Prairie State Wire

State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) is calling on voters to replace Illinois' Senate delegation.

Referring to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin as "our clown prince senator," McSweeney said that he has too much influence on U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the junior senator.

Bipartisan solutions are needed in Illinois and in Washington, D.C., McSweeney said during a Newsradio WJPF interview, adding that he's worked to build relationships with Democrats.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin

"I want to make sure that we're promoting policies of lower taxes and less spending," McSweeney said. "But the other side needs to show that they want to work on those policies and on polices that are good for the people of the state of Illinois, the people who will save the country. 

"But what I have seen from Dick Durbin has been one of the worst disgraces..., if not the greatest disgrace in politics. And I'm very concerned that Tammy Duckworth is just following the lead of Dick Durbin. We need to change this state, and we also need to change our U.S. senators."

McSweeney said he was especially troubled by the blatant partisan fight over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination following testimony by Christine Blasey Ford. Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they both were in high school.

"The Democratic Party has become the party of protest and screaming and of mob rule and you're seeing what happened recently in the Supreme Court nomination," McSweeney said.

"And leading the way is our clown prince Senator, Dick Durbin. And I don’t say that lightly, he's just made a terrible embarrassment out of himself. His representation of the state of Illinois and the way he has acted. The most dangerous place in Washington, D.C., is between Dick Durbin and the TV camera. It's just been an absolute disgrace. 

"I'm hoping that Republicans who are listening to this, independents and fair-minded people, will look at the behavior of Dick Durbin as an example that we need to get out and vote, and vote for Republicans."

McSweeney was first elected to the Illinois State Senate in 2012 and is unopposed in his race for another term.

The 52nd State House District is located within Cook, Lake, McHenry and Kane counties and includes Cary and Barrington.

Durbin, 73, is Illinois' senior senator in Washington, where he is the Democrat Whip in the U.S. Senate, a position to which he has been regularly re-elected since 2005. 

Durbin has represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate since he first was elected to the seat in November 1996 in place of then retiring Sen. Paul Simon. Durbin is a member of the U.S. Senate's Judiciary, Appropriations and Rules committees and is ranking member of the Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and Appropriations' subcommittee on Defense.

Duckworth, a U.S. Army and Iraq War veteran who lost both legs during her military service, is a former member of the U.S. House, where she represented the Illinois' Eighth Congressional District from 2013 to 2017. Duckworth was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.

Neither Durbin nor Duckworth are up for re-election in next month's general election.

Durbin should apologize to Kavanaugh and the American people for Durbin's behavior during the confirmation process, McSweeney said.

"This is a guy who is an absolute hypocrite and it pains me to talk about an elected official this way," McSweeney said. "I have relationships across the aisle with my Democratic colleagues in the House, but I don't know of a worse example of a bigger hypocrite in Illinois state government or anywhere else in the country than Dick Durbin."