from a handful of employees to 31. He said he’d bring that tangible experience to the state legislature, where he’d work to add jobs and relieve the burden on taxpayers.
“Trying to stay on the cutting edge of my profession, we’ve been able to learn how to create jobs," he said. "By golly, we can do this in Springfield as well. You just have to know how to do it. You have to think outside the box. These guys, all they think about is getting re-elected,” he said of incumbents running in Southern Illinois. “These guys have become career politicians.”
He said voters keep electing incumbent Democrats because they don’t know what they’re really doing in Springfield, such as voting for budgets that include $7 billion in overspending and casting votes on measures that they know will never pass so they can go home and say they did their part.
Without much support from the state Republican Party or individual elected officials, Kasiar said he realizes the difficulty of getting his message out there in such a large district. He said he continues to go door-to-door to talk to voters about his shared contempt for politics-as-usual. The change voters are looking for requires a proactive candidate, Kasiar said. He said he wants District 118 to see how State Rep. Brandon Phelps, who has represented the district for 13 years, only reacts to problems and focuses mostly on keeping his job.
“(Phelps) has a house here but he doesn’t live here," he said. "I live here everyday. I see people everyday. And I know these people are hurting and yet they don’t know where to turn. Politicians come in and either threaten them or tell them they’re going to do them a favor and once the election’s over, it doesn’t matter. It’s not right. It’s not about them. It’s about the people that they serve.”
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