Will County Gazette

Will County Board member Steve Balich, a Republican, said state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit’s (D-Aurora) rant against Rep.Peter Breen (R-Lombard), in which, some claim, she wished death on him and his family, speaks to a much deeper overall problem.

“The first thought I had was if Peter Breen had said something like that to her, he would be asked to step down because of what he said,” Balich told the Will County Gazette. “He would be called out by every media organization in Illinois. But because this woman is a Democrat, it’s allowed. It shows that the state of Illinois has two different systems, one for Democrats and one for Republicans.”

The drama kicked off early Tuesday when Kifowit, a retired Marine veteran, took to the House floor to chastise Breen after he took issue with a bill that would raise the amount of eligible damages for families impacted by the recent outbreak of Legionnaires disease at a downstate state-run veterans home to up to $2 million.

“To the representative from Lombard, I would like to make him a broth of legionella and pump it into the water system of his loved ones so that they can be infected, they can be mistreated, they can sit and suffer by getting aspirin instead of being properly treated and ultimately die. We are talking about talking our nation's heroes. We are talking World War II veterans that survived combat, survived war, survived unthinkable situations that they were put in to sit back put their faith and trust in the state of Illinois and have that completely, unabashedly disregarded,” Kifowit said after Breen had spoken.

The Chicago Tribune reported Kifowit later claimed her remarks were misinterpreted and mischaracterized.

“I saw video,” Balich added. “It’s not too hard to see she meant what she said. It shows a double standard and shows that she has no perception of how to debate somebody. That woman should be ashamed of herself. You don’t wish somebody’s family to die. Where’s her priorities? Because she can’t think of a fact she just says I wish your family would get poisoned by that same stuff. Instead of stating facts about how we're going to go about fixing this. she just says, 'I want you dead.'”

Fourteen people died following the outbreak and nearly 70 others became ill.