A local State Senator turned gubernatorial hopeful may be filing a lawsuit against the Illinois Senate for the regular services he claims are being denied to him.
According to an article in the State Journal Register, State Senator Sam McCann of Plainview is saying the he’s being denied regular services provided by Senate staff, and hinted at potentially filing a lawsuit on behalf of his constituents to battle back against said denials.
The services McCann is referring to range from things like communications personnel to assist with writing bills and coordinate the movement of said bills through various committees to staff photographers, according to the SJR. These claims come just weeks after McCann’s announcement that he’s decided to run for Illinois governor as a third party candidate, specifically as a candidate of the Conservative Party.
In a statement to the Springfield paper, McCann calls these alleged actions “totally unconstitutional,” and says he believes that the “taxpayers need to know that…currently, in the 50th District, (they) are enduring taxation without representation.” In reference to the taxpayer dollars for Senate staff, McCann went on to say that those dollars are given to “the four caucus leaders so that they can distribute them to good little Democrats and good little Republicans.”
After the gubernatorial announcement, McCann said he’d resigned from serving as the top Republican on a Senate committee, but not from the GOP caucus. According to the SJR however, a spokesman for Senate GOP Leader Bill Brady said McCann had in fact resigned from the caucus as well, and that Brady had accepted that resignation.
McCann continued, saying, “If the Republican caucus wants to continue to deliver services, I will continue to serve as an elected Republican.” However, the Plainview Senator went on to say that if the Republican caucus decides to discontinue their delivery of services, that he “will go to court to make sure that those services get delivered.”
There’s no indication yet as to which specific court McCann would use, however he does expect action to be take “soon.”