Two Illinois legislators are finalists for a bigger job in state government. Frank Mautino and Elaine Nekritz -- both Democrats in the Illinois House -- are among the finalists to be auditor general next year.
State Senator Jason Barickman, a Republican from Bloomington, is on the commission that helped narrow the field. Barickman says he's optimistic the next auditor general will be selected before the current one retires at the end of this year.
"We've tried to expedite our process; the result of that is we can have a transition period,” Barickman said. “The reality today is that we've got a very good auditor general in place with Bill Holland -- he runs a good operation. We want the next auditor general to have an opportunity to learn from that."
Two other individuals -- a local auditor from California and a southern Illinois lawyer -- are also in the final four. Ultimately, a super-majority of state legislators has to vote to choose the winning applicant.