SPRINGFIELD - Amid the fatigue and frustration of long days of negotiation during the last hours of the Illinois General Assembly's regular session, reports of a scuffle between two Illinois Senators on the Senate floor are buzzing this morning. Tension was evident during floor debate on State Sen. Mike Jacobs' (D-Moline) Smart Grid bill. State Senator Kyle McCarter (R-Highland) said the plan would cost Illinois taxpayers $3.7 billion to pay for Com Ed's system update.
McCarter gave his perspective on what happened around that debate via Facebook at about 1:00 AM Wednesday morning (click on image to enlarge)
During the discussion, Sen. Jacobs said he was unhappy with Attorney General Lisa Madigan using Illinois tax dollars to pay for her staff lobbying against "our" bills. "There should be an investigation into how that money was spent," Jacobs said.
At the same time, Jacobs' father, former State Senator Denny Jacobs was lobbying for Com Ed.
Fox News Chicago political editor Mike Flannery provided more detail via Twitter about what transpired, although details remain sketchy this am. Flannery was at the Capitol for the closing hours of session, and his tweets about the Smart Grid encounter started at 6:13 PM:
In the midst of the confusion, former GOP Lt. Gov candidate Jason Plummer tweeted:
And Zach Oltmanns of Illinois Conservatives posted the following on their website:
More to come ...
