CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan on Thursday said he won’t step aside as chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party even after U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. JB Pritzker said he has become a political liability.
Madigan is embroiled in a federal investigation into influence-peddling in Springfield, though he has not been charged with wrongdoing.
Still, Pritzker, a fellow Democrat, said the whiff of scandal surrounding the veteran state lawmaker from Chicago likely had an impact at the polls this week. Madigan ally Thomas Kilbride was effectively bounced from the Illinois Supreme Court, and Pritzker’s income-tax overhaul failed to pass.
Sen. Durbin, a Democrat, expressed similar views Wednesday and indicated Madigan should step aside from his party leadership role.
“I agree with Sen. Durbin that opponents were able to tap into voters’ concerns about corruption and their lack of trust in government. There are real challenges there,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference Thursday.
Madigan stood fast, in a statement issued Thursday, that he’s not going anywhere. It reads:
“I am proud of my record electing Democrats who support workers and families and represent the diversity of our state. Together, we have successfully advanced progressive policies that have made Illinois a strong Democratic state with supermajorities in the legislature. Illinois is the anchor in the ‘blue wall’ that has been reconstructed in the Midwest, and I look forward to continuing our fight for working families as chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois.”
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