Dems Holding LaSalle Hearings, Vent at Pritzker
The LaSalle Veterans’ Home, where 36 residents died following a COVID-19 outbreak.
A group of House Republicans have a news conference planned for Tuesday afternoon to call on House Democrats to hold hearings following the release last week of a damning investigation into 36 COVID-19 deaths at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home.
Too bad Democrats are already moving in that direction.
House Veterans’ Affairs Chair Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego) confirmed she has asked for hearings into the loss of life at the home and they are expected to begin as early as next week.
Kifotwit says Senate Veterans’ Affairs committee Chairman Sen. Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) would also hold hearings, but a spokesperson did not return our message last night.
UPDATE (8:32 A.M.):
A spokesperson for Cullerton says the Senate will hold hearings, as well.
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Some Democrats privately believe the LaSalle issue hurts Governor JB Pritzker’s standing ahead of his 2022 re-election race, especially after he made a Legionnaire’s outbreak at the Quincy Veterans’ Home a prime issue in the 2018 campaign.
“It's gonna get bad for him,” one House Democrat told us. “If the Governor used [Quincy] as a rallying cry in his election, turnabout is fair play. He's gonna have a hard time answering for this.”
Kifowit and Rep. Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa) have apparently been holding talks about changing the scope of work of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which currently operates four state Veterans’ homes.
Yednock, though, says it is his preference to allow Acting Director Terry Prince to put his structural changes in place in the agency first, before the legislature gets involved.
