The two-year Illinois state budget mess has prompted the Senate minority leader to call it quits.
Lemont Republican Sen. Christine Radogno is the first woman to lead a caucus of the Illinois General Assembly. She issued a statement Thursday that she will step down as senator on Saturday.
The 64-year-old Radogno said, "I have done everything I can do to resolve the state's budget crisis.''
She worked with Senate President John Cullerton to fashion a wide-ranging budget compromise to break the long-running stalemate with GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner. But she could not convince her 21 other Republican senators to vote for key parts of it.
Radogno is a social worker who was elected to the Senate in 1996. She and Cullerton took leadership of their respective caucuses the same day in 2009.
