It says something about the state of ethics in Illinois government that the very person who succeeded the felon Michael Madigan as House speaker is now under a dark ethics cloud himself.

There are no charges of public corruption surrounding Emanuel “Chris” Welch. In fact, as speaker, Welch has rebooted a lot of what was wrong with Madigan’s handling of the office. He has sought a more inclusive style of leadership, been accessible to the public and the press, and even committed to serve no more than five terms as speaker.

But Welch, like Madigan before him, mishandled a sexual harassment charge against a lawmaker that was brought to him privately by a General Assembly staffer. Welch sat on the complaint for three years before it spilled into public view, thanks to investigative reporting by the Tribune. The truth will out, after all.

Why does the state of Illinois have such problems?

A culture of corruption and tolerance of ethical improprieties persists in Illinois because the elected leaders, when handed the opportunity to clean up government, have mostly just taken a pass.

I know this from experience, given how hard my organization, the Better Government Association, and others have worked toward ethics reform — with far too little to show for the effort. The most bitter setback came when the state largely just stood down, in 2020 and since, after the Madigan........

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