Illinois REALTORS® today announced the promotion of Gideon Blustein to Senior Director of Local Government & External Affairs, where he will lead the association’s local governmental affairs, grassroots advocacy, and external relations initiatives.
Blustein brings firsthand experience to his new position having served as a Local Governmental Affairs Director, where he strengthened relationships with local elected officials, and worked with community stakeholders.
Blustein, who is succeeding the retiring Mike Scobey, will build on his existing relationships and experience to lead and advance the program, which consists of a team of highly accomplished governmental affairs professionals. They work throughout Illinois at the grassroots level to protect property rights and grow housing opportunities for all.
Created more than 20 years ago and now a national model, the Illinois REALTORS® Local Governmental Affairs program’s team of local government affairs directors consists of lobbyists, public affairs and policy professionals who collaborate to identify high-value priority issues and work as a team to achieve proactive and tangible policy accomplishments that will improve Illinois’ real estate economy for all.
Blustein will also seek to further hone Illinois REALTORS® local issues and political campaign resources to help elect champions of property rights and other real estate issues. He also will continue his outreach and engagement with Illinois REALTOR® members and brokerage leaders to shore up Illinois’ housing economy and access to quality housing.
Blustein will also strengthen coalitions with real estate industry partners to ensure that the Illinois REALTORS® agenda is reflective of the diversity of Illinois’ real estate industry.
Blustein has served in a number of critical roles at the intersection of member engagement and governmental affairs during his nearly seven-year career with the association.
Most recently, Blustein played a lead role in enhancing the association’s marketing and communications products by facilitating its Discriminatory Appraisals Task Force, focusing on Heritage Months and working with industry groups, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Blustein also has secured funding to provide Fair Housing training to regional housing providers, hosted local real estate investment tours with local municipalities and created homeownership expos prior to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
But Blustein’s proudest accomplishment was strengthening the city of Joliet’s neighborhood organizations through a grant, which provided capacity building and training from a national expert on neighborhood “branding.”
Before joining Illinois REALTORS®, Blustein served as a deputy director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security and executive director of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s Infrastructure Council. He also worked on the staff of two U.S. members of Congress and in various roles on political campaigns.
Blustein holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree from Northwestern University.
