State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) | Facebook/State Representative Deanne Mazzochi
State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) | Facebook/State Representative Deanne Mazzochi
State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) is taking issue with the way Democrats are positioning themselves to handle ethics in Springfield.
"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 in which she spoke about former federal Judge Michael McCuskey being nominated for the post.
“The LIG position is responsible for investigating ethics complaints made against lawmakers and their staff,” she said. “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."
Mazzochi argues a nominee to fill the position is supposed to be approved by a bipartisan committee rather than the way Democrats pushed through their hand-picked selection.
Senators voted 37 to 17 to appoint McCuskey, despite objections from the bipartisan committee chair. The resolution now moves to the House for a full vote.
Mazzochi isn’t the only Republican lawmaker taking exception to the way the process has played out.
“Judge McCuskey is a fine individual and has a great career as a jurist,” Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) told Illinois Policy Institute. “We don’t want to stall the process; we just want it done correctly. 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?”
When Pope, a former prosecutor and appellate court judge, announced her resignation in July, she blasted the office as a “paper tiger,” adding the newly added reforms state lawmakers made to the office are not enough to give the office the authority she feels it needs to effectively do the job it is intended to do.
Among other things, Pope argued the 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.
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.
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