Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said if allegations involving Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who for decades has been at the controls of whether legislation lives or dies inside the State Capitol, and the state’s largest utility, Commonwealth Edison, are true then he should step down.
Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor, went further in her comments on Monday than she did previously and echoed the sentiments of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and a bloc of progressive lawmakers in Madigan’s House Democratic caucus. But she said she stopped short of calling for him to step down because he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
“If those allegations are true, obviously he should resign,” Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference Monday. “But we don’t know that they are true yet.”
Federal prosecutors on Friday alleged a near-decadelong bribery and influence scheme conducted through ComEd. In court records filed Friday, prosecutors allege the utility attempted to “influence and reward” Madigan, who was identified as Public Official A, by providing financial benefits to some close to him.
Madigan has not been charged with any wrongdoing. The federal complaint did not mention Madigan by name but specifically said, “Public Official A was the Speaker of the House of Representatives.” Madigan is the nation’s longest-serving House speaker.
In a statement Friday, Madigan spokeswoman Maura Possley said in an email, “He has never made a legislative decision with improper motives and has engaged in no wrongdoing here. Any claim to the contrary is unfounded.
“The speaker has never helped someone find a job with the expectation that the person would not be asked to perform work by their employer, nor did he ever expect to provide anything to a prospective employer if it should choose to hire a person he recommended,” Possley’s statement read.
ComEd has agreed to cooperate with the ongoing probe and pay a $200 million fine in exchange for deferred prosecution.
Pritzker on Monday said it’s “very important” that Madigan “step forward and answer the questions” raised by federal prosecutors. The governor also renewed a call for ethics reform at an unrelated news conference Monday in Peoria, one of many items lawmakers didn’t act on in a spring legislative session that was cut significantly short due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return to Springfield until November, but Pritzker said he hopes the work of a legislative ethics commission can resume and result in “major ethics reform.”
“One of the things that has become obvious about all the information over the last few days is that there apparently is something rotten in Denmark when it comes to certain lobbyists and the way they conduct their business. We need to nip that in the bud,” Pritzker said at a separate downstate news conference Monday. “That’s why I’ve called for so much transparency.”
Pritzker repeated on Monday that if the allegations are true in the documents federal prosecutors filed last week, “the speaker would have to step down, and that applies for all the leadership positions that he holds.”
Twelve members of the Illinois House Progressive Caucus also have signed a statement on the matter that reads in part: “The behavior alleged in this document is an unacceptable breach of the public trust.” The bloc also stated that “If these allegations are true, Speaker Madigan and any other elected official involved in this scheme must resign from public service.”
It goes on to note: “We founded the Progressive Caucus because we believe that government can be, and must be, a force for fairness and justice in people’s lives. This kind of behavior is exactly why so many Illinoisans have lost faith in that notion. We deserve better, and we must demand better.”
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat who signed on to the statement, also issued her opinion, which reads: “The conduct alleged is outrageous, and comes at the end of a long chain of unacceptable breaches of the public trust not unlike the pattern of ‘lather, rinse and repeat.'” She goes on to write, “I agree with the Governor. If any of these allegations are true and Speaker Madigan or those closest to him are involved, then he must resign.”
In addition to Cassidy, caucus members who signed the statement are state Reps. Carol Ammons, of Urbana; Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, of Glenview; Robyn Gabel, of Evanston; Anna Moeller, of Elgin; and Anne Stava-Murray, of Naperville; along with lawmakers representing Chicago including Will Guzzardi, Lindsey LaPointe, Theresa Mah, Yoni Pizer, Delia Ramirez and Ann Williams.
Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.
Calling for Madigan to resign if the allegations prove true leaves politicians with considerable wiggle room. Such a statement allows politicians to come across as concerned about the federal corruption allegations but does not define what specifically would need to happen for Madigan to step down.
State Sen. Melinda Bush of Grayslake was a rare Democratic lawmaker calling outright for Madigan to not only resign his legislative post but also the state Democratic Party chairmanship, a post he has held since 1998, “effective immediately.”
Underscoring Madigan’s power, few Democrats in the chamber issued statements on Friday about the nation’s longest-serving statehouse speaker, who also runs the state Democratic Party.
On Friday, hours after the U.S. attorney’s office announced ComEd had agreed to pay a $200 million fine as part of a federal investigation into the utility, Lightfoot was asked whether Madigan should resign from his statewide leadership positions.
“Well, that’s not really for me to say,” Lightfoot said then. “And as mayor, what I’m really focused on is the conduct of ComEd. And since this story broke last year, I’ve consistently said ComEd is going to have to come before the Chicago City Council and give account for its conduct.”
Pritzker, who worked with Madigan to approve a wide-ranging legislative agenda in 2019, on Friday said he was “deeply troubled and frankly I’m furious.”
“The speaker has a lot that he needs to answer for — to authorities, to investigators and most importantly to the people of Illinois,” Pritzker said Friday. “If these allegations of wrongdoing by the speaker are true, there is no question that he will have betrayed the public trust and he must resign.”
In all, prosecutors put a value of at least $150 million on the legislative benefits ComEd received. The federal documents in particular noted the 2011 passage of the Energy Infrastructure and Modernization Act, which “helped improve ComEd’s financial stability” by establishing rate guidelines and a smart grid overhaul.
Lisa Donovan is the host of The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.
