Lake County Gazette

One way or the other, Republican state Senate candidate Thomas McCullagh thinks House Speaker Mike Madigan days are numbered.

“I think he knows that, too,” McCullagh told the Lake County Gazette. “I think he realizes people are starting to wise up and it’s just a matter of time before he’s shown the door or goes to jail.”

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 state Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (D-Shorewood) in the 49th District, McCullagh argues it all points to the need for new leadership in Springfield.

“His style of leadership has always raised questions,” he said. “I think most would agree people should get jobs based on what they know not who they know. That’s half of the problem we have in Springfield.”

Once new leadership is in place, McCullagh argues he sees just one way for cleaning up corruption in Springfield once and for all.

“We need to have a third-party operation to come and oversee things and help write the laws we all function under,” he said. “We need a system where no one gets all of what they want or their own way. An independent third party overseeing things will us to be a bipartisan body where the welfare of the people is what’s always seen as the most important thing.”