Kane County Reporter

Republican state Senate hopeful Jeanette Ward fumes that House Speaker Mike Madigan and Democrats in Springfield have placed their own interests ahead of the voters they represent.

“This is an outrage to ethics and good government,” Ward said of reports that Democrats have now delayed the proceedings of a Special House committee convened to look into some of the longtime lawmaker’s most suspect actions involving ComEd until after next month’s election. “Any legislator who does not condemn this delay cannot speak with any credibility about reforming Springfield or opposing corruption.

Running against incumbent state Sen. Karina Villa (D-West Chicago) in the 25th District, Ward stresses that includes her opponent, who is known to have taken more than $1 million from Madigan in campaign contributions.

“Karina Villa has accepted over $1.44 million from Speaker Madigan and his morally bankrupt political machine,” Ward said. “If she wants to stand truthfully and openly before the people of Illinois to ask for their vote, she needs to call on her speaker to resign and donate every red cent of the tainted money that Madigan gave her to a worthy cause.”

The state’s longest-tenured lawmaker, Madigan now also finds himself at the center of an ongoing federal corruption probe into the ComEd situation and a purported pay-for-play scandal where all the profits from the scheme were allegedly steered to him in exchange for favorable voting on pending legislation. .

To date, Madigan has refused to appear before the panel for questioning, prompting Republican House leader Jim Durkin to recently call on democrats to either demand that he answer questions or immediately resign from office.

For his part, Madigan, who has stood in power for roughly four decades, has shot down all the overtures as political grandstanding while indicating he has no intention of walking away.