Lake County Gazette

Republican state House candidate Dan Yost is warning 61st District voters that incumbent state Rep. Joyce Mason (D-Gurnee) will always put House Speaker Mike Madigan first.

“Rep. Mason isn’t loyal to you. She’s loyal to Speaker Madigan, who gave her $740,000 to win her campaign and do his bidding in Springfield,” Yost said. “How can we trust her to be an independent leader and represent the best interests of our families? It’s been two weeks now since I called for Madigan’s resignation, and not a word from Mason.”

Yost reasons it’s lawmakers like Mason that give the longtime house speaker the gumption to think he can survive being at the center of an ongoing federal corruption probe where he is accused of engaging in a pay-for-play scheme involving utility giant ComEd.

Despite a growing number of lawmakers calling for him to step down, including a handful of democrats, Madigan recently boasted he has “no plans to resign” after polling his members.

Yost said it’s clear where Mason stands.

“This shouldn’t be difficult decision,” he added. “Is doing the right thing really too much to ask from our state representative?  Rep. Mason is right about one thing: we do need more than partisan rhetoric to fix things here in Illinois. Calling out corruption and standing up for Illinois families isn’t rhetoric and shouldn’t be that hard.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Madigan said he plans to cooperate with the probe, adding “The speaker has never helped someone find a job with the expectation that the person would not be asked to perform work by their employer, nor did he ever expect to provide anything to a prospective employer if it should choose to hire a person he recommended.”