SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Governor JB Pritzker is accusing the opposite party, in an election year, of playing politics with one of his recommended appointments to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
Of six appointments Pritzker is recommending to the board, one recently was rejected: Shawnee Correctional Center employee Jeff Mears.
“I think what the Republicans are trying to do now is to essentially break down a function — an important function — of government. They want to do away with it,” said Pritzker, at an unrelated event Wednesday in Springfield. “Just like during the (former Governor Bruce) Rauner years, so much was done to break down the functions of government agencies.”
The appointment of Mears needed 30 votes in the state Senate for approval. Eighteen Democrats did not vote, and another voted no, along with 18 Republicans.
Pritzker, however, has used a long-tested practice of nominating someone, then pulling the appointment, then making the nomination again, in order to start a new clock for an approval vote.
“That’s a legal function. That’s a function that’s been around for quite a long time,” said Pritzker. “It’s when the State Senate doesn’t take up the nominations that I put forward. We’ve got to keep a Parole Board going. We’ve got to keep the Prisoner Review Board going. We’ve got to keep people in place, we’ve got to renominate them, or else we lack a quorum.”
And then, Pritzker says, prisoners could get released when they shouldn’t be.
Republicans rejected Mears Tuesday, but five other nominees are reportedly on track for approval.
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