FROM WBEZ: With the federal criminal trial of former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan looming, there is a question whether he’ll get a customary honor at the state Capitol that has been reserved for previous speakers.
Throughout the Illinois House, there are oil paintings of six past speakers, dating back to the mid-1960s and including Republican George Ryan, who went on to serve time in federal prison after leaving the governor’s office 20 years ago. Ryan’s portrait hangs in an upper-level gallery directly above the House speaker’s rostrum.
But legislation is pending that would seek to bar any painting of Madigan from being hung there or anywhere else in the statehouse and adjoining Capitol complex in Springfield.
“With indictments delivered for former Speaker Madigan and a trial underway coming up this spring, I thought it was very important that we say no portrait of Speaker Madigan should be hung in the House of Representatives until such time that he may be acquitted,” said the resolution’s sponsor, state Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria.