From McHenry County Board member Carolyn Schofield, running for the Republican nomination for State Representative against incumbent Allen Skillicorn:
Legislative Inspector General Finds Skillicorn Guilty of Falsifying Voting Record
SPRINGFIELD….The Illinois Legislative Inspector General, Carol Pope has substantiated recent ethics violation claims filed [by Carolyn Schofield] against Representative Allen Skillicorn charged with falsifying his attendance and voting record in Springfield while campaigning in Harvard, Illinois for another office on the same day;
“My investigation substantiated allegations that Representative Skillicorn was not present when the quorum roll call vote was taken at 12:15 p.m. on June 1, 2019, nor was he present for any of the votes that he was recorded as voting on prior to 3:00 p.m.
“Representative Skillicorn filed a letter to correct the record with the Clerk of the House.
“I interviewed 11 people during the course of my investigation, including Clerk’s Office personnel, staff members, and several members of the General Assembly.
“Apparently it is common practice for members to ask a seatmate or staffer to vote their switch if they need to step out and use the bathroom, or meet with leadership or talk to a constituent.
“It is not accepted practice for a member to ask someone to vote their switch when they are out of town, nor is it appropriate for a staffer or seatmate to take it upon themselves to vote another member’s switch when they are out of town and absent from the session.”
The LIG also indicated that no legislators were paid for the overtime session held on June 1st, 2019, at the direction of Speaker Mike Madigan.
A suggestion will be made to Leadership that written protocol be put in place as some members, despite the existing set of Rules that govern the House, have not familiarized themselves with proper procedures.
Skillicorn is being challenged for his 66th District House seat by McHenry County Board Member Carolyn Schofield in the March primary.
= = = = =
Skillicorn’s Reaction
“I agree with everything in Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope’s findings.
“Clearly, mistakes were made here.
“I corrected the official record of the House to reflect the fact that I was not present in the chamber on June 1, 2019 during the few initial votes that were taken that day.
“I strongly support LIG Carol Pope’s recommendation for a written protocol to ensure that this does not happen again. As she noted, she ‘found no evidence of malicious intent with regard to the operation of Representative Skillicorn’s switch.’
“Indeed, there was no malice.
“It was mistake and we as a legislative body should clearly define what the protocol should be so that the rules are clear and mistakes like this will not be made.”
Well I doubt Schofield will even be in Springfield when the IMPORTANT issues are voted on.
Instead, throw rocks at a fellow Republican who is actually speaking up & out on major things.
That’s what kids on the playground do & at election time.
Bad & sad.
While it was good to see Mr. Skillicorn respond with the most contriteness than I’ve ever seen from him, where is the “I accept full responsibility for what happened” or something along the lines other than agreeing with the LIG finding?
Saying it’s a “mistake” is a form of minimizing.
It is good that changes will be made, and good that Skillicorn asked the clerk to make the votes taken when he was away on June 1 will be corrected. But please make sure it doesn’t happen again, maybe reassuring constituents that he will always take his key with him when he leaves the House chamber to leavetown, or something as simple as that.
Again, I do see some contriteness, particularly accepting at his word there was no malice.
He could have done a little better, and will see if he will let his constituents know, express genuine remorse and contriteness that he did something wrong even without malice.
Please Mr. Skillicorn, do the right thing.
It seems like a kindergarten.
No real nor enforced “rules”
Hit or snit?
This is what Allen said back in January. It’s definitely a different tune than what he’s saying now:
_”I can’t recall the exact time I left, but I left fairly early in the morning from the parade,” Skillicorn told The Daily Line, noting a floor speech he made that evening before voting against a bill that doubled the state’s gasoline tax to support transportation infrastructure in Illinois. “I didn’t miss any important votes. I did represent the people of the 66th District that day.”
When told the official Milk Days schedule indicated the parade began at 1 p.m., and that a Facebook live video posted at 2:07 p.m. on the official Milk Days’ Facebook page showed Skillicorn walking in the parade, Skillicorn said “I don’t think that could’ve been possible,” and provided the phone number of a volunteer with him at the parade that day._
AlabamaShake has an agenda.
He is a paid political consultant for the Democrats.
Notice you don’t hear AlabamaShake saying anything bad about Rod Blagojevich.
Nope!
Further, Skillicorn is a corruption fighter and has stood up to Madigan and his cronies many times.
Skillcorn got caught and then made a half-assed response.
He is the legislator that McHenry County deserves.
Or I guess they will decide if he is in a couple of weeks.
Attacking someone who describes how lame this is, is of course, hilarious.
and the “mistakes were made” quote pretty much says all there is to say about this character.
**Notice you don’t hear AlabamaShake saying anything bad about Rod Blagojevich.**
LOL – I literally posted something bad about Blago 16 minutes before you commented on this post.
Good try though.
AlabamaShake, provide a link.
That doesn’t change the fact that you are a Political Consultant for the Democrats, which makes anything you have to say questionable.
Skillicorn should resign right away!
Skillicorn admitted his mistake and apologized
Carolyn still the puppet she’s always been.
Would be another empty seat if she ever got to Springfield.
For a woman who, allegedly, takes pennies out of the dish at the dry cleaners, she should hide her head.
I would like to see her post her curriculum vitae with her qualifications as “an educator” i.e. assistant to a teacher’s assistant, and an “engineer”.. blah blah blah.
please Carolyn -post a verifiable curriculum vitae.
During your tenure on the County board I would score you at a 1+ on the basis of a perfect 10.
So what. Schofield is terrible. Skilly erred. No big deal.
Rule of thumb: Take the opposite position of whatever libtard fools like dented-blah take.
Yes, Skilly lied.
He had 7 months to correct this so called “mistake”, but was hoping to get away with it – so deceitful .
He is still lying.
He says he was back in Springfield by 3:00.
But footage shows him in the parade at 2 07.
Unless the devil swooped him off to fool the people, he could not make it that quickly.
By the way, The lies that some of you make up about Schofield gives me a “laugh.of the day.”
I sincerely don’t know how people come up with these ideas.
They must have had some interesting life’s.
I enjoy these Illinois comedy lectures on ethics.
It’s like Abbott and Costello’s Who’s on First meets Catch 22.
AlabamShake, has left the building.
AlabamAShake, HAS BEEN CAUGHT IN A BIG FAT LIE!
Tracker2, what apology?
He’s admitted what happened, agreed with the LIG, but I didn’t see any kind of “I’m sorry” or “I apologize” let alone steps he can take to make sure this does not happen again.
Maybe he’ll do it in a mailing to his constituents, so will be watching for it.
Sunshine, I think the 3:00 reference on 6/1/19 has to do with when the House recessed on Saturday for the first time, and not when Skillicorn arrived.
I thought the House reconvened at around 5:30PM that afternoon, and that was when the Capital Bill was taken up in the House and where Skillicorn spoke against the legislation prior to House passage.
John Lopez.
You are right.
Sorry for the mistake
**AlabamAShake, HAS BEEN CAUGHT IN A BIG FAT LIE!**
Huh? Because you don’t know how to look at other posts?
Your comment was posted at 6:48pm. My comment about Blago was posted at 6:32pm:
http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2020/03/03/for-those-who-think-blago-has-earth-shaking-revelations-to-make/#comment-526692
So, Racist DALA, need anything else?
All the hate directed against Ms. Schofield because she’s marginally lesss kooky than the crooked Skillicorn. He should change his name to Unskilled-Korn.
UNDERWOODNOW= THE REAL RACIST!
AlabamaShake, IS A PAID POLITICAL CONSULTANT FOR THE DEMOCRATS.
HE’S ON THIS BLOG TO DO DAMAGE CONTROL FOR HIS CANDIDATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AlabamaShake is a RACIST!
Oh, Racist DALA.
You feeling ok?
Why are you shouting?
We’ve covered this before.
I am not paid to be here.
I can assure you that no campaign or candidate would spend money to have people comment here.
And I don’t think you know what “damage control” means – because I don’t do any of that around here.
As for me being racist… still waiting for any evidence of that.
But if we need to we can bring back up your blatant racism. Do we need to do that again?
By the way… are you going to admit that you were flat out wrong when you said I haven’t said anything about Blago?
Or when you called me a lawyer?
(liar, not lawyer — I’m not either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )