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* Her full statement and react is here if you need it. Sun-Times…
The latest watchdog for the Illinois state Legislature offered her resignation on Wednesday, telling lawmakers their failure to pass meaningful ethics reform shows “true ethics reform is not a priority.”
Complaining her job is “essentially a paper tiger,” Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope sent her letter of resignation to members of the Legislative Ethics Commission, offering to step down immediately, stay on while they find a replacement or remain until her term ends in December. […]
Her frustrated departure is the latest blow for an office that had no permanent occupant for more than four years when Pope was appointed in December of 2018.
Former federal prosecutor Julie Porter, who served as a temporary inspector general for about a year and half during that time, also voiced concerns in a newspaper op-ed after she left, complaining the system is “broken” and “the legislative inspector general is not independent.”
* SJ-R…
Even though most Republican lawmakers voted for the bill, the Illinois Republican Party issued a news release Wednesday saying Pope’s resignation “is another sign that Democrats’ feigned efforts at ethics reform this past session was nothing more than lip service.”
* Hannah Meisel…
Pope told NPR Illinois that her repeated suggestions for how to improve the office have been ignored by the Democratically controlled General Assembly, and by her own assessment, legislation passed by lawmakers this spring aimed at ethics reform have actually weakened her office. The measure was sent to Gov. JB Pritzker but he hasn’t signed it yet.
“The public has had it up to their eyebrows with public corruption, and when I came to this job, I really felt like by appointing somebody with my background, if I had the ability to do the job in the right way, it would…improve the public’s view of the legislature,” Pope said Wednesday. “But I just don’t feel like I’ve been able to do that at all. It’s just time to move along.” […]
“Instead of expanding the role and the power of the legislative inspector general, it’s been restricted,” Pope told NPR Illinois. “And as a result, I just don’t feel like I can be effective in this job anymore, so I felt it necessary to tender my resignation.” […]
“I think that the system could be greatly improved with the suggestions I’ve given to the legislature,” Pope told NPR Illinois. “And I’ve tried my best to get that done and it really doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere. I would say that most people would be disappointed with the way things wound down in the General Assembly this year. It was supposed to be the year of big ethics reform and I don’t think that happened.”
* Tribune…
Through the first half of this year, Pope’s office received 31 complaints alleging wrongdoing by lawmakers or staff and opened six investigations, with three pending, all categorized as ” other, miscellaneous, or uncharacterized claims,” according to the office’s most recent quarterly report.
Pope’s most notable investigations dealt with harassment allegations lodged against two longtime aides to former House Speaker Michael Madigan. In October 2019, she released reports recommending that Tim Mapes, the former House clerk and Madigan chief of staff, and Kevin Quinn, the brother of 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, be barred from future state employment. Both had long since been ousted from Madigan’s operation.
* React from potential Pritzker opponent…
LIG Pope is right: Dems in state govt have not made ethics a priority, and that’s even as the Feds close in on Madigan. @GovPritzker needs to stop being Madigan’s partner in corruption and issue an amendatory veto to give this sham ethics bill real teeth to fight corruption. https://t.co/52I8dvwYFs
— US Rep Rodney Davis (@RodneyDavis) July 15, 2021
He kinda got roasted for it…
Have you been living under a rock? Madigan is gone. Haven’t gotten an update on Madigan in months. IL got 2 credit upgrades and is Number 1 in infrastructure.
— Omar (@Omarthehomie1) July 15, 2021
Yeah…corruption… pic.twitter.com/q3myezAI43
— Hon. Don Gerard (@DonGerard) July 15, 2021
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 3:36 am
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=== Have you been living under a rock? ===
Yes.
Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 8:04 am
Davis is an empty vessel of a man… filling himself with buzzwords and phony angst… refusing to update his talking points while shopping for a office, afraid to face Mary Miller.
I’d think Davis was trolling for a grift… I don’t think he’s all that smart to that… that’s why he’s office shopping.
Keep the Madigan talking points… yea you…
To the LIG,
What exactly is going to constitute a good working LIG office… that will also be acceptable to the GA?
Thing is… the ethical issues, not the criminal or legally disqualifying… voters decide how far ethics matter when it’s solely on the ethical, not coupled with legal realities.
So how far in the ethics outside the legal does the GA want to go, and what powers can an appointed LIG in exercising, and brought in by… how…
Like the Shackman fight, the LIG… are voters going to make the LIG “the straw that’ll make me vote”… ahead of voter suppression, racism, public safety, economy, infrastructure…?
But worry not, Rodney Davis will be “Madigan”… looks like 18 months behind everyone else.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 8:19 am
Anyone who saw Pope testify during the committee hearings on the ethics bill knows she complained the loudest and longest about a provision of the bill that would have made the LIG a full time job. She wanted to preserve her part time status, arguing there wasn’t enough work to justify making the post full time with regular office hours. Her testimony was cringe-worthy. Here’s the ethics czar arguing on one hand that corruption is running rampant, but on the other hand saying it doesn’t demand her or anyone else’s full time attention.
The sponsors amended the bill at her request and stripped out the full time provision. I bet they regret that now.
Comment by TNR Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 9:23 am
Is Rodney Davis using official congressional accounts to bolster a campaign for governor? Maybe the Office of Congressional Ethics should investigate.
Comment by Shield Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 9:33 am
Davis calling JB Madigan’s partner in corruption is like Ted Cruz criticizing Texas legislators for leaving Texas.
Self owning by a complicit doofus.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 9:58 am
Tom Homer and Carol Pope were two outstanding judges/justices. I’ll accept their comments about the position’s structural inability to investigate.
Comment by WillRez Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 10:32 am
That picture with Trump would be great…in the primary.
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 10:33 am
Madigan is gone… LOL
Comment by Dooooooode Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 10:51 am
===Madigan is gone===
He ain’t?
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 11:01 am
“Madigan is gone…LOL”
Again, for some, Madigan will be pulling strings from the grave.
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 11:05 am
Not for voters
Comment by Dooode Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 11:11 am
=Not for voters=
I am a voter. He is gone.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 11:59 am
Shield: Rodney’s weekly official constituent newsletter on his .gov account is splattered regularly with anti-Democratic talking points and propaganda.
Comment by Cheswick Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 12:43 pm
When I think of Rodney Davis…I come up empty.
Comment by Dotnonymous Thursday, Jul 15, 21 @ 1:19 pm