Wednesday's conviction of former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan has brought more calls from Republican lawmakers to root out corruption in state government.
Madigan served as speaker for 36 years. His reign ended in 2021 when he lost support from House members following a bribery investigation. He was later charged with corruption for his part in a bribery scheme with utilities provider ComEd and attempting to give a Chicago alderman a state board job.
Republican State Rep. Ryan Spain of Peoria was one of the lawmakers who pushed to have a committee investigate Madigan for bribery.
Spain said the verdict shows there is a culture of corruption in in the General Assembly, meaning lawmakers need to enact more ethics reform.
“So today, it's clear with this verdict, we have to change the way we do business in the state of Illinois,” Spain said during a news conference after the verdict. “We have to ... do away with this culture of corruption that continues to persist in our state house.”
Spain also said the structure of the House is built on Madigan’s playbook — particularly the use of House rules and gerrymandering.
“The rules of the House were written by Mike Madigan,” Spain said. “The legislative districts were drawn by Madigan staffers. It's the same amount of absolute power perfected through the Madigan playbook, the 13th Ward playbook, that is still consolidated in the office of the speaker. “
Current speaker Chris Welch also came under fire from Spain, who alleged that Welch got his position by defending Madigan from being investigated further.
Welch, as committee chairman, ended the investigation in early December 2020, leaving Madigan free to run again for speaker. But he lost support among a faction of Democrat lawmakers. A month later, Welch was nominated as speaker with unanimous support from Democrats.
Welch, said Spain, "called the process a sham. He chose to end the investigation that we convened after just hearing from one witness, and in return, he was rewarded with becoming the next speaker of the House in the state of Illinois."
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said the verdict against Madigan 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 also called for ongoing vigilance on cleaning up government, but did not go into specifics.
Rep. Chung's views
Democrat state Rep. Sharon Chung of Bloomington agreed, saying the guilty verdict is a sign of justice served.
“It shows that the system is working,” said Chung, who was elected to the Illinois House after Madigan left the speakership.
Chung said she is not opposed to additional ethics reform, but contends some reforms in the last few years have helped root out corruption.
“We as a caucus are pretty serious about trying to put a lot of that behind us, and [of] trying to sort of put a new page forward,” she said.
Members of the General Assembly must take an annual ethics training program and follow stricter financial disclosure rules, said Chung. There also is a law restricting lawmakers from becoming lobbyists until they've been out of office for six months. Republicans have called for a stricter revolving door policy.
And the House speaker cannot serve in that role for more than 10 years — a rule lawmakers enacted after Madigan left the speakership.
Chung also said she and the representatives who arrived after Madigan resigned want a fresh start.
“A lot of us are ready to put that behind us,” she said, “the reputation that Illinois has of being corrupt. And we've had both Democratic and Republican governors and lawmakers be accused and found guilty of various crimes. And so, it's not just one party.”
Chung also said criticism directed at Welch and the connection to the Madigan playbook is just politics.
“They can try and connect everybody,” Chung said. “I mean, I bet people have tried to connect me to Michael Madigan, but I've never met the man before, and so I think at least, how I see it is that speaker Welch, the House , they voted, they all unanimously voted on speaker Welch to be the speaker.”
