Remarks with Republicans (J.P. McLaughlin)

For those who may not know you yet, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved?

Well, I'm J.P. McLaughlin, and I've been with...

I'm actually full-time with the City Police Department in Macomb for almost 20 years now.

I've been with the McDonough County Central Committee now... for 19 years and matter of fact the first time I got appointed it was back when Obama and McCain were running for president.

This past year I had accepted the position as chair and it's been a wild ride since then.

What exactly does a county Republican party chairman do and what are some of the responsibilities behind the scenes?

Well, I'm still figuring out a lot of that.

How about that? I like to think of it in some ways kind of like my full-time job.

Some of it's kind of like directing traffic.

You set some goals.

Obviously, the idea is trying to get our local candidates and our even statewide, nationwide candidates elected.

So a lot of it's funding.

If we give some funding to them, getting signs out, holding events like this, whatever else they could possibly need.

We try to assist them in whatever we can at the local level.

What would you say the biggest priorities are for the McDonough County Republican Party right now?

Getting people involved.

I mean, obviously, the big thing is getting Republicans elected.

But the big problem we run into, the biggest problem I see right now is there's a lot of people just want to stay home.

They don't think their vote counts.

And so trying to motivate people to get out and vote and make the most of it.

For someone who is interested in politics but has never been involved before, what opportunities are there to get involved in the Republican Party?

You know, for us, and I get phone calls on this fairly frequently, even if it's just walking in parades, attending events like this, the candidates themselves are always looking for people to walk routes, make phone calls, hand out flyers.

There's so many ways to do it, and it could be as little involved as just showing up, attending events, making phone calls, or knocking on doors.

With Election Day right around the corner, what has the McDonough County Republican Party been doing to prepare on November 3rd?

So we've been working hard trying to get signs out.