SE Illinois News

Republican state House candidate Paul Jacobs laments small businesses across the state are being forced to pay a heavy price for what he sees as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s knee-jerk reaction in his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There are so many businesses that are going to be shut permanently in this state that I think we have to take some risks and open our restaurants, at least the way they have been,” Jacobs told the SE Illinois News. “To the best of my knowledge, I believe that bars, restaurants and gas stations are lower than even your large stores that we are allowed to go to every day and the numbers are much larger in nursing homes.”

Now running in the 115th House District, Jacobs is among a growing list of republican leaders now publicly questioning the governor’s recent decision to reenact shutdown restrictions in at least 24 counties after an uptick in coronavirus infection rates.

Still reeling from the effects of earlier shutdowns, small business owners are striking back, including launching a Facebook page dedicated to businesses that have committed to fighting the policy this time around.

“I think that the governor is really pushing his executive orders to the extreme, and it’s in an illegal area,” Jacobs added. “We really need to have our full government, our elected government, hashing out all the problems that we have because we have many. As our economy shrinks more and more, and our people leave the state to states that are moving forward we couldn’t be in too much worse of a position.”

In response to all the resistance, Pritzker is now threatening to send the Illinois State Police to the regions where restaurants and bars are deemed to be in violation of any order.