(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan on Wednesday blasted Republicans as they triggered creation of a legislative panel to examine a recent deferred prosecution agreement between ComEd and federal prosecutors.
Madigan, chairman on the Illinois Democratic Party, is implicated in a bribery scheme but has not been charged with wrongdoing. But the issue has proven difficult for Democrats, politically.
“I have worked with every member on this committee. I expect to have some very strident discussion, but I believe it’s going to be fair debate. And we’re going to get the job done,” says state Rep. Chris Welch, D-Hillside, who will chair the committee of three Republicans and three Democrats.
The special House committee will investigate the events that have the utility paying a $200 million penalty to the feds and whether Madigan should be disciplined, or even expelled.
Com Ed admitted bribery to get its way in the legislature.
In addition to Welch, the Democrats are Reps. Lisa Hernandez of Cicero and Natalie Manley of Joliet. The Republicans are Reps. Tom Demmer of Dixon, Deanne Mazzochi of Elmhurst and Grant Wehrli of Naperville.
Madigan has said little on the matter previously, beyond insisting he has never done anything improper as a legislative leader.
The statement his Speaker’s office issued Thursday went on at greater length, but mostly bashed Republicans whom he accused of trying to create a distraction.
“Like their president, the House Republicans know how to create a political circus, but time and again fail to show up when it’s time to govern,” Magidan is quoted as saying.
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, noted he's using rules of Madigan's creation to get the process going. And while he has asked for Madigan's resignation, Durkin said this is not about that.
"This is about addressing, I would say, the biggest problem we have in the state of Illinois, and that's the ethics which we must live up to and which the Speaker has refused to take up time and time again.”
Here is Madigan’s complete statement:
“When I learned that Minority Leader Jim Durkin and two Republican members requested the House of Representatives establish an investigative committee related to the ComEd deferred prosecution agreement, I immediately recused myself and designated House Majority Leader Greg Harris to handle all aspects of this matter.
“As I have stated previously, I have never made a legislative decision with improper motives. The notion that the passage of two consequential pieces of energy legislation was tied to the hiring or retention of a few individuals is seriously mistaken. Those bills had the broad support of Democrats and Republican members, other legislative leaders, labor supporters, consumer advocates, and environmentalists. The bills could not have passed without such broad support, and they were the product of years of deliberation, negotiations, and consensus building. Rep. Durkin knows this because Republican members and staff were directly involved in the negotiations of these bills. They witnessed firsthand that House Democrats challenged representatives of ComEd and Exelon on critical portions of their proposed bills. Rep. Durkin knows it, and all those actually involved in the process know it.
“The law does not prohibit members of the General Assembly from making job recommendations. If Rep. Durkin wants to question whether legislators should be allowed to make job recommendations, I encourage him to be transparent and disclose all of the jobs he has requested or lobbyists he has recommended over the years. He should also disclose the various actions he personally took to pass the energy bills, both in 2011 and 2016.
“The request by Rep. Durkin and his members is a political stunt only months away from one of the most consequential elections of our lifetimes. Republicans don’t want to focus on the fact that we have a federal administration that has used the White House to prop up Donald Trump’s wealthy campaign donors and friends at the expense of the American people. The Republicans don’t want people to focus on the nearly 200,000 COVID-19 deaths or the countless number of Illinoisans who have lost their jobs, healthcare coverage and retirement savings due to Trump’s mismanaged COVID-19 response. They certainly don’t want people to draw attention to the intense racial divisions Donald Trump relishes.
“I can’t identify one thing Rep. Durkin and the Illinois Republican Party have done to help Illinois residents struggling from a global pandemic and a weakened economy. Rather than focusing on ways to get us out of Donald Trump’s mess, Republicans have spent their time and dollars trying to convince people I am to blame for the type of corruption and unethical conduct Donald Trump emulates every day. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to convince people I am the problem so they don’t have to own up to their allegiance to Donald Trump and their political party. However, none of this is surprising, given that for four years Jim Durkin and the Illinois Republican Party sat on the sidelines and took millions of dollars from Bruce Rauner in exchange for their silence as Rauner tried to drive Illinois off a cliff and wage a war against Illinois’ working families.
“As they seek to distract and place blame, the Republicans are also working diligently to elect more Republicans in Springfield and suppress diverse Democratic voices in the 2021 redistricting process in order to install more pro-life and conservative members, backed by the influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
“Like their president, the House Republicans know how to create a political circus, but time and again fail to show up when it’s time to govern.”
