Pritzker backs former Senate Republican leader for ethics commission after mistakenly appointing recent lobbyist

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday appointed former Illinois Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno to a newly formed ethics commission — after his administration mistakenly appointed a former lobbyist to the post.

Legislators last month passed a resolution to create the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform to take up the many issues unearthed by federal investigations into state Rep. Luis Arroyo, state Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, and state Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago.

The governor on Wednesday named his four appointees to the commission, including former state Rep. Steven Andersson. Andersson was one of a dozen Republicans who joined Democrats to vote for a budget and income tax hike in July 2017 over the objections of former Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Andersson, however, was a lobbyist until June 28. The resolution bars anyone who registered or worked as a lobbyist in the previous five years.

The governor’s office said Thursday they realized their error.

“Steve Andersson is a dedicated public servant and the administration appreciates his willingness to serve. However, given the requirements of the resolution, we will be submitting a different appointee,” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in a statement.

The governor’s office later announced Radogno’s appointment to the commission. Radogno also served on Pritzker’s pension consolidation task force earlier this year, which ultimately led to a consolidation plan that combined roughly 650 suburban and downstate police and fire pension funds.

The ethics commission is composed of two appointees each from the four legislative leaders, two from Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s office, two from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office and four from Pritzker. That will most certainly ensure more Democrats than Republicans on the panel, although only two of the governor’s appointees could be from his party.

The commission must submit recommendations by the end of March. Pritzker also appointed Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, Illinois Revenue Director David Harris and his general counsel Ann Spillane to the commission.

Arroyo is the latest legislator to come under federal scrutiny. The allegations against the 65-year-old Northwest Side Democrat revolve around his lobbying work in Chicago as manager of Spartacus 3 LLC.

And the sometimes dual role of lawmakers as lobbyists is coming into full view in light of the allegations. Although barred by law from lobbying state government, Arroyo — who resigned after being arrested — has been registered with the city of Chicago as a lobbyist since 2017.

Pritzker last month said he’s “absolutely committed” to looking into a ban on legislators also working as lobbyists. House Republican Leader Jim Durkin has been pushing a measure that would ban legislators, their spouses and immediate live-in family members from performing paid lobbying work with local government units.

Pritzker has also said the new commission should place a top priority on whether Democratic ward committeemen are “picking replacements properly.”

“I made it clear from the beginning that I want to make sure that the people of the district get represented properly,” the governor said last month. “There’s no air of corruption around the person who gets appointed and also be elected.”

Arroyo resigned from the Illinois House on Nov. 1 after being charged with bribery, but he resisted calls from party leaders to step down from his post as the 36th Ward Democratic committeeman.

Eligible committeemen voted to appoint Eva-Dina Delgado to Arroyo’s former seat — with 30th Ward Ald. Ariel Reboyras voting as Arroyo’s proxy despite calls from state House Speaker Mike Madigan for Arroyo to butt out of the process.

The battle lines have already been drawn for that challenge.

Delgado took the oath of office last month after the committeemen’s vote. And the Peoples Gas executive filed her official paperwork to take the seat with the House clerk.