Prairie State Wire

Former state senator and Republican candidate for governor Paul Schimpf argues that former Senate President John Cullerton returning to Springfield as a lobbyist tells you everything you need to know about state government.

“Ameren feeling the need to have the former senate president lobby shows that it is our entire political class that is dysfunctional, not just the elected officials,” Schimpf told the Prairie State Wire. “Legislation should be judged on its merits, not the political clout of its proponents.”

As the Senate reconvened in Springfield on June 15, Cullerton was back in town to talk energy as a lobbyist for Ameren after retiring from the Senate earlier this year following nearly four decades in the statehouse, 11 of them as senate president.

The plan he is pushing would see tax dollars being used to keep nuclear plants across the state open, close coal-fired plants that will cost southern Illinois jobs and shape the direction of renewable energy for years.

Even though the state recently passed an ethics reform package that institutes a 6-month prohibition on lawmakers lobbying their former peers, the legislation contains a major loophole that allows Cullerton to swing into action. The delay only applies during the term of the General Assembly when the lawmaker retired.

By comparison, states such as Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky and New York have two-year lobbying bans for former lawmakers.

If the reforms are signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, they take effect Jan. 1, 2022.