Dupage Policy Journal

Senate Minority leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) is calling out Democratic lawmakers in the state for allowing corruption to go unchecked in Springfield. 

He is looking forward to seeing a change in how business is done at the state level.

“We need real reforms that shine a light on the process and confront the culture of corruption that has gone unchecked for decades,” Curran said in a press release. “It’s time to restore the public’s trust in their state government.”

The criticism of corruption against state Democrats comes just after former state Sen. Tom Cullerton, of Villa Park, was spotted working in Springfield as a lobbyist after serving jail time for taking a no-show job from the Teamsters.

The IL GOP has been highly critical of House Speaker Chris Welch (D-Hillside) and Democratic Party of Illinois Chairwoman Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero) for killing an investigation into former House Speaker Michael Madigan. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy said Welch and Hernandez were rewarded for their loyalty to Madigan by being given leadership positions. 

“Speaker Chris Welch, Democratic Party of Illinois Chairwoman Lisa Hernandez, and other Democrats on the Special Investigating Committee failed the people of Illinois, and it is no surprise they continue to cover up the truth. Why did Welch and Hernandez refer to the special investigation committee on Madigan as a ‘political show’ and ‘sham investigation’? They had the opportunity to uphold their oaths of office and end the culture of corruption but chose not to,” Tracy said. “This guilty verdict only proved what we already knew – that Illinois Democrat corruption is not a Republican talking point but something that is unfortunately real, pervasive, and a serious threat to honest government.”

Madigan will face trial on 22 counts of public corruption in April 2024, only three months after the sentencing of the ComEd Four.

Curran’s comments come after former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker along with Madigan associate Michael McClain and lobbyist Jay Doherty, who previously ran the City Club of Chicago, were convicted of scheming to pay $1.3 million to Madigan-connected people and companies. The four face sentencing in January 2024. 

As part of the scheme, ComEd provided jobs – some of which were no-show – and contracts to those with connections to Madigan who at the time controlled the Democratic Party and had wielded power as the state’s most powerful politician as the longest-serving state House Speaker in the nation. ComEd, the state’s largest utility, engaged in the scheme to influence Madigan to get preferential treatment in the state House. Prosecutors called the four defendants "grandmasters of corruption.” ComEd paid a $200 million fine in July 2020 and admitted to the scheme.