More Calls for Ethics Reform as Dems Try to Chart Course
Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) and House Republicans are attempting to push Democrats into passing substantive ethics reform.
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After word that House Ethics & Elections Committee Chairman Rep. Maurice West (D-Rockford) was drumming up support among Democrats in the House for an ethics reform package, Republicans and a former Democratic governor are putting pressure on lawmakers for action before adjournment next week.
West met with House Speaker Chris Welch yesterday and, we’re told, discussions about legislation are ongoing.
House Republicans will attempt to put public pressure on the majority party at a news conference later today calling for ethics reform.
Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) tells The Illinoize the GOP wants to focus on lobbying reform, changes to the House Rules, banning legislators from also serving as lobbyists, tightening the revolving door provision for legislators, and giving the Legislative Inspector General more authority to conduct investigations.
Windhorst believes there is a public interest in cleaning up state government.
“I think the events of the last few weeks and last few years make it crystal clear that we, as a state, need to clean up government and improve the way we conduct ourselves as public officials and create a government worthy of the people’s trust,” Windhorst said. “When the public is made aware of what is occurring, they see the need for change and for ethics reform.”
From Wednesday, here’s a list of the GOP demands:
Just one week after guilty verdicts were handed down in federal court, sealing the fate of the ComEd Four for their corrupt actions, and following today’s disclosure of former Democrat State Senator Tom Cullerton walked straight from his jail cell and into a lobby firm, Illinois House Republicans sharpened their criticism on supermajority Democrats in Springfield for failing to clean up their own house and operating under the same corrupt Madigan rulebook.
In December 2020, Speaker Welch, acting as Madigan’s appointed Chairman of the Special Investigating Committee, shut down hearings after previously receiving testimony from ComEd’s compliance attorney. Despite repeated investigations, indictments, and arrests, Democrats have not acted on any meaningful anti-corruption reforms and have rarely called their colleagues out for wrongdoing.
Just yesterday, former Democratic Governor Pat Quinn joined Republicans’ calls to address conflicts of interest. House Republican Assistant Minority Leader State Representative Ryan Spain talked about those conflicts, saying, “Democratic Speaker Chris Welch shut down the Special Investigating Committee looking into Madigan, and then got Madigan’s full endorsement for Speaker. Representative Lisa Hernandez shut down fair redistricting and then received a plum assignment as Chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois. And Governor Pritzker pushed to expand Medicaid-like benefits to undocumented immigrants and is now lobbying for managed care administration of these services while his own “blind trust” is reportedly invested in the state’s largest managed care provider, Centene. These are existing conflicts of interest by Democratic politicians in Illinois which should not be ignored.”
House Republican Floor Leader Patrick Windhorst joined Spain and Representatives Amy Elik and Blaine Wilhour in asking, “Governor Quinn said yesterday we need change; Congressman Sean Casten is calling for change. So, we ask again - what is it going to take to get House Democrats to recognize we need to stop corruption once and for all?”
Former Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, the longtime ethics gadfly in state government, held a news conference in Springfield yesterday calling on Governor JB Pritzker and legislative leaders to convene a special session on ethics reform.
Quinn called on the legislature to amend the state constitution to allow voters to enact stricter ethics laws through citizen-driven referendum.
“We can’t just depend on the legislators themselves doing the right thing,” Quinn said. “It’s important that we have the pressure of initiative and referendum on ethics to make sure that the legislature pays attention.”
Quinn called for a stronger conflict of interest law for lawmakers not to vote on bills that could benefit them or their business, denying pensions for politicians convicted in public corruption cases, and prohibiting legislators from holding more than one public jobs at once.
[It] should shock the General Assembly into taking strong action,” he said. “We need strong medicine as an antidote to the corruption that was described in that trial. And there’s more to come.”
Quinn also called on strengthening the revolving door law for legislators who leave to lobby and to restrict campaign contributions of regulated utilities, like Commonwealth Edison.
In response, a spokesman for Senate President Don Harmon was indifferent to Lee Enterprises reporter Brenden Moore.
"Senate President Harmon will continue to be a champion of ethics. The point he has been trying to drive home is that what we need in public service are good people focused on the state’s welfare rather than their own self-interests."
Four Senate Democrats have been charged or convicted of public corruption crimes since Harmon became President, a fifth is accused of abusing his wife.