SE Illinois News

Republican state House candidate Paul Jacobs finds the ethics reform measures now being proposed by Democrat lawmakers to be woefully lacking given all that’s happening in Springfield.

“We have a House Speaker, Mr. (Mike) Madigan, and a Governor, Mr. (J.B.) Pritzker, running Illinois as a dictatorship,” Jacobs told the SE Illinois News. “Our representatives deserve the right to have legislative meetings. The people of Illinois who are represented by our state representatives and our state senators deserve to be represented by our legislators. Mr. Pritzker should not be allowed to make all of these decisions that he has been making on his own we do not have a dictatorship.”

As long as Madigan is still at the helm, Jacobs wonders how obtainable any of that truly is. The longest-serving lawmaker in state history, Madigan now finds himself at the center of a still unfolding federal corruption probe involving ComEd and a pay-for-play scheme that’s prompted Democrats to offer their nine proposal plan. Topping the list of proposals are measures that would ban legislators from becoming lobbyists, require greater financial disclosures, establish a censure process, make the legislative inspector general more independent, and institute term limits.

Again, Jacobs has reservations.

“Many Illinoisans question whether we can truly run our state with our present House speaker controlling every bit of legislation that is voted on,” he said. “We know that there have been very few dates where we allowed legislators to meet, so there have been no laws brought forth to help the state in any way, shape or form. We obviously can’t wait to begin reform of ethics until after the election. There should be a special session to begin this very important process immediately.”

Through it all, Jacobs thinks he knows why Pritzker has been as silent as he has.

“Of course we have the problem of our governor also being under federal investigation,” he said. “I feel that the ethics should be addressed quickly, especially when you consider that three out of the last six governors were imprisoned or, four out of the last 10. We need to look at this now.”