Lake County Gazette

State Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) doesn’t try to hide his disappointment over House Speaker Mike Madigan electing not to cooperate with a Special House committee now looking into some of his most questionable actions.

“I think he owes answers to all the voters and the people he’s supposed to be representing,” Wilcox told the Lake County Gazette. “People want answers and even the governor agrees that they deserve them from him.”

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.”

Through it all, Wilcox said he remains optimistic about what could be on the horizon.

“I’m grateful that at least other people seem to realize it’s time to tell the truth,” he said. “You’ve already seen a couple of former ComEd people step in the criminal investigation to talk about what they know.”

As for Madigan coming clean about his patronage views, Wilcox said he still finds his admission hard to believe.

“I’m amazed that he said any of that,” he said. “I guess I could say someone maybe making recommendations in the case of someone that’s clearly qualified, but when it comes to all the family members and friends that crosses my line of ethics. I guess it’s apparent I have a different set of standards than many in the Democratic Party seem to have.”