Sangamon Sun

Veteran state Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield) argues longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan is now violating the first law of his profession.

“The people of Illinois are looking for answers from him and he owes that to him,” McClure told the Sangamon Sun. “I would guess the main reason he doesn’t won’t to talk probably has something to do with his lawyers telling him it wouldn’t be smart given he’s under federal investigation. The thing is, his position as a public servant should trump everything else. If he thinks otherwise, he needs to resign as speaker of House. Even Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker agrees that he owes the public answers.”

With a bipartisan Special House committee now convened to look into some of the speaker’s more questionable behavior related to the ongoing ComEd federal corruption probe, 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.”

McClure argues such reasoning offers yet another indisputable reason for why Madigan needs to go.

“Everyone knows that patronage is no good for system of government,” he said. “It serves to erode whatever level of fairness and sense of justice we have left in Springfield.”

McClure has long since expressed his feelings about Madigan and all the corruption he’s convinced has happened on his watch.

“I think he needs to step aside as speaker at least until all this has concluded,” he said. “Then, if the allegations are proven to be right, he needs to go from the House completely.”