Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch took the extraordinary actions last week of permanently kicking Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, out of the House Democratic caucus, stripping him of his legislative staff, removing him from his Appropriations Committee chair position and booting him from the bicameral Legislative Audit Commission.
Welch also suspended a Democratic staffer who reportedly helped Crespo prepare an alternative budget plan, which is what got both people axed.
Crespo took me aside Tuesday night at a reception and told me he was preparing to unveil a budget proposal that he believed could help the state weather at least some of the fiscal pain that the Republican Congress and the Trump administration were about to inflict on Illinois and all other states.
The very next day, Welch lowered the boom. Hard.
Needless to say, replacing an Appropriations Committee chair with barely two weeks to go in the spring session and tough budget votes ahead is not exactly commonplace. I’ve never seen such a thing in 35 years of doing this.
A source within the House Democratic operation said Welch told Crespo he hadn’t been engaging this session with the House’s top budget negotiators, appropriations staff, other members and the House speaker himself.
But the final straw was Crespo’s budget proposal, which was far outside the “silo” of his Appropriations Committee’s purview, multiple sources said.
Crespo’s budget idea would have at least temporarily freed up about $4 billion in state spending in the upcoming fiscal year. The proposal would’ve withheld state funds from discretionary programs, created $1.6 billion in contingency reserves (which has been done in previous tight budget years), and allowed short-term borrowing from special state funds.
Crespo almost tanked the state’s crucial revenue bill last May by telling his fellow Democrats to “vote your conscience” during floor debate. Several moderate, House Democrats wound up voting against the bill, and it took hours to pass the measure.
Now, however, Crespo has even less to lose by going all-out against the budget plan since his powers have been stripped. The end-of-session budget vote was already going to be difficult, and now it could be even more fraught with peril if Crespo spends the remaining session days publicly and privately dumping on the budget plan.
But, maybe not, because no House Democrats rose to defend Crespo during a closed-door caucus meeting on Thursday, although some were grumbling privately.
Welch clearly took the caucus reaction (or lack thereof) as confirmation that he was right to move against Crespo: “I levied the decision that I levied, and I’m comfortable with it,” Welch told me after the Thursday caucus meeting. “I slept well last night. And from the reaction of my leadership team and members, they believe I made the right decision as well.”
Asked if Crespo has a path back to caucus membership, Welch told me: “No. We’re not going to tolerate that level of disrespect to our caucus. In my opinion, there’s no way back.”
When I asked Welch if ejecting Crespo from the caucus was a disproportionate response to what Crespo did, Welch gave two reasons for his decision.
First, Crespo’s use of his committee chair role to pursue an agenda which runs counter to shared caucus goals: “He’s free to speak his mind. He’s free to vote his conscience, just like other members have done,” he said, but added that no one would be allowed to use their official leadership roles “to pursue an agenda that is antithetical to our shared goals” of passing a budget.
Second, Welch said that last week’s “rogue” behavior by Crespo was not isolated: “It wasn’t because of a single instance. It’s because of cumulative instances.
“I can’t allow someone to go rogue and be an individual,” Welch said.
Whew.
Welch also described his final sit-down with Crespo: “At two or three different points, he realized that what he did was wrong because he tried to apologize a couple of times.”
Crespo, however, claimed Welch said he felt like the member had stabbed him in the back. Crespo said he apologized to Welch if he took his actions that way because it wasn’t his intent. Crespo said he did not apologize for what he actually did.
Welch said he wasn’t concerned about Crespo using the remaining session days to try and pull votes off the budget.
“I believe that we have better systems in place than we did last year, and so I don’t have the same level of concern this year as last year.”
- Leatherneck - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:03 am:
=No. We’re not going to tolerate that level of disrespect to our caucus.=
It would have been helpful if that attitude would have been applied to House staff members when one of them reduced a Governor’s staff member to tears late in the last session when the cannibis bill was sabotaged.
- Perrid - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:08 am:
If someone in leadership doesn’t even want to talk to the rest of leadership about their plans, then yeah it’s not going to work out. Kicking him out of the caucus seems over the top, Welch took it personally, got insulted, and lashed out. Don’t feel too badly for Crespo, he dug this hole himself, but I do think Welch went a bit too far.
- Just Me 2 - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:10 am:
Removing someone from leadership for not following expectations is fair, but kicking them out of the caucus seems disrespectful to the voters. Their district nominated them and elected them.
But since when did anyone care about those silly voters, eh? That’s why we have gerrymandered district after all.
- OneMan - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:16 am:
==“I can’t allow someone to go rogue and be an individual,” ==
I think that line will come back and haunt him at some point.
- Bucky Barnes - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:25 am:
“The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.” ― Mark Twain
The idea that the House Democratic Caucus must be a monolith with no room for debate or dissent is not healthy. It sounds like Crespo was trying to solve a major challenge for his caucus, and sweeping funds isn’t exactly anethema to the party’s values.
The fact that legslators privately felt that Crespo was punished too harshly but were afraid to speak up in a caucus meeting is telling. A leader that creates an atmosphere were people are afraid to tell him the truth or share an honest opinion looses the benefit of all of their wisdom.
- Walker - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:30 am:
No one can dispute that Crespo is serious and knowledgeable.
Regardless of organizational challenges, now is not the time to avoid seriously considering all options and potential contingency plans to deal with exceptionally critical budget issues. This is a cycle like no other. We cannot afford to lose any ideas in the shuffle.
- Amalia - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:31 am:
No going back now, Welch. But terrible. Crespo trying to do something reasonable in the face of unrealistic $$$ ideas. We need more Crespo.
- Donnie Elgin - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:39 am:
=“I can’t allow someone to go rogue and be an individual,”=
Fall in line, think like they want, or face the Speaker’s wrath. Seems rather authoritarian to me.
- *ducks* - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:40 am:
“No one can dispute that Crespo is serious and knowledgeable”
With a challenging bedside manner. Lots of “Fred being Fred” chatter last week the morning after it happened. But the truth is he was mostly a caucus of one after MJM left, and these days that makes you expendable.
- 44 - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:50 am:
Disrespectful? I.e. wasn’t a toadie. Response seems over the top. Disrespect squared. His voters elected him to represent their interests. Hard to do on the outside.
- levivotedforjudy - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:50 am:
This does seem over the top, especially suspending the legislative staffer. That is concerning because they were probably just following orders. To me, this shines more of a light on the speaker than Crespo. I’m sure there’s more to this and more will come out over time.
- Blooms of Spring - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:52 am:
If you don’t apologize for what you actually did, but instead apologize for how the other person ‘took it,’ it’s not really an apology.
- Norseman - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:52 am:
=== I can’t allow someone to go rogue and be an individual ===
That last word was a poor choice. But I think the word that sums up Welch’s frustration was “unveil”. Crespo seems to want the publicity. Welch took it that he wants to set himself apart from the caucus. So, he’s not part of the caucus.
- Wonderful World - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:56 am:
Rep Crespo is the best representative in Illinois. He is intelligent, well-read and knows how to listen to ideas, unlike others in Springfield. His office provides first class service to all. He should be copied by other reps, not punished. This is simply outrageous. It is causing great anger back in Crespo’s district. I hope the Speaker knows he crossed a line; Crespo represents his district, not the Speaker. He is important to us.
- Demoralized - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 9:59 am:
I think some of you have completely missed the mark. He wasn’t ousted because he had a different viewpoint. He was ousted because he was going rogue. You don’t do something like this and not expect consequences. He was free to have a different viewpoint and express that viewpoint. He’s not free to go out on his own.
- City Zen - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 10:01 am:
==I can’t allow someone to go rogue and be an individual==
Does Welch represent the people or the Borg?
- Day by Day - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 10:07 am:
The House D caucus is raucous and full of differing ideas. Also, CW has repeatedly talked about how everyone should win within the caucus. So I find this reaction to rather surprising and a bit much. This was not Mary Flowers. This is Crespo. Hmmmm.
- Peoples Republic of Oak Park - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 10:13 am:
The map does alot of work for the dem caucus, but this line- “I can’t allow someone to go rogue and be an individual,” will be all over mail pieces.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 10:23 am:
The bigger picture here is that Crespo was preparing his own budget in secret with the help of one staffer who was also willing to work in secret. The Speaker also indicated that Crespo was not sharing his part of the budget with the folks who needed it to do their work.
Surprising your boss is rarely a good idea; if the Crespo plan is so good, he should have let the rest of leadership know what he was doing. Add to that impeding the work of others while you pursue your own project. And, this is someone in major leadership positions.
Add it all together, and you have some very serious violations of trust within leadership and among the caucus. If your caucus and the other leaders cannot trust you to be open and fulfill your duties, getting booted from the caucus and leadership should not be unexpected. It is pretty harsh, but anything less also sends a message.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 10:31 am:
You can be right all day long.
But, if no one can stand you, it don’t mean a thing,
- 47th Ward - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 11:04 am:
If he’s not careful, Welch is going to make Crespo a political celebrity.
- Lansing Larry - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 11:14 am:
–He’s not free to go out on his own.–
100% you cannot have your appropriations chair going rogue, totally fair to remove him as chair.
But to imply that to be a member of the House Democratic caucus you cannot be an individual is WILD. Where is the line? What is an individual? Can I not make a statement without the supreme leader giving it the thumbs up? Am I allowed to file legislation without the fear of being tossed from the caucus?
I think it gives us an insight into the way the Speaker sees his hold on the gavel…..feeling like he needs to squash any decent with an iron fist is not sign of feeling confident in yourself
- Springfield Transplant - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 11:17 am:
Would someone post the D/R split of the district that Crespo represents?
- Leatherneck - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 11:20 am:
=The bigger picture here is that Crespo was preparing his own budget in secret with the help of one staffer who was also willing to work in secret. The Speaker also indicated that Crespo was not sharing his part of the budget with the folks who needed it to do their work.=
Unless it’s out there, Crespo needs to introduce his own budget as a bill. Even if it gets bricked the rest of this biennium. He should show his work plus I and others are curious to see what similarities and differences exist between the Crespo budget and the Welch-supported budget.
Also, would any of you be surprised if Crespo’s “proposed budget” got the endorsement of Comptroller Mendoza?
- low level - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 11:25 am:
As others have mentioned, its how the staffer was treated that concerns me the most. They were doing what the member wanted and should not be punished for doing as they were told.
- Regular democrat - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 11:33 am:
This is very Madiganesque. The speaker had to be bold and blunt to discourage any future dissent. Same movie different actors. If Welch thinks The way they are handling things is so great. What is he afraid of?
- Leatherneck - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 11:35 am:
=As others have mentioned, its how the staffer was treated that concerns me the most. They were doing what the member wanted and should not be punished for doing as they were told.=
No wonder the House staffers wanted to be unionized. I don’t blame them.
- Retired School Board Member - Monday, May 19, 25 @ 11:36 am:
If only that staffer had the benefit of union representations… Oh, wait…