Former Illinois House Speaker, Michael J Madigan, was indicted on charges alleging corruption. State Representative Sam Yingling and now candidate for state senate, wasted no time trying to seize the moment. On his facebook page Yingling told the story of “the 19” who are legislators who vowed to block Madigan from being re-elected as speaker.
Sam’s drama steeped post claimed “we endured tremendous political pressure to maintain the status quo and faced down the most powerful political forces in the history of Illinois in order to move our state in a new direction.” He was not specific at all about the claimed “political pressure” and also ignored numerous pieces of landmark legislation that was passed with the work of the former speaker.
What Yingling also left out was the tens of millions of dollars the former speaker put into Sam’s campaign coffers over the years. He even received roughly 1 million from Madigan as recently as 2018, though the blue wave of that year was readily apparent.
Sam also claimed credit for electing Illinois’ first black speaker of the house by stating, “Our stance eventually led to the historic election of our state’s first Black speaker.” That is a highly stretched and bold claim. It ignores the myriad of events which led to Welch being elected as Speaker, particular the work of Welch himself and the votes of his colleagues.
Adam Brust
Imagine that.. Yingling taking credit for something he did not do himself. A first!