In light of the widespread news about sexual harassment in various industries, including the Harvey Weinstein story and others, speculation came to the halls of the Capitol in Springfield. Having worked as staff, lobbyist and legislator here and on campaigns all over our state, the attention is well warranted, if difficult to adequately address. Any woman who has worked in politics and government has experienced overt sexism at a minimum and many will agree that outright harassment and unwanted physical attention are far too common.
On Tuesday, October 24th when we convened for the first week of veto session, Speaker Madigan announced to the Democratic Caucus that he had drafted and intended to introduce a bill to mandate training and new procedures for lobbyists, staff and legislators. On October 31st at a hearing for that bill, a sitting Senator was publicly accused by a lobbyist of sexual harassment. She claims he has repeatedly made inappropriate comments and refused to move her legislation when he thought she had a boyfriend.
Questions remain about how her complaint was handled. We've recently learned that the set process for such complaints is even more broken than we thought. The post of Legislative Inspector General has remained vacant for 2 years. Last week, we were assured that the vacancy did not impede investigations. This week, we've learned otherwise. Take a look at articles like this for more information.
Such behavior is sadly endemic to the Springfield culture. And while I am pleased that Speaker Madigan wants to take a leadership role on this, I would much prefer a resolution that engages the people actually impacted by the culture instead of rushing to a top down solution just to say we did something.
Training is good, as there are a lot of gray areas that everyone could use clarity on. But to suggest that anyone in 2017 needs a special training session to know that a legislator shouldn't put his hand up a female lobbyist's skirt is preposterous. The Speaker also appointed a working group of legislators, myself included, from the House Democratic caucus to examine his proposal and seek additional suggestions. My hope is that this group actually becomes more inclusive, bringing in the three other caucuses as well as providing an opportunity for others impacted by the boys' club culture to have a voice and finalize solutions. Whether they're lobbyists, staff, constituents or members of the media, we need to hear from everyone under the Capitol dome on how to eradicate this broken culture.
