Court Agrees On Hiring Monitor For IDOT

(Chicago, IL) -- A federal judge has agreed to the request of an anti-patronage watchdog and is appointing a monitor to oversee hiring at the state department of transportation. Attorney Michael Shakman called for the monitor after an inspector general's report and a watchdog group's investigation found evidence of politically-based hiring at IDOT. Governor Pat Quinn says he moved to end the practice as soon as he became aware of it, but challenger Bruce Rauner's campaign immediately seized on today's court decision to hammer Quinn as a "phony reformer." The Quinn campaign noted that the inspector general's report did not find the governor's office culpable in the hiring abuses.