Prairie State Wire

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski is warning Illinois residents not to make too much of House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) being implicated in an ongoing federal corruption probe as part of the never-ending battle to clean up Springfield.

“The truth is even taking Madigan out won’t make that much of a difference because the tentacles of corruption go that wide and deep,” Dabrowski told the Lake County Gazette. “He’s had over 30 years to lay that network. Whoever it is that would replace him would still have that system in place. The whole system is totally corrupted, with laws in place to abuse.”

Madigan, who easily reigns as the longest-tenured lawmaker in the state, now finds himself at the center of a still-evolving probe into ComEd, in which prosecutors are on record in asserting that the company engaged in a “years-long bribery scheme” involving jobs, contracts and payments that were steered to him in his role as house speaker and chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party.

While stopping short of formally hitting him with any charges, prosecutors contend Commonwealth Edison attempted to “influence and reward” Madigan by providing financial benefits to those directly tied to him.

“My first reaction is regardless of whether he gets indicted or not, this will be something that weakens him,” Dabrowski said. “I think Madigan has run his course and these kinds of allegations mean he will lose a lot of power.”

In publicly announcing the case against ComEd public, U.S. Attorney John Lausch noted the investigation is ongoing. Tthe Chicago Tribune reports federal investigators have moved to subpoena Madigan for information, including “possible job recommendations.”

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.”