Lake County Gazette

State Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) referred to the indictment of former House Speaker Michael Madigan as "another step in the long process of cleaning up Illinois corruption."

Madigan was indicted on March 2 on federal racketeering and bribery charges. He is being accused of racketeering, conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery and attempted extortion. 

"I want to thank the Feds for their tremendous work" McConchie said in a post to Facebook  on March 2. "This is another step in the long process of cleaning up Illinois corruption. This indictment underscores why it is so important to empower a statewide grand jury on corruption - so we can finally begin to clean up our own house."

A press release detailed the charges. 

"The 22-count indictment accuses Madigan of leading for nearly a decade a criminal enterprise whose purpose was to enhance Madigan’s political power and financial well-being while also generating income for his political allies and associates" the press release said.

Once Madigan's bribery scandal was revealed, Illinois legislators passed an ethics reform bill last year, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed in October. The Legislative Inspector General at that time, Carol Pope, resigned in response to the  bill. 

"I'm thinking that the legislature knows the limitations of the power of the LIG and that they want it that way" Pope said. "That's why I said I am a paper tiger. There are no real teeth to this legislation the way it is now."

Illinois has a history of corruption in high places. Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached and convicted of multiple corruption charges. He served nearly eight years in prison. Former Gov. George Ryan was convicted of racketeering and served five years in prison. Former U.S. Rep. of more than 35 years Dan Rostenkowski was  convicted of corruption and served 17 months in prison.