Dupage Policy Journal

A pro-family group in Illinois has started a petition drive to oust state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Aurora) after she said on the House floor that she wished state Rep.Peter Breen (R-Lombard) and his family to be infected by a lethal bacteria.

The Illinois Citizens for Ethics PAC (ICE-PAC) created the website kifowit-is-unfit.com, which includes a petition that calls on House Speaker Michael Madigan and other Democratic leaders to demand Kifowit’s resignation.

“While Representative Kifowit may not intend bodily harm to others, these comments must be taken seriously to ensure the safety of public officials in our state,” David Avignone, executive director of ICE-PAC, told the DuPage Policy Journal. "Politicians of both parties have suffered death threats and even attempted murder because people who are not of sound mind hear this kind of rhetoric and act on it."

Avignone said that ICE-PAC is promoting its petition through its email list, social media and word of mouth. The group’s goal is 10,000 signatures.

On Nov. 27, Kifowit said of Breen that she “would like to make him a broth of Legionella [the bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease] and pump it into the water system of his loved ones, so that they can be infected, they can be mistreated, they can sit and suffer by getting aspirin instead of being properly treated and ultimately die.”

Kifowit’s remarks came during a debate on legislation that would raise the cap for the state’s Court of Claims. The legislation stems from the deaths of 13 veterans who contracted Legionnaire’s disease at the Quincy Veterans Home. But the bill’s scope goes far beyond those cases and could expose the bankrupt state to millions more in potential damages.

The day after her remarks Kifowit issued an apology that ICE-PAC said failed to take full responsibility for what she said.

Her remarks were later expunged from the House records, but during the floor debate none of her Democratic colleagues stood to interrupt or reprimand her; some even applauded.

Breen told Fox News in a Nov. 30 interview that “only one Democrat of 67 apologized to me.”  

He added that as floor leader he would have interrupted a Republican member making those remarks and demanded an immediate apology. To date, no Democratic leader has censured Kifowit.

First elected in 2014 in the 48th District, Breen lost his reelection bid in November in what he called a “vile, filthy” campaign largely financed by Speaker Madigan.

Kifowit took office in the 84th district in January 2013. The 84th covers parts of DuPage county, including Naperville.