City Room™ - News In Brief - Illinois Senate Dems, GOP Name New Leaders

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Illinois Senate Dems, GOP Name New Leaders
Produced by Ammad Omar on Thursday, November 20, 2008

Illinois Sen. John Cullerton yesterday at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Democrats and Republicans in the Illinois Senate have leadership this morning, after they decided on replacements for their departing leaders last night.

Chicago Democrat John Cullerton replaces outgoing Senate President Emil Jones, who announced his retirement in August.

Cullerton says he'll continue pushing a capital plan backed by Jones.

CULLERTON: When you have a recession like this the best thing, and this is what Barack Obama is doing, is trying to put together an infrastructure bill, try to put people back to work, and that's the number one priority.

Meanwhile, Republicans have tapped Lemont senator Christine Raodongno as the Chamber's minority leader.

RADOGNO: Our caucus is going to be about the issues that bring us together and the tax payers are interested in, and that is fiscal issues and taxes, and how we're going to give people opportutnites to succeed on their own.

Radogno is taking over for Frank Watson, who stepped down from his post while recovering from a stroke.