Mike Bost says Illinoisans ‘deserve better’ after feds connect Madigan to corruption
Southern Illinois Republicans said Democrats were entrenched in “embarrassing, systemic corruption” after revelations surfaced Friday connecting the longtime speaker of the state house to a bribery scheme.
The Chicago Sun-Times first reported Friday that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan had been implicated in a federal investigation into more than a million dollars in bribes from the state’s largest electric utility to Madigan associates.
Madigan has not yet been charged. But ComEd has agreed to pay a $200 million fine and admitted it asked the speaker for help with favorable legislation, the newspaper reported.
Members of the GOP congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro, U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville and U.S. Rep. John Shimkus of Collinsville, said in a statement that Illinoisans are “no strangers to corruption in our state’s politics.”
“The people of Illinois deserve better than Illinois Democrats’ embarrassing, systemic corruption,” they said.
State Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, said the investigation “paints a damning picture of Illinois government under House Speaker Michael Madigan and his allies.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker called on Madigan to resign if the allegations are true.
“This is very upsetting,” Pritzker said during a morning news conference in the northern Illinois city of Waukegan. “I think people who are in public service need to live up to the integrity of the job that they’re asked to do. If it turns out that these things are true, then he’s going to have to resign.”
The southern Illinois GOP members also connected Pritzker to corruption in Illinois, pointing to another article published Friday by the Sun-Times. It describes how federal prosecutors requested documents related to a property tax break for the governor’s Chicago mansion.
Ethics reform fail
Before the coronavirus pandemic effectively shut down the Illinois General Assembly, a bipartisan push for ethics reform was making headway among lawmakers and had support from the governor.
Metro-east legislators said it was to be among the top priorities in their regular session, which never got off the ground. COVID-19 hastily shut Springfield down, and General Assembly members didn’t return until late May, when they held a short special session to pass a budget and address pandemic issues.
Ethics reform was not on the agenda.
Earlier this week, Republicans statewide called on the legislature to bring ethics reform to the table, Capitol News Illinois reported Thursday. The first step, the GOP members said, would be to complete a report with proposals for major reform. The report from the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform was due in March.
This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 2:34 PM.
