Dupage Policy Journal

As thousands of Illinoisans prepare to go vote in the Nov. 8 general election, elected officials are calling out the corruption in the state.

“Illinois corruption has been a national joke for years,” Republican Deanne Mazzochi wrote on Facebook. “This year, sadly, for the third year in a row, Chicago was named America's most corrupt city and Illinois the third most corrupt state. Corruption is also not a victimless crime.”

While Mazzochi and her GOP colleagues call their Democrat colleagues “corrupted,” there is more to that — especially after Illinois Republican’s gubernatorial candidate made controversial comments.

Mazzochi was first elected to the Illinois House in 2018. A Republican, their legislative experience includes serving on the Housing Committee and Judiciary-Civil. Mazzochi is a state representative who resides in Elmhurst, according to the Illinois House.

Gubernatorial Candidate and Senator Darren Bailey landed in hot water after two controversial comments. During the Fourth of July weekend, he told the Highland Park community “to move on” after a mass shooting while the shooter Robert Crimo III was on the loose.

Although he’s apologized for the comment, he’s taken pride in this other comment. Jewish publication Forward reported Bailey said the number of abortions is worse than the approximate six million dead Jews during the Holocaust.

When confronted about his comment during a debate between incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Bailey, Forward confirmed Bailey stood by his comment.

Federal prosecutors charged the former AT&T Illinois president on Oct. 14.

While Bailey and his GOP colleagues seek to have control over people’s choice to get a safe abortion, Fox 32 Chicago reported a poll by Ogden & Fry found that 22% of research participants supported abortions and 14% were anti-abortion.

“AT&T Illinois caused the payments to be made through an intermediary – a lobbying firm that performed services for AT&T Illinois – to conceal the true nature of the payments, which was to influence and reward Madigan’s efforts as Speaker to assist the company with respect to certain legislation,” the indictment said. “Although the members of the conspiracy formulated a pretextual assignment for Madigan’s ally to disguise why the ally was being paid, the ally performed no actual work for AT&T Illinois and had no role in advancing the legislation, the indictment states.”