SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday urged the Illinois General Assembly’s watchdog to move more quickly in its investigation into allegations against a Democratic state representative who was stripped of key caucus duties two months ago by House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch without any explanation.
State Rep. Harry Benton of Plainfield was removed from eight committee assignments and other House Democratic caucus duties in late February. Welch has refused to explain the decision, but a source familiar with the situation told the Tribune the allegations were of a sexual harassment nature. A second source told the Tribune that House Democrats were informed privately that the matter was being handled by the Illinois Legislative Inspector General’s office.
At an unrelated event on Tuesday, Pritzker said he “would like the LIG to work faster” in the Benton case.
“This thing has been going on for months now. We should already have had some kind of report to the leadership, and there should already have been some action,” the governor said. “That should happen truly soon … so that we know how, I think the voters want to know how to proceed. I think that the legislature wants to know how to proceed. And obviously, you know, someone who’s been accused, you know, deserves due process, but I think this is taking longer than anybody expected.”
Reached by the Tribune on Tuesday, Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey would only say, “Everything I do is confidential,” and declined to comment further.
Last week, Welch reluctantly broke his silence on his decision to strip Benton of his caucus duties, but acknowledged for the first time that the rights of “victims” were involved, while declining to discuss specifics. He initially deflected questions from reporters after a House session.
“We’re not going to have that topic of conversation today. We’re going to talk about what happened here today,” Welch said on April 22, expressing his desire to talk about bills that passed through the House that day. But when pressed, he elaborated.
“At the proper time, that information will come out. So there is a process in place. You’ve heard me say this before. People are entitled to due process,” Welch said, without confirming the nature of the allegations against Benton or that they were being handled by the legislative inspector general’s office. “There is a process in place that guarantees every one of us due process. And we’re going to allow that process to play out, and I think part of that is not coming out and speaking to the press about something, and folks are entitled to due process.”
Welch alluded to the importance of protecting victims’ rights, saying, “But (I) also want to underscore something very important, and we shared this with the caucus. We also have to talk about victims, and what they’re entitled to.”
“Coming out and talking to reporters about a process that’s ongoing is not the proper thing to do. And so, we’re going to respect due process. We are going to respect victims. We’re going to respect people’s rights,” Welch said.
It was Welch’s first public comment on Benton’s status, a silence that drew criticism from the Illinois House Republican Organization, the House GOP’s campaign arm. The GOP group has accused Welch of failing to be transparent about why he removed Benton from his committee assignments and other caucus duties.
Benton, who has worked as an ironworker and served in the House since 2023, faces Republican Gabby Shanahan in a November rematch. In 2024, Benton won that race by more than 2,300 votes out of close to 53,000 ballots cast, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Gorner reported from Chicago.
