It's Time to Get Serious About Ethics Reform
Former House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is accused of seeking bribes from utility Commonwealth Edison.
OPINION
It’s time we get serious about reigning in people and organizations that can, and do, have so much influence on state government. Lobbyists represent special interests that are that for a reason, they’re special. But the Commonwealth Edison case shows some lobbyists and public utilities go too far.
Politicians aren’t giving lobbyists undue influence for buying a dinner during session, let’s be serious about that. So, when you see a lobbyist take a couple of members to dinner, it’s not leading to some life of crime.
But, as with anything, money has a lot of influence.
Utilities, like Commonwealth Edison, that are regulated by the state, should be banned from making political contributions. You can look it up, ComEd, its parent company Exelon, and a pile of other utilities, have donated hundreds of thousands to legislative caucuses and politicians. I’m sure if I took the time to add it all together, the number would be in the millions.
There’s surely an argument to be made that lobbyists should be banned from making political contributions.
I’m also a believer that the revolving door for legislators needs to be far stronger. You saw multiple members of the General Assembly earlier this year resign a couple of days before the end of their term so the new revolving door provision wouldn’t apply to them. Let’s be serious about it.
I hope politicians on both sides of the aisle, and let’s be real, Democrats are the target audience here, get serious about cleaning up state government.
It’s a dangerous game we’re playing and only a matter of time before there’s another ComEd situation on our hands.