SOUTHERN ILLINOIS - A local legislator has decided it is just not the time for him to seek Illinois' second-highest seat.

State Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, said he has retired the idea of running for lieutenant governor, thrown his support behind a fellow House member and has decided his best course of action, for the moment, is addressing a monolith of controversy waiting for legislators in Springfield.

Bost said when he returns to the capital next week he hopes to get to work on several major issues facing Southern Illinois, particularly medical malpractice, methamphetamine and the state budget.

Bost said he has shelved his own aspirations for the lieutenant governor race and thrown his support behind Springfield House Republican Raymond Poe, who plans to begin a campaign combining politics and good food at local fairs later this year. His decision was largely his own, Bost said.

"I'm out because it's a timing thing," Bost said. "(Poe) is to the point in life he wants to do it and he wants to throw it all out there."

Bost he feels his place right now is helping get the state through what could potentially be a "blood-letting" legislative session.

With two months left for the regular spring session, Bost said most major issues facing the state have gone almost untouched.

The medical malpractice crisis and the methamphetamine epidemic hold particularly strong ties to Southern Illinois, and Bost said they are largely being ignored by the state leadership because of it.

"They're not doing much with the methamphetamine problem, because they say they don't have that problem in Chicago," he said. "That's about the way it is with medical malpractice."

Bost said that kind of attention doesn't cut it for a problem many local law enforcement authorities deal with on a daily basis.

He said he's jumped into action on both medical malpractice and methamphetamine.

Bost is co-sponsoring a House bill on malpractice that mirrors State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld's Senate Bill 150.

Bost said the blueprint for the bill is solid, even if the legislature doesn't agree on every single part.

In addressing the meth epidemic, Bost sits on the House Republican Methamphetamine Crisis Task Force, which has developed legislation to increase penalties for meth users and establishes a statewide drug court system for the issue.

Bost described the mood in Springfield as "different" from last year's session, which went into overtime setting up a state budget. He said the public may see legislators in Springfield until August this year, as budget issues have grown even more complicated.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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