Chambana Sun

State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) said the new House speaker is "absolutely a Madigan protégé," and his speech of moving Illinois forward is realistic.

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. 

"We also have to remember he was the chairperson of the special House Committee to investigate Madigan's fitness [to] remain speaker, and he's the person that shut down the committee without doing a thorough and complete investigation," Caulkins told the Chambana Sun. "I know since his selection, we've heard Welch give a hopeful speech, but I'm not so naïve as to believe that is actually the direction he's going to take us."

Madigan's ouster from the speaker role is potentially related to a Justice Department investigation. Federal authorities implicated Madigan as the alleged recipient of a years-long bribery scheme that included ComEd. The state's largest utility conceded to authorities of its involvement and was fined $200 million but did not admit wrongdoing. Madigan has not been charged and denied any wrongdoing. 

While Caulkins is reserving judgment about Welch, he has no doubt about why Democratic lawmakers finally soured on Madigan.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the last five years and all the negative publicity the party has received related to Madigan," he said. "I think they came to the conclusion that he was a political liability. You saw that in the way the progressive tax was recently shut down and the way the other side used Madigan as a reason to vote no and not trust government."