Lake County Gazette

Republican state Senate hopeful Thomas McCullagh isn’t bashful in voicing his criticism of 49th District rival Meg Loughran Cappel.

“She’s shown herself to be a total hypocrite,” McCullagh told the Will County Gazette. “She says she’s against Springfield corruption but is still taking all this money from Mike Madigan-backed sources. She’s even got a Madigan person working on her campaign. She’s saying one thing, but still rolling in the mud with them.”

With both candidates vying to replace outgoing state Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (D-Shorewood), McCullagh had made ethics reform a central component of his platform. He argues no change can come as long as Madigan is still in power. The state’s longest-tenured lawmaker, Madigan now finds himself at the center of an evolving federal corruption probe involving ComEd and a pay-for-play scheme in which all the profits were allegedly steered to him in exchange for favorable legislation.

At the same, a bipartisan Special House committee has been convened to look into the House speaker’s questionable conduct.

“She’s doing all this in secret because people know Mike Madigan; they know he’s the villain in this movie, but she still feels she needs his blessing to win,” McCullagh added.

While Cappel has denied all the allegations, between now and Election Day McCullagh said he plans to continue making as many voters as he can aware of why she’s all wrong for Springfield and the district.

“I’ll be letting them know any way I can,” he said. “The reality is I’m the only one in the race willing to stand up to Mike Madigan. I’ve already called him out for all kinds of things and he knows I wouldn’t be good for his causes if I got in. Maybe that’s why he’s spending so much money in this race, that and knowing that I’m with the people.”