Chambana Sun

Rep. Michael Marron shared his thoughts about Former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan on Nov. 1.

“I'm very happy to have Leader Durkin with me here in my district office,” he said. “I am very proud of the leadership role that Leader Durkin has taken over the last number of years, decades, in calling out the corruption of former speaker Madigan."

“As the federal investigation swirled around the former longtime speaker, we learned disturbing details about decades of corrupt behavior. Even when the considerable smoke with pointing to a corrupt fire it would eventually sweep speaker Madigan out of his job, the democrats stood strong for him. Leader Durkin signed a letter that created the house’s special investigating committee, which was supposed to take a deep dive into Madigan’s corruption. instead of doing its work, the committee, which was chaired by now-speaker Welch, was disbanded amid heavy criticism that Republicans were pulling a political stunt. I wonder what Speaker Welch would say when confronted with his comments from December 2020? At the time he called that committee a circus, a stunt, a sham. Now Mike Madigan has been indicted by the federal government, not only for corruption by ComEd, but recent news reports have revealed he corruptly influence other companies like AT&T to hire political cronies for no show jobs paying tens of thousands of dollars. The people of Illinoissuffered for years under the corrupt hyper-partisan Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan. We’ve seen now that our efforts to investigate his corruption were 100% warranted. The federal government is in the process of presenting their case that former speaker Madigan and Michael McClain shook down ComEd for the benefits of a bunch of political cronies, getting them no-show jobs in exchange for passage of favorable legislation. And now we've learned of similar corrupt demands with AT&T. I for one and happy that the corruption is being exposed, the people deserve so much better than the leadership they've gotten from former speaker Madigan and now speaker Welch, who is one of former Speaker Madigan’s chief enablers. How many more companies are out there that we’ve yet to learn about? How systemic was it? How many more lobbyists or regular people got shaken down? I’m proud to be sponsoring some of the toughest ethics reforms in the country, which includes Banning legislators from serving as lobbyists and empowering the legislative Inspector General to have subpoena power to ensure real investigations, can root out corruption now and in the future. The taxpaying citizens that we represent deserve a clean government that they can trust.”

The State Journal-Register reported Madigan resigned as House Speaker in February 2021 after 50 years in the Illinois House of Representatives. At the time that Madigan left the legislature, there was an ongoing probe of bribery and Commonwealth Edison. He had not been charged at that point.

Marron was first elected to the Illinois House in 2018. A Republican, their legislative experience includes serving on the Police & Fire Committee and Transportation: Regulation, Roads. Marron is a state representative who resides in Vermillion County, according to the Illinois House.

Madigan denied the allegations.

“I was never involved in any criminal activity,” he wrote in a statement to NBC. “The government is attempting to criminalize a routine constituent service: job recommendations. That is not illegal, and these other charges are equally unfounded.”

Madigan pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering and bribery charges on Nov. 1. The case is next scheduled for court on Nov. 17. Recently, AT&T agreed to pay $23 million in fines for trying to bribe Madigan on legislation.

Open Secrets noted both parties are filled with legislators accepting money from lobbyists. Open Secrets also noted Representative Darin LaHood, R-IL, receives $207,499 from lobbyists.

Madigan was indicted on 22 counts in March, including bribery and racketeering. Michael McClain was named as a co-defendant in the criminal activities.