Dupage Policy Journal

Republican state House candidate Laura Hois fumes House Speaker Mike Madigan’s refusal to cooperate with a Special House panel’s probe of some of his more suspect behavior only serves to seal his fate in the court of public opinion.

“Madigan's refusal to testify conveys the impression he has something to hide, and bolsters the growing public opinion that he should resign from public office,” Hois told the DuPage Policy Journal. “I expect this drip, drip of information to continue.”

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.”

Now running against incumbent state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville) in the 81st District, Hois argues the verdict is already in on one front.

“It's a losing argument,” she said. “Patronage hiring is ethically improper. It is alive and well despite the Shakman decrees. Patronage employees are required to donate campaign funds and perform campaign work for the elected official who got them their job. They live under threat of losing their job if they fail to do campaign work or if they are caught supporting an opposing candidate. This forced loyalty to Democratic candidates violates the patronage employee's civil rights and interferes with free and fair elections.”

Still, Hois argues it’s no wonder members of the party fall in line with Madigan.

“They are part of Madigan's corrupt, pay-to-play, ‘You'd-better-cooperate-or-you'll-lose-your-job patronage system,’” she said. “This has been going on for years. Madigan created this corrupt culture. The Democrats who stand with Speaker Madigan are looking out for themselves. They have forgotten about their responsibility to serve their constituents.”