Prairie State Wire

Oak Park Village Trustee Jim Dodge is pleased to see recently indicted former House Speaker Mike Madigan finally getting what he thinks he deserves.

"For anyone keeping track on Illinois politics this seems like a long time coming," Dodge said. "I’ve always thought Madigan was so smart at this he wouldn’t be caught, but now they have charges and we'll see if they can make it stick."

Madigan has been indicted with 22 charges of bribery, extortion and racketeering.

"Madigan and (associate Michael) McClain allegedly caused various businesses, including the utility company Commonwealth Edison, to make monetary payments to Madigan's associates as a reward for their loyalty to Madigan, at times in return for performing little or no legitimate work for the businesses," The U.S. Justice Department said.

An ethics reform bill was passed last year by the Illinois legislators. The bill was signed in October by Gov. Pritzker, but Dodge isn't sure the bill will do the job.

"I think until state is seriously committed to doing more of the right things for the people of the state you’re going to have a culture of corruption," Dodge said. "Madigan has become the poster boy for that here in Illinois, but a lot of others Democrats have also prospered from it."

"The fundamental problem the state faces is until there’s more transparency about what’s going on behind the scenes you're never going to be able to clean things up," he said.

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. Dan Rostenkowski was  convicted of corruption and served 17 months in prison.