Peoria Standard

Rep.-elect Bill Hauter (R) has been appointed to represent District 87 for the upcoming lame-duck session in the House. 

After winning the general election in November, Hauter was initially set to take his seat when the next General Assembly convenes later in January, but Rep. Keith Sommer (R-Bloomington) is resigning. 

“Last night, I was proud to Chair the 88th Legislative District Committee to appoint Rep. - Elect Bill Hauter to the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Keith Sommer," Tazewell County Republican Party Chairman Jim Rule posted on Facebook. “Rep. - Elect Hauter will be inaugurated and sworn in for the 103rd General Assembly on January 11th. It only made sense to appoint him to the open seat in the Lame Duck session of the 102nd General Assembly."

Rule presumed "the controversial HB5855 will come up for debate and a vote during the Lame Duck. Although it is likely to pass, the citizens of the 88th district who reside in Tazewell and McLean Counties will now have a strong voice in opposition.” 

“Rep. - Elect Hauter has large shoes to fill and we all thank Rep. Keith Sommer for his exceptional service to the 88th District and to the state of Illinois. Rep. Sommer's last day will be December 31st,” Rule said. 

Hauter, a Peoria physician will be the only doctor in the General Assembly. During his run, he said masking in schools has had a negative effect on students and was not a sound public health policy. “You're asking them to undertake a public health measure in extremely low-risk populations. That is not effective. It's not done universally. And the last thing is when you do this in a low-risk population, you say, does it have any side effects because it better to not have any side effects in a low-risk population,” Hauter told the Peoria Standard. “So we found out quickly that there were side effects. The side effects were that there was isolation. There were changes in personality. There were learning delays. Kids should not have something on their face around each other. It's just not how humans live. That's not how we are. We're interactive, we take cues, we learn verbally, and all these things happen. So there was side effects to it. So I just think it was wrong to have masks on kids in school, especially because they're such a low-risk population.”

Democratic lawmakers are seeking to pass HB5855, which would result in the banning of several types of firearms and accessories. Opponents say the bill may do more harm to gun control proponents' efforts than good for gun reformers. Guns Save Life founder John Boch spoke out against the legislation. He said that HB 5855 would criminalize the owners of semi-automatic weapons and will bring out pro-gun sentiment. “I think this bill is going to be what’s gonna wake up the sleeping giants who say ‘hey, no, we’ve had enough. You never are satisfied by taking little pieces so we’re going to take a bigger chunk of the pie back this time,’” Boch told WMAY, Lake County Gazette reported. “(Sponsor Rep.) Bob Morgan (D-Deerfield) is going to lose in court, and not only is he going to lose this, but I anticipate he’s going to get a whole lot of Illinois gun laws that are currently on the books struck, and that’s going to lead to a much safer society for all of us from criminals.”

HB5855 opponents have argued the legislation will criminalize regular Illinoisans and have little effect on criminals. “I would say it’s somewhere between two and 10 million magazines, and it’s a massive impact,” Dan Eldridge, of the gun dealers’ association Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois told The Center Square. “These are the standard magazines that come with a duty-sized pistol even, they’re the standard magazines that come with a rifle. These are not aftermarket extended capacity magazines.” 

“With an immediate effective date, mere possession of a – and I’m not going to use their words, I’m going to use accurate words – mere possession of a standard-capacity magazine is a crime," Eldridge added. "There’s no getting around that. So you’ve got Second Amendment issues. You’ve got Fourth Amendment issues. You’ve got Fourteenth Amendment issues. You can’t do this.”