Kendall County Times

Republican Congressional candidate and State Sen. Jim Oberweis never expected House Speaker Mike Madigan to be willing to answer for his actions.

“This is a typical Madigan response,” Oberweis told the Kendall County Times soon after the state’s longest-serving lawmaker flatly refused to appear before the bipartisan panel probing his involvement in a pay-for-play scandal involving utility giant ComEd. “Madigan rarely interacts in a public way with even members of the General Assembly. It is unfortunate that he chose to skip the hearings but I’m not surprised.”

At the same time the committee is holding proceedings, a federal corruption probe is continuing where the longtime House speaker has already been implicated in a years-old scheme in which all the perks where steered to his coffers. Madigan made his decision about not appearing before the committee known 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 being “ethically improper.”

“It’s not surprising that speaker Madigan did not show up,” added Oberweis, who is now running against U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Naperville) in the 14th Congressional District. “But for the good of Illinois – he should have shown up and answered questions.”

Through it all, Oberweis has made his feelings about Madigan well known by all.

“I have publicly called for Madigan to resign,” he said. “There is no question that he has violated the public trust. In many ways, we do not have one-party rule in Illinois, we have one-man rule. I’m clearly in the camp that says Madigan needs to resign.”

In recent days, protesters have taken to demonstrating outside Madigan’s Chicago home, demanding that he resign in light of the ComEd scandal.  

“The FBI is looking into this,” said Oberweis, who has served in the 25th District since early 2013.