SE Illinois News

A downstate lawmaker senses longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan is now running scared as a federal corruption probe he already finds himself at the center of continues to unfold around him.

“He knows there are many things he can’t answer for,” state Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) told the SE Illinois News. “On his watch, corruption in Springfield has completely skyrocketed out of control."

With a bipartisan Special House committee now convened to look into some of the speaker’s more questionable behavior related to the ongoing ComEd federal corruption probe, Madigan recently let it be known he has no intention of answering questions about his suspected involvement before the bipartisan panel. The state’s longest-tenured lawmaker made his feelings clear in a three-page letter he sent to committee members in which he also forcefully defended his widely known practice of patronage hiring as not “ethically improper.”

“I’m not the least bit surprised that he won’t show up,” Bailey added. “I won’t be surprised if the fall veto session doesn’t happen as it would because the speaker knows ethics reform is what everyone wants to talk about and he doesn’t want any part of that.”

As for Madigan’s view on patronage hiring, Bailey argues it serves as just another example of how the speaker has been in power for far too long.

“For him to take the position he has is a reminder of how power can blind and how the speaker has come to fail to see the errors of his ways," Bailey said. "The way he governs the state is the same way he continues to choke out the taxpayers here in Illinois.”

In the end, Bailey said Springfield is in desperate need of new leadership and he’s happy to see state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit recently step up to challenge Madigan for House speaker.

“I hope it’s real and not just smoke and mirrors, because what we really need is for Madigan to go,” he said.