Rock Island Today

State Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Sterline) urged Democrats in Springfield to take a look at the calendar as she and eight other Republican colleagues were ordered off the House floor on Thursday after refusing to wear masks during session.

“This isn't February of 2020,” McCombie said. “I didn't plan on being called out and taken from here. I literally yesterday, leaving the chamber, was in the elevator and there was a Dem staffer in there and out of courtesy said, 'Would you like us to mask?' I literally just walked over there and talked to a couple of your members and put my mask on because I was going to be within six feet of them. Mind your own business. Mitigate your own risk.”

According to Capitolfax.com, joining McCombie in being shown the door were Reps. Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City), Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville), Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich), David Welter (R-Morris), David Friess (R-Red Bud), Chris Miller (R-Oakland) and Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport).

After the nine were ousted, House Minority Leader Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Burr Ridge) took to the microphone to assert “clearly based on what we have seen outside of this chamber from the courts, and also from our schools, I think it is a legitimate question to ask, might we at least have a full hearing in front of one of our committees about mitigation efforts? We’ve been masking for two years. We requested science, data – we haven’t received it. We’re making informed decision about how we are to go about the business of the day which affects every one of us.”

The latest Springfield drama comes just days after Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow declared Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s masks mandate through the Illinois Department of Public Health “null and void.”

Grischow wrote, "statutory rights have attempted to be bypassed through the issuance of Executive Orders and Emergency Rules … This type of evil is exactly what the law was intended to constrain."

Grischow also recently ordered Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to appear in court on a contempt of court complaint.

"It is ordered that Mr. Pedro Martinez, as agent for the City of Chicago School District #299, and the Board of Education of City of Chicago School District #299, shall personally appear before this court and show cause as to why the defendants should not be held in contempt for failure to abide by and comply with this Court's prior order of February 04, 2022," Grischow’s Feb. 14 order notes.

The third largest school district in the country with over 347,000 students, CPS is one of 145 districts named as a defendant by parents fighting to end masking. Attorney Tom DeVore has gone on record with threats to sue CPS for not obeying a restraining order outlining that district cannot treat students who don’t mask differently from those who continue to do so.

Since Grischow’s ruling, a growing number of school districts have decided to become mask -optional.