Veteran Illinois state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) is determined to get the answers she’s convinced voters want and deserve about House Speaker Mike Madigan sooner rather than later.
“It’s disappointing that Democrats are unwilling to schedule our next meeting as quickly as I think they should be,” Mazzochi told the DuPage Policy Journal just hours after a new bipartisan Special House Committee convened a hearing delving into charges of inappropriate behavior on the part of the longtime lawmaker. “There’s a lot of work that needs to get done and it seems that Democrats are already trying to slow walk the process.”
The hearing commenced with the presentation of a formal charge accusing Madigan of conduct unbecoming of a legislator stemming from the ongoing federal probe involving ComEd and a purported pay for play scheme where payments were steered to the state’s longest tenured lawmaker into exchange for support to legislation.
With the bipartisan committee composed of three Republicans (Mazzochi, Tom Demmer of Dixon, and Grant Wehrli of Naperville) and three Democrats (Chris Welch of Hillside, Elizabeth Hernandez of Cicero, and Natalie Manley of Joliet), it didn’t take long for the finger-pointing to begin.
“Welch is trying to take position we need to get permission from the U.S. Attorney’s office to proceed,” Mazzochi added. “The U.S Attorney’s office is fully aware of what we’re doing. No one expects them to give us their investigating file, but there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to move forward with what we’re trying to decipher.”
Going into the proceedings, Mazzochi said Welch had committed to weekly meetings and she’s still expecting that to be the case.
“We’ve set forth a preliminary list of documents and witnesses and I would hope both sides can work expeditiously to get the answers we’ve been entrusted to come up with,” she said.
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