SE Illinois News

State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) has a wait-and-see attitude when evaluating what changes Mike Madigan’s ouster as House speaker means for Springfield.

“It’s certainly something we’ve been looking forward to, and anytime change comes to Illinois is really a good thing,” Bailey told the SE Illinois News. “But, in this case, only time will tell if Madigan’s truly separated from power. We know how smart and cunning he can be. We’ll have to see if he’s still the guy pulling the purse strings.”

On Jan. 13, the Democratic-led House tapped Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch to replace Madigan, who had held the post for 36 years out of the last 38 years. Welch became the state’s first Black House speaker.

Pressure mounted to move away from Madigan after he was implicated in an ongoing federal investigation about alleged brides that also involved ComEd. The utility company was fined $200 million. Madigan has not been charged with a crime and denied any wrongdoing. The U.S. Justice Department is leading the investigation.

In the case of Welch, Bailey said he is hoping for the best.

“I have a relationship with Speaker Welch, and I’ll be encouraging him to work toward us finding ways to work together,” he said. “Right now, there’s none of that in Springfield, and he has a chance to change that. You can tell if he’s serious about that by how he chooses to involve republicans in what the chamber decides to do.”

While Welch has close ties to Madigan and faced multiple accusations in court documents of harassing, assaulting and retaliating against women, Bailey said it’s not hard to understand why a growing number of Democratic lawmakers finally tired of Madigan. No wrongdoing was found, and the cases dropped, the Associated Press reported.

“He’s got lots of interests, so I think some of them were feeling like their voices weren’t being heard,” he said. “It’s like Republicans always feel.