A vote for Madigan?

Your recent endorsement of Mary Edly Allen for state representative from District 51 was premised on the assertion that Edly Allen has been unafraid to challenge Mike Madigan. As it happens, I had recently emailed her office to ask if the representative intended to demand Madigan's resignation after he was implicated in a $1.3 million bribery scheme with Com-Ed. The response from her district director? Edly Allen had proposed policy solutions to a legislative ethics committee. Nothing more.

By contrast, a number of Edly Allen's legislative colleagues, including Democratic senators Melinda Bush of Grayslake and Iris Martinez of Chicago, among others, emphatically and promptly demanded Madigan's resignation shortly after learning of the Com-Ed scandal. Edly Allen, meanwhile, appears to have put party over principle, refusing to call for Madigan to step down. Perhaps her silence is attributable to the more than $850,000 Madigan funneled to Edly Allen's campaign during the 2018 election cycle; regardless, her actions suggest an abject unwillingness to challenge the speaker. Notwithstanding your endorsement, why should we believe that a vote for Mary isn't another vote for Madigan?

John D. Tuerck

Barrington