He told most of them that his office had conducted an “informal investigation” into sexual harassment allegations against former Representative Harry Benton, D-Plainfield, in 2023. Welch also told WGN, “We had to respect the wishes of the survivor, even though she didn’t want to go through a formal complaint process.” And Welch told WGN last week that, while he regretted supporting Benton, “labor was a big advocate of Representative Benton. Any suggestion that Harry Benton — or any elected official — controlled labor’s support for a candidate or caucus is false. Labor did support Benton in 2024, and a big reason was that Benton’s Republican opponent was Gabby Shanahan.