Lake County Gazette

The ongoing sexual harassment scandal in Springfield is serving as motivation to GOP state House candidate Ken Idstein.

"Yesterday, activist Maryann Loncar became the most recent women to allege sexual harassment by the political elites in Springfield,” Idstein, who is running against Rep. Sam Yingling (D-Grayslake) in the 62nd District, recently posted on Facebook. “I am running for office because doing the right thing is simple. With these new allegations against Lou Lang, will Yingling do the right thing and return the $52,000 in campaign contributions he received from Lang?”

The Prairie State Wire has previously reported that Loncar went public with allegations of sexual harassment against Lang (D-Skokie) one day after he helped broker the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the state House.

Lang has since resigned from his leadership role as deputy majority leader. Previously, similar accusations were brought against fellow Democratic state Sen. Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) by activist Denise Rotheimer. Additionally, a former campaign aide for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) made similar accusations against Kevin Quinn, a political operative for Madigan.

Idstein fingered Yingling of also being part of the problem.

“For months after allegations of retaliation and sexual harassment were made against Mike Madigan, Yingling has refused to call on Speaker Madigan to resign,” he added on Facebook. “Yingling has refused to pledge not to vote for Madigan or take money for him. Simply put, Yingling has refused to do the right thing. Doing the right thing is simple, and so is accountability. It is time to hold Yingling, Madigan and Lang accountable."