Friend --

One hour into yesterday's JCAR closed-doors pre-meeting, one of the Democrat committee members said, "You all better make a deal because none of us are going to vote with you."

We didn't make a deal.

We held firm and refused to acquiesce to Governor Pritzker's attempt to circumvent the General Assembly and issue criminal penalties through administrative rule making.

Two hours later, the Pritzker Administration announced that they were repealing the emergency rule they had filed on Friday.

This happened for two reasons: first, citizens like you made your voices heard and, second, I and the other five Republican JCAR members held our ground.? We worked together to make an effective presentation against the Governor's emergency rule during that staff meeting.? Relationships and the quality of your arguments do occasionally matter in Springfield.

Is this the end?? Probably not.? The Democrats say they will file legislation that is more reasonable than the Governor's ill-conceived emergency rule.? And they have the votes to pass whatever they want.

But, at least for one day, the rule of law won in Illinois.

Sometimes, standing your ground works.? I hope that lesson is remembered during the next two days of this abbreviated session.?

Thanks for reading and S/F,

Paul Schimpf
http://www.schimpf4illinois.com/