Prairie State Wire

The Illinois Republican Party is angry nothing ever seems to change in Springfield.

“The Illinois Democratic crime ring has struck again, successfully eliminating another obstacle in their pursuit of power and state sanctioned grift,” the group posted on Facebook. “Carol Pope’s resignation is another sign that Democrats' feigned efforts at ethics reform this past session was nothing more than lip service. Illinois Democrats and the remaining Madigan Machine have made a career of using their power for personal gain and they have no desire to break up the system now. That should be clear to everyone.”

Citing a lack of commitment to real ethics reform, Pope recently tendered her resignation as Legislative Inspector General effective in December.

 In her resignation letter,  Pope said, “this last legislative session demonstrated true ethics reform is not a priority. The LIG has no real power to effect change or shine a light on ethics violations; the position is essentially a paper tiger.”

A former judge and prosecutor, Pope told The State Journal-Register she still holds out hope the General Assembly will be able to find a quality replacement for her, but, “I think it will be difficult to find someone of high integrity to take the job because of the limitations in the statute.”

In order for any LIG to have a real chance of doing the job, Pope said the position needs more independence, including the LIG having the power to issue subpoenas and reports without first being required to get the approval of the bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission.

Since appearing before a Joint Commission to offer testimony on Ethics Reform soon after taking power, Pope said all of the issues she raised about her office “are still unimproved today” except for a provision in HB 539 that would let the inspector general initiate an investigation.

 

.