This week, State Representative Patrick Windhorst addressed several issues related to ethics reforms being brought forward in the House.
He expressed his frustrations with House Democrats shutting down bills relating to ethics and political corruption from going further than the committee.
"If you look at the operations of the ethics and elections committee, you can tell it's not a priority. I think some comments have been made by leadership on the other side that suggest they don't see the need for ethics reform."
Windhorst uses the example of how ethics reforms may have impacted the result of the trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
"Through that consolidation of power and money, he was able to control what occurred. That allowed him to be in the position to commit the acts he was accused of and eventually convicted of. We have to make sure our laws do not put all of that power in one person's hands."
To avoid further similar situations, he stresses the importance of his democratic colleagues to vote on the ethics reform bills.
"Ethics laws provide guardrails so that public officials aren't going to even come close to committing criminal law violations. That guardrail functions so we don't have to worry about a federal prosecutor being the one enforcing laws. We're keeping public officials away from crossing that line."
Windhorst, a Republican from Metropolis, is a member of the Ethics and Elections Committee.
