Corruption probe roils Illinois political machine

[Geee]

The Hill

A sprawling federal investigation into lobbying, patronage and alleged corruption threatens to upend Illinois’s powerful Democratic machine as agents raid offices and interrogate witnesses from Chicago to Springfield.

Federal agents have conducted searches of at least nine homes and offices in connection to a probe of Commonwealth Edison, the state’s largest utility, and the political operation run by state House Speaker Mike Madigan, the most powerful Democrat in Illinois. 

Those agents have been asking questions about Madigan, his associates and his political operation, according to two people who have sat for interviews with law enforcement.

[Geee]

Op-Ed: Madigan celebrates 35th anniversary as Illinois House speaker

“Michael Madigan: Elected without fuss.”

So reads one Illinois newspaper caption from Jan. 13, 1983, the day after Madigan’s peers in the General Assembly elected him speaker of the House for the first time. The choice was easy. Madigan had recently redrawn Illinois’ legislative maps, which meant many lawmakers in part owed their jobs to the 40-year-old from Chicago’s Southwest Side.

Madigan has now held that speaker’s gavel for 35 of the last 37 years. The state’s median age is 37 years old, meaning one man has served as speaker for the vast majority of most Illinoisans’ lives. No legislative leader in American history has held power for longer.

 

 

But much has changed for Illinois state government since 1983.

The state’s credit rating has fallen from the highest tier to the lowest in U.S. history, just one notch above “junk” status. It is home to the most severe pension crisis in U.S. history, with pension costs eating up more than 25% of state spending as social services are hollowed out. And residents now shoulder the heaviest tax burden of any state.     

Madigan remains.

[Valin]

Nov. 3 2016

He’s been called the "King of Illinois.” Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan is the most powerful politician in Illinois history, and the longest-serving state House speaker in the nation. This unprecedented documentary explores his reign over the Illinois Statehouse.

[Geee]

Huge Illinois utility paying $200 million to settle bribery case implicating the real boss of Illinois politics, House Speaker Michael Madigan

Anyone who understands politics in the corrupt state government of Illinois realizes that the power of Michael Madigan, Speaker of the state House of Representatives since 1983 except for two years, dwarfs that of the state’s governor.  He’s been called  “the most powerful Democrat politician in the country” with good reason, and over the years AT has covered him (here, here, and here for instance) for his power, and lately for the appearance that federal investigators have been wiretapping associates and maybe, just maybe closing in on him.

News released in Chicago yesterday by federal prosecutors indicates that that the noose is closing on him, though he still has not (yet) been indicted.

[Geee]

Swirling corruption in Illinois, the state that brought us Obama

In Illinois, the speaker of the house, Michael "King" Madigan is being investigated for a massive kickback scheme with Commonwealth Edison. It seems that in order for Commonwealth to get favorable legislation, that they had to pay the king with no-show jobs, board seats and hiring lobbyists. Commonwealth is now pretending that these kickbacks didn’t harm consumers.

“From 2011 through the present day, millions of individuals and businesses owning or leasing property and operating businesses in the State of Illinois were unknowing victims of a vast and corrupt criminal scheme perpetrated by the State’s largest utility company,” the complaint reads. 

But in a statement, ComEd spokesman Paul Elsberg said: “The improper conduct described in the deferred prosecution agreement, however, does not mean that consumers were harmed by the legislation that was passed in Illinois

Now, 202 years after Illinois became a state and 50 years after King Madigan took office, Illinois, for the umpteenth time, after corrupt politicians are caught with their hand in the cookie jar, is going to focus on ethics legislation. Anyone who believes Madigan or Democrats care about ethics needs their head examined.

[Geee]

Breaking: Cooperating lawmaker in corruption probe dies

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Scandal-Plagued Illinois Democrat Resigns from Office

Former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan (D.) resigned from the state legislature today amid an ongoing federal bribery investigation.

Madigan, who spent over half a century in the Illinois legislature, was implicated in a federal investigation into high-ranking state Democrats' ties with Commonwealth Edison, Illinois's largest utility provider. The utility giant allegedly gave perks worth $1.32 million in exchange for Madigan's rubber stamp on bills in the state legislature, according to federal investigators. He lost his position as speaker in January after failing to secure crucial backing from his Democratic colleagues.

Madigan associate Michael McClain and ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore were among those charged in November for their involvement in the scheme. McClain served alongside Madigan in the state house in the 1970s and '80s before leaving public service to lobby for ComEd.

Governor J.B. Pritzker, a close ally of Madigan, faces an investigation over a scheme in which he removed toilets from his mansion so that the building would be deemed uninhabitable, letting him earn a $331,000 property tax break.

[Geee]

Bringing Ethics to Illinois’ Animal House

After over three decades of gathering power, former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan was a deserving target in 2017 when 300 women complained about Springfield’s frat house culture and the fact the former speaker had allowed the office charged with handling harassment claims to remain vacant for more than two years. Madigan’s inaction allowed 27 complaints to pile up.

Instead of assuming responsibility, Madigan’s fix was to hire a former federal prosecutor, Julie Porter, who was serving as the interim legislative inspector general. 

Porter stepped into that interim role full of motivation and hope.

“I can make a difference here,” she said in a 2017 interview. 

Two years later, that hope was gone.

“The office of the legislative inspector general in Illinois is broken,” Porter wrote in 2019.

 

Porter resigned in frustration, and in 2019 former appellate justice Carol Pope was named as the first permanent legislative inspector general in four years. She wasn’t very permanent, filing her resignation in July because her job was “essentially a paper tiger.”

She told lawmakers their weak attempt at ethics reform in May was why she was quitting.

“I thought I could be useful in improving the public’s view of the legislature and help bring about true ethics reform. Unfortunately, I have not been able to do so. This last legislative session demonstrated true ethics reform is not a priority,” she wrote.

In hindsight, Madigan must have known the role was worthless, so what was the point in filling it? He made it that way with the tacit blessing of the fraternity.

[Valin]

@Geee

Quote

They call it a first step. They pledge there are more reforms to come.

 

A First Step...Well Its A Start...Its a beginning.

You ever recall a politician saying This is the Last Step,   Well that's done,....? I'd kind of like to hear that...even if its a lie. If only for the change of pace.