By 2002, Sandoval was a commissioner of the
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago; he ran for election to commissioner and to state senator at the same time.
Illinois Senate Sandoval was elected in 2002 as state senator and was then sworn into office in 2003. Sandoval was part of the Illinois Senate leadership. As of 2019, Sandoval was the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and of the Special Committee on Supplier Diversity; Sub-Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Capital; and a member of the Energy and Public Utilities, Higher Education, and Licensed Activities committees and the Special Committee on Pension Investments. Photos from the event were posted on Facebook the next day showing a mock assassination of President
Donald Trump. In the photo, a man wearing the Trump mask appears to grab his chest and lean back as if being shot by a man holding an ersatz assault rifle. Also posted were separate images of Sandoval standing with the man who held the gun in the contentious photo. The pictures sparked outrage online and condemnation from Illinois Governor
J. B. Pritzker; Sandoval released a statement apologizing for the "unacceptable" actions of the guests at his event. In May 2019, Sandoval introduced legislation that proposed to increase the annual registration fee for electric vehicles from $17.50 to $1,000.00, which would have raised about $2.4 billion in annual funding.
Corruption On September 24, 2019, Sandoval's offices in the
Illinois State Capitol building and his regional office in both Springfield and Cicero were raided by federal agents from the
FBI and
IRS. The same day two officials were seen exiting Sandoval's house to get hand trucks to take inside. Sandoval at first refused to comment on the situation. Federal agents involved in the raid were seeking a vast array of information involving construction, transportation and power company officials, lobbyists, gambling interests, a red-light camera company, and at least three suburban mayors. He confirmed that he had taken more than $250,000 in bribes, Despite this, it was never made clear if Sandavol's cooperation had contributed to this ComEd crackdown, with Sandoval never being criminally charged for anything connected to ComEd. However, it was also noted that in November 2020, the same month the four ComEd figures were criminally charged, that prosecutors had stated in a court filing that they intended to make use of Sandoval's cooperation for "at least several more months," stating that Sandoval "has been fully compliant with the conditions of his release and has provided valuable cooperation that is expected to last at least several more months." ==Personal life and death==