After 24 years in the House and nine as GOP leader, Western Springs lawmaker laments former President Trump's influence on Republicans.
had been expected. The Republican leader for the 103rd General Assembly will be
“I hope that at some point in the near future, and I think we’re getting there, that the party breaks its fever of Donald Trump and understands and learns from the past. Some people will never get there,” he said. Durkin became friends with the late U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, even serving as his Illinois director in the 2008 presidential campaign against home-state favorite Barack Obama.
in Oak Park. After studying criminal justice at Illinois State University, Durkin received a law degree from John Marshall Law School and went to work for the Illinois attorney general’s office and later the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.In 1995, local Republican leaders appointed Durkin to fill the House seat vacated by Tom Walsh, who was moving to the state Senate. Durkin opted not to seek reelection in 2002 and won a three-way primary to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.
Years before he became leader, Durkin saw his status elevated by Madigan, who picked the Republican former prosecutor to chair a special committee to investigate prosecutorial misconduct amid disclosures of misconduct and wrongful convictions. The House approved the panel’s recommendations but the legislation that ensured failed in the Republican-controlled Senate, only to be largely adopted a few years later amid a number of Tribune reports of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases.
for his work on legislation to ban deception during the interrogation of a minor in a criminal investigation.But Durkin has been a vehement opponent of the Democrat-backed criminal justice reform law known as the SAFE-T Act and its provision to eliminate cash bail. The law, which has been
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