Will County Gazette

Veteran state Rep. Margo McDermed (R-Mokena) wonders what it now means to be a lawmaker in Springfield.

“We’re legally considered essential workers, but could you tell it by what’s happening?” McDermed told the Will County Gazette. “There’s no question we should be in Springfield working on COVID strategy and other things and we should have been there for a while now.”

The wait only figures to get longer after Illinois state legislators, citing rising COVID infection rates, recently moved to cancel this month's fall Veto Session. Soon after that announcement, staffers from the office of House Speaker Mike Madigan began publicly claiming that they have the backing of a “strong majority” of House Democrats in calling for the cancellation.

None of that matters to McDermed, particularly given what she sees as being at stake.

“Dealing with this virus is pressing for the people of this state,” she said. “We need to be doing our jobs. We went there in May with precautions in place and were able to do so without people getting sick. We did it once and can do it again.”

All the steps taken to the contrary leave McDermed feeling like other factors may be in play.

The state’s longest-tenured lawmaker, Madigan now finds himself at the center of a still evolving federal corruption probe involving ComEd and a pay-for-play scheme where all the perks were allegedly steered to him in exchange for favorable legislation.  

“Madigan doesn’t want Democrat members getting together and maybe plotting a coup against him,” she said. “I’ve heard more Democrats saying they won’t vote for him again as House speaker than ever before. It seems like he has more to fear from his own members than the virus. He does not want Democrats in the same place together where they can talk about replacing him.”