Kelly Cassidy: The speaker says he did an investigation. Well, he talked to the two parties involved and decided it was a he said, she said. That’s not an investigation. That is, as I used to say about what Speaker Madigan would propose in terms of ethics reform, the least you can do.
And so, we don’t necessarily have a really good process laid out anywhere in the building for how to truly get to the bottom of these things and what to do about it when you do. But common sense would dictate you would want to talk to more than just the perpetrator and the victim and make a decision based on that alone. […]
This young woman at the beginning of her career didn’t feel safe going to the LIG, and we still don’t know why. What I know as someone who has gone to the LIG is that it is an incredibly daunting process. It feels huge and scary. And if you’re afraid that, just as the speaker concluded, well, it’s just a he said, she said, you’re likely to just try to keep your head down and keep moving. And so we have built a system that doesn’t work for the people that we need it to work for.
Brian Mackey: I’m looking at a news headline here from 2018: “State representative says she’s facing retaliation for speaking out against Madigan.” And that’s obviously about you. Why did you choose to speak out again this time, specifically against Speaker Welch and his handling of this case, when so many of your colleagues have not?
Kelly Cassidy: At the end of the day, you are never safer from retaliation than when you’re standing in the middle of the street screaming the truth. And that’s something I would like all of my colleagues to understand and all of these victims to understand — that as hard and scary as it can be, and I don’t like that I have colleagues dragging me and, you know, talking about me in very unpleasant ways as they try to defend the speaker — but the bottom line is right is right. And we can’t — if I hide, that’s telling the victims who are hiding that they’ve made the right decision.
Brian Mackey: There are people who are going to say she’s doing this because she wants his job. What do you say to that?
Kelly Cassidy: Sorry. I don’t know why in the world anybody would want to be speaker. It’s a terrible job. I have no interest in being Speaker of the House. I have a great deal of interest in having a Speaker of the House who is going to be the leader we deserve and need.
Brian Mackey: Can Welch maintain your confidence to do that?
Kelly Cassidy: That remains to be seen. The speaker’s election is going to be in January. We’re going to have months of this. We’re going to be on the doors for ourselves or our colleagues when the mail is full of, you know, all of the news about the police reports and the sexual harassment suits and all the stuff from the past — and then this stuff, whether it’s his social media activity, his mishandling of the case, all of these things. This is going to be in our faces for months. How he navigates that is going to be very telling.
- Google is Your Friend - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 2:19 pm:
==How he navigates that is going to be very telling.==
Well, if it’s just like Madigan, then it will sew up her vote again just like 2019.
- Lincoln Lad - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 2:23 pm:
If not Cassidy, then who? Time to name names of possible succession candidates in my opinion.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 2:27 pm:
=== Time to name names of possible succession candidates===
Why? We don’t even know if there will be a succession. And, if past is prologue, the successor will come from the larger group of members who supported the Speaker until the end.
People forget recent history so fast.
First step is preventing 60 votes. Then, if that even happens, you pick a successor.
Really getting tired of this ignorance.
- Think Again - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 2:38 pm:
=Why? We don’t even know if there will be a succession=
Agreed, and Rep. Cassidy is also calling for a protected period of uncertainty… “We’re going to have months of this”
- Simon - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 2:53 pm:
== Cassidy is also calling for a protected period of uncertainty… ==
I don’t think she’s calling for it, I think she predicting it.
- Jerry - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 2:59 pm:
Well according to the Republican/Christian Speaker of the House things like this are just “domestic events”. Nothing to look at here.
- Oklahoma - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 3:19 pm:
I disagree with folks on the other thread that say Welch has been a disaster, etc. All in all, Welch has been a pretty good speaker, and a massive improvement over his predecessor.
That being said, he made two pretty sizable leadership mistakes (in addition to some personal mistakes). First, he did not pay attention and respond to the staffer complaint in a way that actually tried to solve the problem. And second, he put $1.4 million into Benton’s campaign after knowing about the problem. The first mistake could have been explained away as bad management structures, but the second mistake put his judgment and integrity into question.
The challenge with leadership mistakes are that they reflect on everyone, and members don’t like that.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 3:36 pm:
==he made two pretty sizable leadership mistakes==
Those are the current news-story-focused concerns. If that is it, he may be fine. If those are indicative of other missteps that we are not aware of because they are not currently in the news, then he has a lot more to be worried about. Some members behave poorly; how the Speaker deals with those issues is very important to the caucus and the General Assembly as a whole.
- Pundent - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 3:51 pm:
=Rep. Cassidy is also calling for a protected period of uncertainty… “We’re going to have months of this”=
I think she’s acknowledging that absent Welch stepping down, which right now he doesn’t seem inclined to do, this will continue until the caucus is able (and willing) to elect a new speaker in January.
- Last Person on the Copy Desk - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 4:04 pm:
I think she’s referencing a “protracted” period of uncertainty
- Amalia - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 4:36 pm:
yes, she knows she’s not the one. and yes, she knows that if the change is not made soon it will take over dialogue. we don’t need that. but, more importantly, we need leadership that handles things oh so much differently for the House, and that the Speaker handles him/herself more honorably.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 4:41 pm:
Rep Cassidy gets it.
- Juvenal - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 4:59 pm:
I have a great deal of respect for Rep. Kelly Cassidy in this area.
I would disagree with this though:
=== we don’t necessarily have a really good process laid out anywhere in the building for how to truly get to the bottom of these things and what to do about it when you do. ===
Every Illinois agency as well as the state department of human rights has procedures in place for fully investigating allegations of sexual harrassment. The LIG and the Speaker’s Office literally has to Copy and Paste.
The Speaker could have investigated the staff complaint, determined it was credible, and…given Benton lied about what he did, decided to:
Withdraw Benton’s staff, for their protection;
Remove Benton from all committees, for the staff’s protection;
Required Benton to be escorted at all times while on the Capitol complex, for the protection of all capitol employees (see Jack Franks);
Advised all registered lobbyists that there was a substantiated sexual harrassment complaint involving Benton.
The problem here is that Speaker Welch’s top worry was the politics of holding Benton accountable, according to his own words. Even if you think its a sham excuse, “I was worried about AFL-CIO cutting off funding” is no argument you want any employer in charge of investigating harrassment to be making, ever.
Welch is arguing that it is only weak and defenseless legislators that can be held accountable, but if you’ve got enough clout or friends in high places, you can do whatever you want.
(Aside: No one has more clout or friends in high places than Welch in the House.)
We need these systems to hold the powerful in check, and not the weak. But most importantly, you need a leader who is willing to adjudicate complaints and hold others accountable when it is hard, not only when it is easy.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 6:38 pm:
=== Every Illinois agency as well as the state department of human rights has procedures in place for fully investigating allegations of sexual harrassment.===
My thoughts exactly. As this has rolled out over the past few weeks, I kept wondering about the systems in place, by law, in all the rest of state government and all of the required annual training.
- Just Bill - Monday, Aug 10, 26 @ 8:33 pm:
You can have “procedures” piled one on top of the other, but if people with power take two years to act, so what?
Every time there’s a problem like this, where people don’t follow the rules, people blather on about how we need better laws.
No. We need better people in positions of power. And for the other people empowered to vote for them to have the courage to demand better.