Leaders of the Illinois Democratic Party have two problems before the fall election. Both aren’t going away any time soon.
Fortunately for the Dems, their loyal opposition is weak as used tea bags. Republicans may try, but they won’t be making any political hay from two scandals surrounding state Democrats.
The first involves the July 3 resignation of state Rep. Harry Benton of far south suburban Plainfield. The second, the sweeping July 7 multicount federal indictment of state Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana.
Financial fraud among our state lawmakers in the past has largely come from Cook County legislators, so the charges against Ammons, a six-term House member from central Illinois, came as somewhat of a surprise. Ammons allegedly followed similar Cook County role models in defrauding the government, federal lawyers in the Central District of Illinois have alleged.
Prosecutors maintain the lawmaker helped secure grant funding for organizations that hired her daughter in various kickback schemes. That allegedly earned her at least more than $100,000 from 2017 to 2025.
She’s been charged with several counts of wire fraud, conspiracy and lying to investigators. She has denied the allegations.
In what has turned out to be a family affair, her husband, Aaron, who is the Champaign County clerk, also was indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy. The political pair’s trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 22, but that starting date is doubtful considering the depth of the case.
Republicans in the Illinois House – including Lake County lawmaker Tom Weber of Lake Villa – have meekly called for a special committee to look into the allegations behind her indictment. If the suggestion is taken seriously by the Democratic majority in the House, it could lead to her being booted from the legislature.
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Rep. Benton resigned his seat before his fellow lawmakers could kick him out after the legislative inspector general submitted a report on his conduct to House Speaker Emmanuel “Chris” Welch of west-suburban Hillside. Lawmakers have been mum on what caused the initiation of the private report about the two-term legislator and what is in the report.
It didn’t take reporters from the baiduhai long to discover Benton allegedly was a flagrant practitioner of sexual harassment. Yet the report has been kept under wraps even though Illinois taxpayers paid for it.
Perhaps delaying release of the report is the smoking gun it may contain. Maybe party leaders didn’t originally take seriously numerous allegations of sexual harassment from a female employee in Benton’s office. A second person then came forward with similar allegations. That was followed by Benton being stripped of House committee assignments and calls for his resignation.
The eight-member Legislative Ethics Commission, made up of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, is deciding if the Benton dossier should be made public. Democrat House members have been silent in calling for the release of the report, while Gov. JB Pritzker said the Benton report should be made public.
Ironically, a woman who once worked in Benton’s in-district office was appointed this week to replace him. Democrats named Jessica Dixon Heitman to the vacant post. She is the granddaughter of Alan Dixon, a Belleville Democrat who represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate from 1981 to 1993 and previously was Illinois secretary of state and treasurer.
Two scandals of the scale of Benton and Ammons normally would be enough to shake up the political scene in an election year. Benton had GOP opposition; Carol Ammons is unopposed — as are many Democrats — in the Nov. 3 general election. She shows no sign of leaving office, despite calls for her to quit.
With a formidable Republican opposition, we may have seen the two scandals take on more enormity. Those GOP candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot are having tough times raising cash to run respectable fall campaigns.
Republicans still lack a candidate for the statewide treasurer’s office. Which is something that hasn’t happened on an Illinois ballot in nearly a century.
But that’s the state of the current Republican Party, thanks in part to President Donald Trump occupying the White House. Party leaders, too, have grown farther from original GOP tenets while following Trump’s lead.
That has led to suburban voters across Chicagoland abandoning the party. Lake County is but one example.
Republicans here don’t appear to be fielding candidates in a state Senate district and four House districts. The party holds only two Illinois House seats, Weber’s in District 64, and Martin McLaughlin of Lake Barrington in the 52nd District.
With the fall ballot yet to be set, the party has no county clerk candidate, nor a hopeful for the post of regional schools superintendent. There are no Republican candidates in 10 Lake County Board districts; none in two North Shore Water Reclamation District wards.
In-person early voting at the County Clerk’s Office for the Nov. 3 election begins Sept. 24. At this point, voters won’t have much of a choice on the ballot, and Republicans continue to be a feeble political party.
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Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. [email protected]. X @sellenews