East Central Reporter

State Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland) is convinced what he considers to be House Speaker Mike Madigan’s disregard for the people who put him in power will ultimately come back to haunt him.

“Everyone wants to see the speaker answer for the corruption that’s happened in Springfield under his watch,” Miller told the East Central Reporter. “For him to just ignore that is to disrespect the will of the voters. I think there’ll be a price to pay for that.”

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.”

“When you hear stuff like that, you know he thinks that there are special rules for him based on how long he’s been in power,” Miller added. “He’s been there so long and there has been so much pay-to play while he’s been there, maybe he’s convinced himself that there’s nothing wrong with any of it.”

Should Madigan stick by his decision not appear before the panel, Miller said he thinks Republican members should move to subpoena him, even if they don’t have the votes to make it happen.

“I think it’s important that we make Democrats own their refusal to make him answer to the people,” he said. “He’s already guilty in the court of public opinion and for Democrats to publicly refuse to call him to order make them look guilty by association.”