Kane County Reporter

Republican state House hopeful Ben Bierly views a bipartisan Special House committee’s difficulty in getting House Speaker Mike Madigan to cooperate with a probe into some of his more questionable actions as an indictment against the system.

“This is a sad commentary on the inability of our elected officials to be able to hold one of their own accountable to the people,” Bierly told the Kane County Reporter. “Madigan does not respect the committee because he knows they ultimately won’t be able to arrive at a consensus.”

Madigan recently let it be known he has no intention of answering questions about his suspected involvement before the bipartisan panel. The state’s longest-tenured lawmaker made his feelings clear in a three-page letter he sent to committee members in which he also forcefully defended his widely known practice of patronage hiring as not “ethically improper.”

Running against Democrat John Connor in the 43rd District, Bierly sees things totally different when it comes to patronage.

“The Pendleton Act killed the spoils system in federal employment and should apply to the state level as well,” he said. “There’s a difference between recommending someone to a job and making deals to get that person hired. Once you start cutting deals to get your friends in jobs, you’ve breeched the trust of the people. Slimy as hell.”

Bierly said it comes as no surprise to him that Democrat committee members have refused to join Republicans in seeking to subpoena Madigan to appear.

“I expected nothing less,” he said. “The Democrats are not there to get to the bottom of Madigan’s actions. The committee is taken seriously by the Republicans and the Democrats are making it a show. The party is not free to do as they believe is proper so long as Madigan controls the purse strings.”