State Representative Tom Weber (R-Lake Villa), who sits on the House Ethics and Elections Committee, has released the following statement in response to the vote to replace LIG Carol Pope:
“Over the past year I have been stunned by the absurdly partisan nature of the actions by the majority party. I have never before seen this level of partisanship that has invaded the legislative process. Democrats have rammed through controversial legislation, gerrymandered maps, packed court systems, and now, a Legislative Inspector General.
The previous Inspector General, Carol Pope, resigned because she felt that the Democrats were not serious about creating a more ethical Illinois government. The actions of the majority party since her resignation have done nothing but confirm that. Today, Democrats went around the bipartisan ethics commission process, which searches for candidates and interviews them before recommending them to the General Assembly for a vote. My vote has nothing to do with the qualifications of the candidate, it has to do with the fact that the Democrats chose to go around the process as outlined in the law to appoint the person whose job it is to ensure they follow the law. It’s laughable and the Democrats cannot hide behind the claim that they are doing this so that the role is not left vacant when they had no problem leaving the position vacant for the four years prior to Ms. Pope.
The Governor cannot harangue Republicans as he did in his State of the State address when his party continues to railroad their way through the legislature and the legislative process.”