North Cook News

State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (Westmont) is pressing Democrats in Springfield to do what she views as the right thing when it comes to ethics.

"Yesterday the Democrats in the General Assembly went around the selection process laid out in state law to select the next Legislative Inspector General,” Mazzochi said in a video posted to Facebook where she spoke about former federal Judge Michael McCuskey now being nominated for the post. “I took a present vote because I have nothing against the candidate himself, but I take grave issue with the circumvention of the law, once again, by House Democrats."

Instead of lawmakers working together to put forth a candidate approved by a bipartisan committee, Mazzochi argues Democrats had banded together to force through McCuskey as their hand-picked replacement for Carol Pope, who had resigned.

Senators voted 37 to 17 to install McCuskey, despite objections from the bipartisan committee chair in charge of vetting candidates for the position. The resolution now moves to the House for a full vote.

Mazzochi has joined other Republican lawmakers raising concerns about the process.

“What purpose is it that we put the search committee in the statute if it’s not to be the one to make the recommendation,” state Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Ouincy) told Illinois Policy Institute. “Judge McCuskey is a fine individual and has a great career as a jurist. We don’t want to stall the process; we just want it done correctly.”

When she announced her resignation, Pope, a former prosecutor and appellate court judge, blasted the LIG office as a “paper tiger,” adding not even the newly added reforms state lawmakers made to the office are enough to give it the authority she feels it needs to effectively do the job it is intended to do.

Among other things, Pope argued the LIG’s office should have the authority to issue subpoenas and publish summary reports without needing to get the approval of the Legislative Ethics Commission (LEC) beforehand.

Tracy said legislation now being proposed by Republicans would give the LIG such powers, adding Senate Bill 3030 would also require LEC meetings be open to the public and ban elected officials from serving as members of the LEC.  

Pope’s resignation came at a time when authorities were in the midst of a federal corruption probe that ended in the indictments of lobbyists, past and current lawmakers and former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s chief of staff.

The Office of the Legislative Inspector General was established in 2003 to investigate criminal allegations against members of the General Assembly.