North Egypt News

When it comes to House Speaker Mike Madigan and the way of Springfield Democrats, conservative activist Karen Tucker doesn’t take much at face value.

“I’m hoping all the talk about Madigan being on the way out is true, but we’re talking about Springfield,” Tucker told the Quincy Reporter. “I have to see it to believe it.”

That includes a growing number of Democrat lawmakers insisting after roughly four decades of being in power they’ve had enough of Madigan and have no intentions of supporting his reelection efforts.

Despite Madigan’s vow to seek another term, as many as 18 Democrat lawmakers have pledged not to support him as a federal corruption probe involving ComEd continues to play out with him at the center. More recently, four individuals with close ties to Madigan were indicted, including longtime associate and lobbyist Michael McClain, who now faces bribery charges stemming from a longtime pay-to-play scheme in which all the perks are alleged to have been steered to Madigan in exchange for favorable legislation.

“There’s no question he’s under quite a bit of pressure, with even Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker getting in on criticizing him,” Tucker added. “But I’m still not convinced all these Democrat lawmakers will go against him. Most politicians wiggle left and right in order to do whatever is in their best interest at the time. So who knows what will happen?”

As for Pritzker, Tucker argues his reaction is to be expected.

“It’s about self-preservation,” she said. “I’ve had the feeling that he had swamp juice on him for a while.”

Tucker argues showing Madigan the door is only the start to bringing about the level of reform she thinks is needed in Springfield.

“I think that would only be the start,” she said. “In the end, I don’t think we can get the kind of reform we need until we have term limits. You can only leave those snakes in the same hole for so long and not expect them to start building alliances for evil. We’ve got to get new blood in Springfield.”