Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she’s ‘watched with great interest’ the ComEd case, will have more to say later on House Speaker Michael Madigan
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Citing her experience as a federal prosecutor, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday said she’s been following the ComEd bribery case that’s cast a shadow over Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan but stopped short of saying he shouldn’t be reelected to his leadership post.
Lightfoot said she’s watched “with great interest the number of people who’ve stood up and said they will not vote for Mike Madigan as speaker of the House” and said he doesn’t seem to have enough votes to get reelected at this time.
Lightfoot added that she’s also “watched with great interest the number of people who’ve been silent and who haven’t stood up.”
She did not address, however, whether Madigan should be reelected as speaker, saying she would have more to say about the situation at a later time while expounding on the need for residents to have faith in their elected officials.
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“Our democracy depends upon the people believing in leadership, the people believing that the leaders stand for them, that we are working hard every single day on behalf of the people and not on behalf of ourselves,” she said.
“That doesn’t happen when there is a cloud that hangs, that doesn’t happen when people feel like elected officials have been completely compromised and have an agenda that has nothing to do with doing the people’s business,” she said.
And she made clear she wasn’t just talking about the embattled speaker.
“That’s not just a statement about Mike Madigan, it’s a statement about all of us,” she said.
So far, 19 rank-and-file Democrats have publicly opposed Madigan getting another term as Illinois House speaker. While the nation’s longest-serving state House speaker is short of the 60 votes he needs to retain the speakership, he vowed last month to remain a candidate, saying he has “significant support.”
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