Illinois
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is in prison
Michael J. Madigan, the country’s longest-serving state House leader and the longtime head of Illinois’ Democratic Party, is in prison.
Madigan surrendered Monday to a minimum-security federal prison camp in Morgantown, West Virginia, according to a source close to the former speaker.
That facility is 500 miles away from Chicago, just south of Pittsburgh.
Madigan had asked to serve his time at a prison camp in nearby Terre Haute, Indiana, instead. Either way, he was required to begin serving his sentence at 2 p.m. Monday.
Prison camps like the one in Morgantown are known to have little to no fencing. And inmates have access to a prison commissary. At Morgantown, Madigan could purchase pitted dates for $4.35, a chess set for $7.10 and an alarm clock for $10, according to a menu online.
U.S. District Judge John Blakey handed Madigan a 7½-year prison sentence in June, four months after a jury convicted him of a bribery conspiracy, wire fraud and other crimes. Madigan testified in his own defense at trial, and Blakey found that Madigan lied to the jury.
“You lied sir. You lied,” Blakey said during Madigan’s sentencing hearing. “You did not have to. You had a right to sit there and exercise your right to silence. But you took that stand and you took the law into your own hands.”
Madigan’s surrender caps a massive corruption investigation that hearkens back to an earlier era at Chicago’s federal courthouse. The probe began in 2014. But it wasn’t until Jan. 29, 2019, that the Chicago Sun-Times revealed the FBI had secretly recorded Madigan inside his private law office.
About 20 people have since been charged. Madigan is the 11th to report to prison. Three others are due behind bars in the coming weeks.
Madigan’s conviction centered on two schemes. In one, ComEd paid five Madigan allies $1.3 million over eight years so Madigan would look more favorably at the utility’s legislation. The money was funneled through third-party firms, and the recipients did hardly any work for ComEd.
Former Ald. Danny Solis (25th) walks out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse Tuesday after testifying in the racketeering conspiracy trial for Illinois’ former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
The other involved a deal to have then-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis installed on a state board in exchange for Solis’ help landing private business for Madigan’s tax appeal law firm.
Madigan has filed an appeal, but the appellate court denied his request to remain free while it plays out.
Madigan led the Illinois House of Representatives for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He held onto the gavel for two years after the feds’ investigation went public in 2019.
Federal prosecutors filed a criminal charge against ComEd in July 2020. Then, in November of that year, they also charged four ComEd officials and lobbyists for their role in the conspiracy to illegally sway the powerful House speaker.
Longtime Madigan ally Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty were all convicted in 2023 for their role in the conspiracy.
Doherty is now in prison, serving a one-year sentence. Hooker is due to surrender Tuesday to begin an 18-month term. McClain and Pramaggiore were each sentenced to two years behind bars, and they are due to report Oct. 30 and Dec. 1, respectively.
The four were indicted two months before a House vote for speaker. The burgeoning investigation prevented Madigan from mustering enough votes to keep the gavel when the time came, so he relinquished it to current Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch.
The feds didn’t level charges against Madigan until March 2022. That’s when a grand jury handed up a 106-page racketeering conspiracy indictment against him and McClain. Their eventual trial began one year ago, in the fall of 2024.
The trial lasted four months and featured more than 60 witnesses.
Key among them was Solis, an early target of the investigation. FBI agents confronted him in June 2016 and persuaded him to wear a wire against Madigan and others, like former Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke.
Burke also went to prison for racketeering and served nine months of a two-year sentence.
In exchange for Solis’ help, prosecutors agreed to drop a bribery charge filed against him. They kept their word earlier this year after Madigan’s conviction.
Despite the flurry of convictions against Madigan, McClain, Burke and others, Solis walked away without any conviction of his own, and with his City Hall pension intact.
Illinois
Produce Recall Issued In Parasite Outbreak Hitting IL
A number of Taco Bell locations have posted signs announcing they are “currently unable to sell Lettuce, Cilantro Onion, Pico de Gallo, and Guacamole due to a nationwide recall,” according to Detroit-area news radio outlet WWJ.
Taco Bell told the Post it would keep monitoring the situation and follow authorities’ guidance.
Taco Bell Lettuce Linked To Growing MI Parasite Outbreak: FDA
“Public health officials have not confirmed a link to Taco Bell or any specific ingredient, supplier, restaurant or retailer,” the company told the Post. “While authorities continue their broader review, Taco Bell has voluntarily and temporarily removed limited ingredients at select restaurants as a precautionary measure.”
In Michigan, where cases have been concentrated, media reports said notices were posted at some Detroit-area Taco Bell restaurants last week telling customers the chain was “currently unable to sell Lettuce, Cilantro-Onion, Pico de Gallo, and Guacamole due to a nationwide recall.”
Illinois
Illinois GOP trails badly in midterm cash
The Illinois Republican Party filed its quarterly campaign finance report on the July 15 deadline. The party reported having just $223K in the bank. The next day, the party sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections saying they were “reconciling” their records after a leadership change, and then noted that their actual end balance was $101K higher than it had reported the day before.
But that bit of found money was basically the end of the “good news” for the GOP last week.
Republicans no longer have a pet billionaire. Bruce Rauner and Ken Griffin have fled the state. The legions of wealthy business titans who once contributed and raised money have either retired to sunnier climes or passed away. Several prominent party members have publicly shunned labor unions and their hefty political war chests, although the state GOP legislative leaders have at least tried to rebuild ties to trade unions and even the Illinois Education Association. But the heavily gerrymandered legislative map combined with the current political climate means they’ll mostly receive scraps.
And, yes, the House Democrats are struggling this month with scandals, including a state representative who resigned under pressure and another who was indicted. I’m not trying to downplay that at all. But Democrats have the national political environment, the local infrastructure and tons of cash behind them. The Republicans have little to none of that.
The GOP’s gubernatorial candidate, Darren Bailey, raised $1.3 million in the second quarter, which ended June 30. That sounds like a lot, but he spent almost all of that on direct mail fundraising costs. The huge expenditures do give him a prospect list for future fundraising, but he ended the quarter with a mere $128K in the bank. That was still a whole lot more than the rest of the statewide ticket.
Attorney General nominee Bob Fioretti, a perennial candidate, raised $31K, spent $39K and had $28K on hand at the end of the quarter along with almost $15K in recent debt. Secretary of State candidate Diane Harris raised $6K, spent a bit over $4K and had a paltry $1,816.42 in the bank. Treasurer candidate Max Solomon, who ran as a write-in during the primary because the party failed to recruit anyone, raised less than $3K, reported no spending and ended the quarter with less than $8K. Comptroller candidate Bryan Drew raised $30K and received $47K in in-kind contributions from a company owned, ironically, by independent gubernatorial candidate Collin Corbett, spent less than $3K, ended with $54K and had $25K in debt from earlier this year.
Man, that’s just downright pathetic.
But I suppose it doesn’t really matter anyway unless we see a massive sea-change in national opinion in the coming months or the federal government finds a way to not certify certain election results. Regardless of where individual candidates are at this moment, they’ll have the money to compete. Unlike the Republicans, the Dems do have a pet billionaire (JB Pritzker) and, I assume eventually for most of them, organized labor.
The Republican legislative leaders have tried to scrape and claw as much as they can, but they’re vastly outgunned. Senate Republican Leader John Curran raised just $75K in the second quarter. He spent $71K and reported having a bit more than $3 million in the bank. His caucus committee reported having $160K in the bank.
Leader Curran has three Republican-held districts to defend in the Chicago media market that have all trended Democratic in the last three cycles. Depending how bad things get, he could be defending a couple, two or three more.
The Senate Democrats have a ton of money to do whatever they want. Senate President Don Harmon has about $20 million in his personal campaign account and $1.7 million in his caucus account.
Over in the House, Republican Leader Tony McCombie has at least four Democratic-trending or swingy districts to defend and just $1.3 million in her personal campaign account and another $363K in her caucus account so far.
In contrast, House Speaker Chris Welch had $11.4 million in his personal account and $1.2 million in his caucus account. Like Senate President Harmon, he has more than enough money already, but more is never enough when there’s so much out there, so those numbers will likely rise by November.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.
Illinois
Hillsboro grad, Springfield golfer Alex Eickhoff 2nd at state amateur
BLOOMINGTON — Springfield’s Alex Eickhoff nearly had a magical Thursday as he tied for second place in the 95th annual Illinois State Amateur Championship at Crestwicke Country Club.
Eickhoff, a 2020 Hillsboro High School graduate and former standout on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s men’s golf team, shot a 4-under-par 68 in Thursday’s third round and followed that with an even-par 71 to finish the three-day, four-round event 1-over 285. He tied for second with Bloomington’s Logan Stauffer.
Eickhoff briefly took the lead through nine holes of his fourth round when he sat at 1-under par. Chicago’s Charlie Kulwin finished both of Thursday’s rounds under par and finished 2-under 282. He was the lone golfer to finish under par for the tournament.
Eickhoff was The State Journal-Register’s Small School Boys Golfer of the year twice in his high school career: once as a freshman in 2016-17 and again as a senior in 2019-20. After high school, he golfed for the University of Minnesota for two years before transferring to SIUE.
He began the tournament with a 3-over 74 on Tuesday and shaved off a stroke Wednesday with a 2-over 73. He closed out the event with an even-par 71 in Thursday’s final round.
Other area golfers who made the cut were Springfield’s Charles Hoogland (7-over 291, tied for 20th) and Jacksonville’s Brady Kaufmann (8-over 292, 25th).
The last golfer from The State Journal-Register’s coverage area to win the Illinois State Amateur was Jay Davis. Davis, a Jacksonville Routt graduate, won the 1991 and ‘92 tournaments.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
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