Ugaste on Madigan’s indictment: 'If true, he has shown us the most corrupt way to run a state government'

State Rep. Ugaste | Courtesy photo

By Jacob Stump

Mar 17, 2022

State Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-St. Charles) told the Kane County Reporter that the federal indictment of former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan reveals unheard-of levels of corruption.

“If it's true, that is the most corrupt way to run a state government I've ever heard of. He’ll get a day in court but he’s facing a lot,” Ugaste said.

Madigan is facing a 22-count indictment on federal racketeering and bribery charges that include wire fraud, attempted extortion, and using interstate rest stops as places to bribe people to carry out crime. The indictment alleges that Madigan ran “for nearly a decade a criminal enterprise whose purpose was to enhance Madigan’s political power and financial well-being while also generating income for his political allies and associates.”

In October, Gov. Pritzker signed into law a package of ethics reforms for the legislature that went into effect on Jan. 1. These reforms ban state lawmakers from registering as a lobbyist for six months after they leave office and from political fundraising while the General Assembly is in session. The law (SB 539) expands the financial disclosure requirements for lawmakers and some public officials, while also giving the Legislative Inspector General the power to investigate government-related complaints filed against lawmakers without the Legislative Ethics Commission's approval.

Carol Pope, the Legislative Inspector General at the law’s signing, resigned her position a month later in response. "I'm thinking that the legislature knows the limitations of the power of the LIG and that they want it that way," Pope said. "That's why I said I am a paper tiger. There are no real teeth to this legislation the way it is now," ABC 20 reported in December.

“That [SB 539] was so watered down I couldn’t even vote for it,” Ugaste said. “We as Republicans suggested what needed to be added, but nothing. It just doesn’t go far enough. We needed to go much farther and there were other bills that do that which can’t get a hearing,” Ugaste said.

The Department of Justice’s press release noted that Madigan also served as representative of Illinois’s 22nd District, committeeman for Chicago’s 13th Ward, chairman of both the Illinois Democratic Party and the 13th Ward Democratic Organization, and partner at the Chicago law firm of Madigan & Getzendanner.