Illinois rep: ‘I’m not going anywhere’

Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), who has been dogged by allegations of ethics violations for over a month, said Wednesday night he won’t be heeding calls from conservative commentators for his resignation.

“I would simply say these are the same groups who have called on John Boehner and Mitch McConnell to step down,” the Illinois Republican told a group at the Peoria Heights-Suburban Lions Club, according to the Peoria Journal Star.

{mosads}“So, they’re people who fundamentally have never supported me and probably won’t ever support me — and, unfortunately for them, I’m not going anywhere.”

His comments follow demands for his resignation from several conservative writers, including Red State’s Erick Erickson and National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke. Schock brushed off their criticism on Wednesday.

“I don’t take my marching orders from Erick Erickson; I take my marching orders from the 750,000 people in the 18th District, who spoke rather loudly a few months ago,” he said.

Schock has been contending with allegations of ethical violations since last month, when it was revealed that he had paid for a lavish office redecoration out of taxpayer funds. He later paid for the decoration effort himself, but reporters began to dig into Schock’s finances after the story.

In the ensuing weeks, it was reported that Schock took trips abroad without following House disclosure rules, might have taken staff members to New York for a trip where they did little official business and improperly billed his campaign for “software,” when the expense was actually a flight to a Chicago Bears game on the private jet of a software executive.

Schock said last week that he was bringing in an outside accountant to monitor his office’s funds. He has also retained lawyers from a Washington firm and a crisis communications team to help him handle the fallout from the allegations.