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.
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.
Pritzker said his top priority, implementing a graduated income tax structure to tax the wealthy at higher rates, fell victim to voter distrust.
