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Weller says he won't seek eighth term in U.S. House

Posted September 20, 2007 11:00 pm

Adriana Colindres

Citing a desire to spend more time with his wife and their 1-year-old daughter, U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, announced Friday that he would not seek re-election next year to an eighth term in Congress.

Recent news articles have spotlighted Weller, raising questions about his ethics. The Chicago Tribune, for instance, reported this month that Weller did not fully disclose his property holdings in Nicaragua, as U.S. House ethics rules require. A group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington this week included Weller in its list of "22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress."

Weller, 50, did not directly address the news reports when he announced his retirement during a speech at a Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

But in an e-mailed response to a reporter's inquiry, Weller spokesman Andy Fuller later said that "nothing that has been printed in the past couple weeks (or ever, for that matter) influenced this decision."

In the speech, Weller praised his wife, Zury, as an "international leader" and "a loving and devoted mother." Zury Rios Weller, daughter of a former Guatemalan dictator, serves as a member of congress in that Central American country.

She and Weller married in 2004 in Guatemala, becoming parents of a daughter in August 2006.

"Over the years, my wife and I have struggled to balance our legislative responsibilities with our commitment to family," Weller told the Joliet crowd Friday, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. "When it was just the two of us, it was a lot easier, but now we have a little one and we must balance family life even more.

"Frankly, it has been a difficult balance."

Weller said he and his wife decided earlier in the summer that he would not seek another term.

"At this time, my wife, my child - my family - must come first," he added. "I've given half of my life to public service, a total of 25 years out of my 50."

Before getting elected to Congress for the first time in 1994, Weller served as an Illinois state representative for six years. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1981 to 1985.

Weller becomes the third Republican congressman from Illinois to announce retirement plans. The others who won't run for re-election in 2008 are former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Plano and Ray LaHood of Peoria.

Weller's departure sets the stage for a wide-open race next year in the 11th Congressional District he presently represents. The district consists of all of LaSalle, Grundy and Kankakee counties, most of Bureau and Will counties, roughly the western half of McLean County and pieces of eastern and southern Woodford County.

One of Weller's potential successors is state Sen. Christine Radogno, a Lemont Republican who ran for state treasurer last year. She lost in the November general election to Democrat Alexi Giannoulias.

"There's no question I'm looking at it," Radogno said. "This is an opportunity that doesn't come up often."

Radogno's state Senate term will expire in early 2009. She must choose between running for the U.S. House and running for re-election to the Illinois Senate.

Others who already had said they planned to run for the 11th District seat include Republican Jason King of Bloomington; Democrat Jerry Weber, who is president of Kankakee Community College; and Green Party candidate Jason Wallace.

Also among the prospective GOP contenders is Tim Balderman, mayor of New Lenox, according to the (Joliet) Herald News.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.

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