SE Illinois News

Republican state House candidate Paul Jacobs has cast his attention on the federal corruption probe House Speaker Mike Madigan now finds himself ensnared in.

"Without the federal investigation going forward we probably will not see anything happen to Mr. Madigan,” Jacobs told the SE Illinois News. “I believe Madigan will probably not be brought up on any charges through the State of Illinois, but rather we will have to wait for the federal indictments and investigation to be completed.”

Jacobs, now running in the 115th House District, insists he isn’t at all surprised to see Madigan publicly declare that he has no intention of appearing before the Special House committee recently convened to look into some of his most suspect behavior. 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.”

“As always, when dealing with the Democratic stronghold in the state House, the Republicans are again stymied by the Democrat Party’s disingenuous refusal to allow the committee to subpoena Mr. Madigan and others,” Jacobs added. “I can just hope that the citizens of Illinois are beginning to pay attention to what is actually going on in Springfield and hopefully make changes that will benefit our state.”

Jacobs insists he also finds Madigan’s patronage position to be totally off base.

“I feel it’s rather disingenuous for the speaker to say that procuring jobs for people is a duty,” he said. “These jobs have often come with paybacks in the form of donations to his campaign or campaigns he officiates over. When you speak of that process being legal, I find it very disconcerting. I find it very difficult to say it is not unethical at the very least and probably illegal at the very most.”