Pritzker, Durbin, Duckworth call on Madigan to resign

Posted: Nov 6, 2020 / 01:29 PM CST / Updated: Nov 6, 2020 / 01:29 PM CST

FILE – In this July 26, 2017, file photo, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Springfield, Ill. Even the normally unflappable speaker of the Illinois House had to pause at the sight of FBI agents entering the Democratic side of the Capitol building this week and later hauling away containers of documents from a lawmaker’s office. Mike Madigan has looked this year as half a dozen Democrats have been charged or had agents raid their homes and offices. (Justin Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP, File)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois’ Democratic governor says Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan should step down as chairman of the state Democratic Party. Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday agreed with the state’s senior U.S. senator, Dick Durbin, that the longtime political powerbroker’s implication in a federal bribery investigation hurt Democrats in Tuesday’s elections.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth agreed with Pritzker’s comments, and also called for Madigan to step down as Illinois House speaker.

The Justice Department has implicated Madigan, the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history, in a decade-long bribery scheme in which utility giant ComEd has admitted participating.

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