His decision to back equal marriage in January set off a firestorm of criticism from colleagues, but former Republican Chairman Pat Brady is taking that support a step further.
Brady has been hired by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to lobby for the passage of equal marriage legislation in Illinois, Ed Yohnka, a spokesperson for the ACLU of Illinois confirmed.
"Our national ACLU office has hired him to help us work on marriage in Illinois, including advising us on doing outreach both to members and to Republican voters who we know from polling increasingly support the freedom to marry," Yohnka told Windy City Times. "We thought that he could provide some guidance and advice and some contacts for us that would be helpful in feeding into the campaign."
Yohnka said that Brady was already a few days into the job.
Brady made national headlines during the January veto session when he came out in support of same-sex marriage, during a push to pass equal marriage legislation. Brady faced calls for resignation from Republican colleagues and ouster attempts over that stance.
He resigned his post in May, but cited his wife's battle with cancer for his reason for stepping down.
Republican votes could be crucial in the campaign to pass equal marriage legislation in Illinois after the Democratic-majority House failed to build enough support to call for a vote on the bill in May.
Yohnka said that advocates are seeing movement on both sides of the aisle, however.
"We see momentum really across the board," he said.