SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers voiced a wide range of reactions Wednesday following former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s conviction on multiple federal corruption charges.
Republicans, who have long complained about his style of leadership, amplified their call for broader ethics reform in the Capitol while Democrats tried to put the Madigan era behind them and shift their focus to the future.
“We all knew this day was coming,” House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said at a virtual news conference.
Madigan, the longest serving legislative leader in U.S. history, was convicted of bribery and conspiracy. Most of the counts for which he was convicted related to him allegedly seeking favors, such as no-work contracts for his allies, from officials at utility giant Commonwealth Edison in exchange for his support for favorable legislation. After being convicted on 10 charges, Madigan was found not guilty on seven others, while the jury deadlocked on the six remaining charges shared by him and his co-defendant, former lobbyist Mike McClain.
Madigan was sometimes known to be a thorn in Illinois governors’ sides. Former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner once claimed “I am not in charge,” when talking about Madigan. But Madigan wasn’t a major barrier to Gov. JB Pritzker, who only served two years alongside the now-convicted ex-speaker.
“The Madigan verdict by a jury of everyday Illinoisans is an important message to anyone in government — or those thinking about public service — that if you choose corruption you will be found out, and you will be punished,” Pritzker said in a statement.
House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, ascended to the speakership in January 2021 after Madigan lost support from enough House Democrats to doom his reelection bid. According to the Tribune, Madigan called Welch after it was clear he lost support to ask if he would want to become speaker.
Welch had protected Madigan in the year prior after Republicans sought to oust him from office for “conduct unbecoming of a legislator” via a special House investigating committee.
The House GOP launched that effort after ComEd was charged with handing out favors to Madigan allies in an attempt to gain support from Madigan on legislation. But Welch, who was appointed by Madigan’s majority leader to chair the committee, voted with two fellow Democrats to shut down the investigation, calling it a “sham show trial.” Republicans accused him of protecting Madigan from discipline more than a year before he was charged with crimes related to his relationship with ComEd.
“I have always believed that a court of law was the place for this to be all sorted out,” Welch said in a statement. “Today’s outcome leaves me with great appreciation and respect for our legal system. Investigators, prosecutors, and a jury of Illinoisans did their job.”
Welch, who began his third term as speaker in January, said House Democrats are now “focused on delivering for working people.”
Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, who helped initiate the committee to investigate Madigan, criticized Welch’s leadership of the committee at a news conference on Wednesday.
“Our efforts could have put a stop to this situation many years ago if we had cooperation from the majority party to support ethics reform and to investigate the pattern of corruption that has now been on full display for Speaker Mike Madigan,” Spain said at the news conference.
Democrats shift focus
Madigan was also the longtime chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois. As party chair, he was able to direct campaign contributions to help Democrats win their races and grow a majority in the Illinois House, a majority that has remained intact since the mid-1990s.
Democratic Party of Illinois Chair Lisa Hernandez said in a statement her “focus has been on building a more transparent, accountable, and people-focused party” since she took over in 2022 after U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly succeed Madigan in 2021.
“Public service is a responsibility, not a privilege, and those who break the public trust must be held accountable, no matter who they are,” Hernandez said.
Republican party leaders said Democrats are not absolved of their ties to their former party chair as many can credit their electoral victories to Madigan.
“Make no mistake: nearly every Democrat in Illinois has benefitted from Madigan’s corruption in some way, and they have all been willing to sell their souls for hefty donations and the support of the political machine Madigan built,” Illinois Republican Party Chair Kathy Salvi said in a statement.
Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, had been outspoken in the final years of Madigan’s tenure about the handling of sexual harassment issues in the Democratic Party of Illinois and bullying in the House. Her name came up early in the trial as prosecutors dug into the inner workings of the House and Madigan’s circle.
“That there will be some measure of accountability for the decades of abuse of power and corruption is critically important and will have implications for our state government for generations,” Cassidy said in a statement. “Particularly in a moment when our federal government has been subsumed by blatantly corrupt forces, we need our state government to be trustworthy to the public and focused on the will of the people, not self-interest.”
Cassidy was one of 19 House Democrats who put the final nail in the coffin of Madigan’s speakership in 2021 by opposing his reelection as speaker, ultimately forcing him to bow out of the race and, shortly after, resign from the House. The group opposed Madigan’s handling of harassment allegations and shared concerns about a possibly corrupt relationship between Madigan and ComEd.
Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, briefly challenged Madigan for the speakership in 2021.
“It’s clear we have unequivocally moved away from the practices of the past, which put politics before people,” Williams said in a statement to Capitol News Illinois. “It is time to put this chapter behind us as we face incredibly difficult challenges as a state and nation.”
Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said the “verdict is a sobering reminder that our work is never finished.”
“The jury’s verdict closes a long, disturbing chapter in Illinois’ history,” Harmon said in a statement. “It’s a stark reminder that corruption, abuse of power and manipulation of public policy for personal gain can never be tolerated. We cannot be effective if people don’t trust us.”
Republicans call for reform
House Republicans said Madigan’s legacy continues to live on in the House rules, which govern how the House operates.
“The issue at the heart of the ComEd scandal here and these convictions had to do with the unchecked ability of Mike Madigan to decide whether or not a bill would be considered for a vote by the House,” Spain said.
Republicans want changes to the House rules to make it easier for members to influence which bills get called for votes.
They also argued more ethics reform is needed, such as providing more power to the legislative inspector general and enacting more restrictions to make it harder for a legislator to resign their office and immediately become a lobbyist.
“We cannot afford to have federal prosecutors continue to enforce our weak ethics laws, regardless of what Speaker Welch feels,” McCombie said.
(Reporting by: BEN SZALINSKI and PETER HANCOCK, Capitol News Illinois)
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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