NW Illinois News

Veteran state Sen. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) says the time for ethics reform to come to Springfield is long past due.

“My colleague also talked about ethics because every dollar sent to the state we want people to feel comfortable,” Chesney said from the Senate Floor in a video posted to YouTube. “We talk about ethics over and over and we need to make all our constituents comfortable that when they send a dollar to Springfield, it’s going to be used properly.”

“Many of you will say nothing about the longstanding tradition of corruption in Illinois,” Chesney told his colleagues. “These are different than philosophical differences we have. We have a trust problem in this state. It’s why when the majority party put forth the graduated income tax it got soundly defeated. It’s why people no longer want to live here.”

Currently, the two parties are at odds over how the new redistricting maps should be drawn, with Republicans pushing for greater fairness in the once-every-decade task that typically goes to the party in charge. Republicans are hoping to have more of a say this cycle given that Census Bureau data traditionally relied on to complete the job won't be available by an end-of-June deadline. The data was delayed by the pandemic.

As part of the debate, Republicans are accusing Democrats, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker, of going back on their word by meeting in secret to map out strategy on how districts will be drawn.

While still a candidate, Pritzker vowed to veto any map drawn by politicians, particularly given the state is already losing one of its 18 congressional districts because of the state's dwindling population.