BLOOMINGTON -- District 87 school board member Steve Perry announced his candidacy for the 88th House district Monday, setting up a contested Republican primary in March with current state Rep. Keith Sommer.
Perry, 46, of Bloomington, formally announced after the McLean County GOP breakfast at the DoubleTree Hotel and Conference Center. Perry pledged to sharply curtail government spending mandates, boost transparency of lobbying activity in Springfield, and support gun rights and oppose abortion.
"We need to prune the tree of our expensive government and its bureaucracy," said Perry.
State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, represents the current 88th House, which is essentially all of the Twin Cities. But the recently completed redistricting divided Bloomington-Normal into two districts: the new 88th and 105th. Brady has chosen to run in the 105th, which includes Normal and parts of east Bloomington.
That left Sommer, from Morton, to run in the new 88th, which stretches from East Peoria almost to Heyworth and includes southwestern Bloomington, McLean, Stanford, Danvers and Mackinaw.
Sommer was at Monday's breakfast when Perry announced his challenge.
"I welcome Mr. Perry to the race," Sommer said. "I look forward to a campaign based on the issues."
Perry has lived in Bloomington for 14 years and is a professor of mass communications at Illinois State University, Normal. He is a Republican precinct committeeman and joined the District 87 board in 2007.
Perry said spending mandates put undue financial strain on local governments and taxpayers. He noted the increased staffing needs in District 87 after the General Assembly in 2007 increased the minimum amount of in-car driver's education from three hours to six.
He also urged easier online access to information about who is spending money to lobby lawmakers.
"It's a key to finding the waste that has bloated our budget," Perry said.
Perry did not directly attack Sommer's record as the current 106th House district representative. But he said voters will be asked to look at what Sommer "has proposed to solve the problems" Perry has identified.
No Democrat has announced plans to run in the 88th.
