Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch is turning to one of his favorite tools to formulate policy solutions–a Democrat-only private working group–in the wake of criticism over his office’s handling of a sexual harassment complaint against a member and his own behavior on social media. But it is already off to a rocky start.
While Welch shared with Capitol News Illinois who would chair the group, his office hadn’t published the full list of lawmakers who’d be in it as of Thursday.
Instead, the list was informally disclosed early Wednesday in a social media post by an outside political ally of Welch.
One of the members purportedly named to the group, Representative Kelly Cassidy of Chicago, issued a statement Wednesday saying she would not participate in the working group because she was not assured that the effort was merely for public relations.
