Will County Gazette

Will County Board member Steve Balich believes residents can finally exhale with Mike Madigan now out of power.

"This should be huge for the entire state," Balich told the Will County Gazette. "He has been detrimental to this state right from the very start."

After nearly four decades of essentially one-man rule, the state's longest-serving lawmaker recently stepped down from his District 22 House seat and chair of the Illinois Democratic Party.

Madigan's swan-song came as the Chicago Democrat finds himself associated with a federal corruption probe involving ComEd and an alleged pay-for-play scheme.

While no charges have been filed against Madigan in the ongoing ComEd probe and he admits no wrongdoing, at least four individuals with known ties to him have already been indicted, and ComEd has agreed to pay a $200 million fine.

Shortly before announcing his resignation, Madigan was replaced as House speaker in favor of Rep. Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D-Hillside) after two dozen legislators from his party decided not to support his speaker reelection bid.

Balich hopes that part of Springfield's change includes steps to prevent another Madigan-type legislator from holding power.

"When you allow someone to have power for that long, we end up with one-party rule for [the] whole state, and the party in charge starts getting lax, and you see the corruption starting to build," he said. "We see things that should never happen become almost common."

Balich said his biggest hope is that Welch and company don't seek to govern by fear and intimidation the way some believe Madigan did for so many years.

"Madigan was like a dictator and always looking to have his way," he said. "He's why the unions give democrats so much money with the deals he's made with them. Hopefully, that can end now that he's gone, and we can start to get our pensions in order. Right now, every public-sector union thinks they deserve a raise every year."