Illinois' newest State Senator was officially sworn in to office Thursday in front of family and supporters. Chuck Weaver took the Oath of Office at the Peoria County Courthouse.
He takes over for Darin LaHood in the 37th State Senate District. LaHood was elected to Congress last month.
Weaver will serve the remainder of the term, which ends January 2017.
After being sworn in, Weaver talked about working across party lines on issues such as education, jobs, infrastructure, and passing a budget.
“Our issues are not Republican/Democrat issues, they are about American issues and how do we get people back to work. I think that kind of message resonates,” Weaver said.
Weaver said he would seek input from leaders outside of government to help work with those issues. He said that includes churches, non-profits, and business leaders.
Weaver said he would focus on three areas of economic development to create jobs: access to money, the work force, and the global market.
Weaver said he would take a business mindset to try and work out the issues that are stalling the passage of a state budget.
“In a business setting it’s about how I am going to pay for it with regard to my human resources, in regard to my capital resources, what am I going to do about how to finance it, how am I going to handle the accounting behind it, what are the marketing elements to it, what are the projections with regard to how the impacts are going to be?” Weaver said.
Weaver said he would also contribute his State Senator salary to his Leaders Change Peoria initiative. He intends to shift to a statewide focus for the initiative.
Weaver said he's already preparing to run for a full-term next year.
“Absolutely I’ll be seeking re-election,” Weaver said. “I’m excited about doing that. And I’ve already got a team prepared to work on that.”
