Kane County Reporter

As the debate about a mock assassination of President Donald Trump that took place at a campaign fundraiser for state Sen. Martin Sandoval played out this week, state Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) thought about the people of Illinois.

“We’ve got to get back to where we’re talking to each other, trying to work things out, because if we don’t do that nothing's ever going to work,” Ugaste, still in his first term as state representative of the 65th District, told the Kane County Reporter. “No one should be doing that on either side.”

The controversy unfolded on April 16 at a MAS Havana Night Golf Clasico fundraiser for Sandoval in Winfield when a man posed with a fake rifle pointed at person in a costume of President Donald Trump wearing traditional Mexican clothing. The photos were later posted on online.

While Ugaste noted that Sandoval issued a public apology over the incident and insisted he played no part in it, he still stressed that situations like this still leave him convinced the way politics are done in Illinois has to change.

“Everyone’s pushing one way or the other and you never fully flush out ideas, possibly hear all sides, leaving the citizens as the real losers,” he said. “Maybe some ideas and proposals can be improved upon if we talk to one another and worked things out, like the increase with the minimum wage within the state. It went right to $15 an hour and there was no input at all from Republican lawmakers. I think there are things that could have been done to make on that issue to make the impact of the increase less harmful for many people.”