Page 25 - March 2021

New faces for the spring session
As the Illinois legislature continues its spring ses- sion, several new legislators have been appointed to seats where long-time incumbents have retired. The most prominent of those was the retirement of former House Speaker Mike Madigan. After he served in that seat for 50 years, his replacement lasted for only 50 hours before he had to retire.
And now the seat has been filled again. Angie Guer- rero-Cuellar has been appointed to the seat. She has
DAVE SULLIVAN
been very
is ready other recent appoint- Senate, where Senator Side of Chicago seat activist Mike Simmons. openly gay senator. In
Senator Andy Manar has Turner, a former Springfield
active in the district and to move forward. The ments are both in the Heather Steans’ North has been filled by local He becomes the first the Springfield area, been replaced by Doris
now but hopes to begin more in-person sessions soon, as the vac- cines continue to be distributed. Legislators are like so many others who have to do their jobs remotely during this pandemic, but they are eager to get back to more normalcy, as we all are. Speaker Welch has appointed a diverse leadership team and is diligently working on moving the House forward in a new era during these difficult times.
We are monitoring many bills that have been introduced on po- licing issues. Some are efforts to try to modify the bill that passed, and others are more ideas to reform policing policy. We will contin- ue to work with legislators and activists on these important policy discussions.
alderman.
The legislature is conducting its committee hearings virtually for
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