Appel challenges opponent to clean up Illinois ethical sludge

KENILWORTH, IL — Admitting that it is unlikely that Jeff Schoenberg will turn his back on his mentor, State Senate President Emil Jones, 9th District State Senate Candidate Brendan Appel said that the Senate should return to Springfield to act immediately on the ethics bill that was recently vetoed by Governor Rod Blagojevich. 

“We need to act immediately on this bill,” said Appel.  “If the Senate Democrats simply sit on the ethics reform package, it will never see the light of day, let alone become law.”  Recently, the Illinois House passed a comprehensive ethics reform package that included increased restrictions on campaign contributions from state contractors.  If the Senate does not take action on the bill in the next two weeks, the bill will not be able to be voted upon again until January 2009. 

“Last year, Jeff Schoenberg voted for a 9.3% pay raise for himself, voted to give the Governor authority to raid road construction funds to support pork barrel spending, and In the midst of a corruption trial reaching directly into the Governor’s office, Jeff Schoenberg voted to give the Governor unfettered authority to hand out fees and award no-bid contracts to political supporters,” said Appel.

HB 824 was introduced in the Senate in March of 2007.  Over a year later, on April 1, 2008, Jeff Schoenberg added himself as a co-sponsor to the legislation.  “It took Jeff Schoenberg a year to support the ethics bill and sadly enough, on April’s Fools Day, the real joke was on the working families of our district.   We deserve better and I will go to Springfield to be an independent voice against the play-to-play culture our current Senator has become accustomed to.”