Lisa Madigan has priorities misplaced

Illinois has a major issue with deep political corruption. We also have a weak Attorney General's office occupied by Lisa Madigan, the daughter of the most powerful politician in Springfield.

If the depth of the public corruption is to be discovered major investigations and prosecutions of potentially powerful politicians and donors will be necessary.

Twelve years ago our Attorney General declared war against corrupt politicians. We haven't seen it. The federal prosecutors took over the case against our former governor.

Instead she investigated religious charities who declined to place foster children in gay households, in violation of the new state law. Their valuable foster care services with the state have now been terminated.

She has fined consumer lenders and launched educational programs on Internet safety and teen dating. These are not the issues of a state with the worst public distrust by the citizens in the nation.

Her Republican opponent was lead American Attorney Advisor in the Saddam Hussein trial. As a military prosecutor, Paul Schimpf has the experience, training and strength to fight the massive corruption in our state. He was born and raised in Illinois but he is not of the political class.

One area that Lisa Madigan has been enormously successful is in raising $23 million in campaign funds since 1998. In the next election. I hope well-informed voters will exceed the party loyalists. Weeding out public corruption is the first action in resolving our state's problems.

Cheryl Puhl

Pingree Grove