Madigan’s House rules remain in place as Republicans demand change, accountability

[October 17, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Facing more corruption charges, former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s House rules are still in place. Minority Republicans are urging the new speaker to address the issue.

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, faces an additional corruption charge. Already facing 22 federal corruption charges, federal prosecutors on Friday charged Madigan in a case involving AT&T Illinois. They also charged the former president of the company on five counts.

“AT&T Illinois caused the payments to be made through an intermediary – a lobbying firm that performed services for AT&T Illinois – to conceal the true nature of the payments, which was to influence and reward Madigan’s efforts as Speaker to assist the company with respect to certain legislation,” federal prosecutors alleged Friday. "Although the members of the conspiracy formulated a pretextual assignment for Madigan’s ally to disguise why the ally was being paid, the ally performed no actual work for AT&T Illinois and had no role in advancing the legislation."

Madigan was charged with 22 counts in May in a case involving ComEd and fake jobs for his allies. Madigan has pleaded not guilty in the ComEd case.

Like ComEd’s agreement to pay $200 million in a deferred prosecution agreement in the Madigan-related case, AT&T Illinois will pay a $23 million fine.

“We hold ourselves and our contractors to the highest ethical standards,” a spokesperson for AT&T said in a statement Friday. “We are committed to ensuring that this never happens again.”

Just last month, state Sen. Emil Jones III, D-Chicago, was charged with bribery in a separate case involving a red light camera vendor. He’s pleaded not guilty. Prior to that, other former or current state lawmakers were charged with various federal crimes, including taking bribes to steer legislation one way or another.

Saint Xavier University professor David Parker said the spate of indictments is a win for the public.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan speaks at a press conference on June 29, 2017.
Image courtesy of BlueRoomStream

“The law absolutely prohibits these insiders, these politicians, from taking advantage of their positions at the expense of the public,” Parker told The Center Square.

He said the message to others working in the shadows should be clear.

“I think it’s a signal saying this is not kind of a one-off type of situation,” Parker said. “That the system does work, can work.”

State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said Madigan’s House Rules remain in place from his time as speaker and there’s still too much power in leaders’ hands to control the flow of legislation. He said the latest indictment against Madigan issued Friday shows how it works.

“When you centralize power in one person’s hand and take it out of the hands of the entire elected General Assembly [it] gives an individual like Mike Madigan the chance to be able to hold things hostage until he gets the kinds of payments or payoffs for himself or his associates that he’s looking for,” Demmer said during a virtual news conference.

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s office didn’t respond to that assertion, nor did they respond to House Minority Leader Jim Durkin’s question.

“Chris Welch, Mike Madigan’s handpicked successor, said the following at his swearing in, ‘the state will never be able to adequately thank Speaker Madigan for the job he has done.’ Does Speaker Welch still hold this belief,” said Durkin, R-Western Springs. “The people of Illinois deserve to know the answer.”

Durkin expects more indictments of others in the “next few months,” saying it could even reach into Madigan’s last act passing the controversial SAFE-T Act and its cashless bail provision.

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.