* More like this, please…
Brian J. McPartlin quit as Illinois Tollway director last week. But he can’t start his new job with a politically connected engineering consulting firm quite yet.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has asked the Illinois Ethics Commission to delay approving McPartlin’s request to join Chicago’s McDonough Associates, a firm that has done millions of dollars of work with the Tollway.
McPartlin, 42, had asked for a waiver of the “revolving door prohibition,” which requires state officials to wait a year before taking a job with a company they hired or regulated. An ethics law loophole allows the commission to grant these waivers. Only one request out of 14 has been denied since 2005. […]
The commission gave McPartlin until today to respond to the motion. After that, the commission can act on the motion. If it’s granted, the commission will set up time frames in which the attorney general can conduct fact-finding.
McPartlin says he won’t do any tollway-related work for a year, but could he have obtained this job had he not been the director for two years? Doubtful, at best.
* Attorney General Madigan aggressively fought attempts to change the horribly biased ballot language on the constitutional convention question. Then, when she lost the case, she sent a letter to the state Board of Elections claiming that the ruling applied to all counties…
An appellate court affirmed the ruling on Oct. 16, and on Wednesday, Oct. 22, Attorney General Lisa Madigan sent a letter to the State Board of Elections which concluded, “Because the opinion in this case is binding throughout Illinois, I expect each local election authority in the State to follow the mandate of the Appellate Court of Illinois.”
…But no follow-up action has yet been reported, even though there are at least some reported instances of counties refusing to comply. Perhaps she is reticent because one of those counties is in the Metro East, a Democratic primary voter haven.
AG Madigan has done a pretty good job on consumer issues, as have most of our attorneys general in the past 30 years or so, but she has been average, at best, in fighting political corruption and the old boy network.
Tons of those afore-mentioned revoving door waivers have been approved without a peep from Madigan.
* Related…
* Chicago torture victims face uphill legal battle: The state attorney general’s office hasn’t agreed to new trials for those claiming coerced confessions and the city opposes paying damages to alleged victims, they say.
* Attorney General stays out of zone fight
- The Doc - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 10:07 am:
I’ve grown increasingly wary of LM, for the reasons cited by Rich above, and including the U of I political campaigning issue. It’s relatively easy to be a consumer advocate and rail against Blagojevich, but she’s been wishy-washy on some of the more hot-button issues.
- Reform & Renewal? - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 10:15 am:
Can’t wait to see how McPartlin responds to the AG’s motion.
Will he say that as Executive Director he twidle his thumbs all day long while multi-million dollar no-bid contracts were awarded without his knowledge?
Or, will he say that he was way too busy overseeing the toll violation program that failed to send out notices for over a year?
This is gonna be good.
- Tollway Joe - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 10:25 am:
Hey Commisioners:
Don’t forget to review the $1,500 McDonough gave to McPartlin when he ran (and lost) for County Board just before he went to the Tollway.
- Wumpus - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 10:32 am:
You might be a hardcore partisan if you think Lisa Madigan has been a huge disappointment!
Her hands may be tied on some issues related to her father. She has gone after a lot of low hanging fruit. I would not call her terrible, nor great. She has done above average.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 10:37 am:
What makes for a good AG?
What we often think about when discussing good AGs is an image of a corruption and crime fighter. On the other hand, a lot of the work done by the AG doesn’t involve fighting. Instead it involves compromising, investigating and clarifying. This kind of work doesn’t usually lend itself to drama and publicity. Additionally, federal law is involved, and with an active federal prosecutor, the AG’s role is minimized.
But being elected requires drama and publicity. So while a great deal of an AGs job isn’t press conference newsworthy, events arise that spotlight an AG’s particular character and priorities. An additional angle to this position has been it’s political use as a stepping stone to the governor’s office. So, instead of getting a Marshall Dillon-like persona, we end up with a Jim Ryan-like persona in office. One eye is cast towards political goals, while the other is looking to make news to achieve that goal. Or, at least to be re-elected.
LMadigan has been no different from previous AGs, except that during her term in office, she has given birth. Anyone looking at LMadigan as some kind of corruption fighter will need to look awfully hard. She has focused more on doing her job on a daily basis, than focused on parading perps on TV.
She is also a Democrat in a Democratic state, surrounded by Democrats. How can we expect her to “round up the rascals”, when they are all members of the same club? If we wanted to witness an AG going after government corruption, LMadigan would have had to be from the opposing party in power, not one of them.
A one-party state usually loses a great deal for it’s citizens. The lack of political party competition causes stagnation. As long as Illinois is a single-party state within the same single-party power structure in DC, don’t expect good government. Competition is good, especially regarding politics.
- Captain Flume - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 10:49 am:
I would say in Illinois, there is no competition in politics. Not really. Just two or three cows on the same side of the fence.
As to AGLM, there are some things her office could do much better, like being more active in explaining and holding public education events on FOIA and Open Meetings Act requirements and being more “consumer-friendly” in fielding questions from the public in that regard. She has made some noise about a few controversial issues, such as the release of the subpoenas from the Governor’s office. Her office is adequate as far as it goes.
- wordslinger - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 11:18 am:
I don’t think any Illinois Attorney General has had the resources, whether they had the inclination or not, to really pursue public corruption. I seriously doubt any GA would ever give them the resources.
You need the resources and laws (wire fraud, mail fraud, tax fraud) of the feds to really get after it.
- Sense & Sensibility - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 11:46 am:
There is no AG in the country doing a better job than Lisa Madigan. She’s squeaky clean. Run Lisa, Run!
- steve schnorf - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 11:59 am:
I think AG Madigan has done a very good job, particularly in light of the pre-election predictions about her lack of qualifications. Hindsight is 20-20 and every elected official I’ve know has had things they would have done differently if they had the chance.
I’m impressed with her, her staff, and her office. I believe there has been top-notch non partisanship, as there should be in an office such as AG.
- Gregor - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 12:46 pm:
She had a harder time than most considering the legal wrangles with Blagojevich. The normal synergies and partnerships you would see in that relationship between governor and AG are all skewed due to the feud between Rod and her father, Rod and Lisa, and between Rod’s imaginary version of law and procedure, versus the laws and procedures Lisa has to follow as “the state’s lawyer”. I mean look at all the private counsel He’s had to hire, and the times when Lisa has had to stand off from areas of the state’s business that normally should be under her watch. So I can’t complain of her performance on areas she’s not “allowed” to do something with. In the areas where she doesn’t need to interface with Blago, she’s done as well as anyone. From talking to people working under her, I also like the overall atmosphere under her leadership which is decidedly less partisan than some of her predecessors. You can find more Republicans still working under Lisa than you would under someone else, because they actually base more of the staffing decisions on merit and experience than say, Blago’s office does. I think this bodes well for how she would run things as Governor.
The second point I have to make is that Lisa is perhaps doing as much as she can within the limits made by her dad being where he is. She could do more if he was not Speaker, is my opinion. Not that she’s not her own person; she is. or that he tells her what the agenda is. But it’s more like that Mike can wield influence as Speaker that can either help her do her job, or throw up roadblocks, as well as intimidate reform-minded agendas into quiescence, in favor of the status quo.
I think for Lisa to really break out and grow to full potential, dad has to step aside and stop casting his shadow over her, and give up the Speakership.
- WheresJoe - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 12:58 pm:
Yes, Lisa Madigan is a fighter AND a disappointment because she is mostly fighting for the wrong things.
VM mentioned lack of political competition as one root source of the problem in Illinois, and he is correct. Lisa Madigan LOST Lee v. Keith while she argued in favor of continuing to greatly limit political competition in Illinois. Not one Independent candidate for the GA has been able to get on the ballot since 1980 in Illinois. Lisa Madigan fought to continue that discrimination and abuse of power over what should be free and equal elections. Lisa Madigan fought (and failed) in favor of unconstitutional, illegal, discriminatory, and anti-democratic election laws.
Then there is Lisa Madigan’s statement to the US Supreme Court that she wished police could look into our homes with heat sensitive cameras and the like without a warrant or probable cause and watch everything we do. She said that while getting SCOTUS to argee with her that a police dog sniff is not really a search so they can have dogs sniff our cars or homes or persons without us doing a darn thing to even create suspicion.
Lisa Madigan has successfully eroded our civil rights even further while trying to restrict political competition and democratic elections to protect the political power over those civil rights grabs and our money. All the while Lisa Madigan hasn’t lifted a finger against the political corruption enjoying that lack of political competition she tried to perpetuate.
Lisa Madigan is definitely one of the political class that is more interested in protecting political power over our money and rights than she is in protecting our money and rights.
What has Lisa Madigan done to protect or increase our economic and personal freedoms? Very, very little if not nothing. She needs to go just like the rest of them.
- Sense & Sensibility - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 1:52 pm:
I’m glad that Lisa Madigan fights drugs on our streets with common sense measures.
Also, I should note that, as far as I know, she’s trying to end “pay to play” in IL.
- Ann O'Namus - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 3:02 pm:
Where’s Joe said, “Then there is Lisa Madigan’s statement to the US Supreme Court that she wished police could look into our homes with heat sensitive cameras and the like without a warrant or probable cause and watch everything we do. She said that while getting SCOTUS to argee with her that a police dog sniff is not really a search so they can have dogs sniff our cars or homes or persons without us doing a darn thing to even create suspicion.”
Check your facts. That is 100% in error. Someone is feeding you a lot of partisan garbage. In Caballes, she actually agreed with the Kyllo case that ruled against infrared camera searches. The Court naturally agreed with her. It’s public record and you can read it for yoruself.
Like her or don’t like her, but get your facts right.
- Downstate - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 5:39 pm:
You know, this seems like nit-picking to me. AG Madigan follows the law. Period. You expect more from her because of her good work. If this is all you have, get used to saying Governor Madigan!!!
- Bobs yer - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 6:45 pm:
The (generally shallow) press annointed LM as Gov. soon after she was elected AG (”oh look…a WOMAN”) and she’s had to live with that while running an important state office. This goofiness created unrealistic expectations.
So she defended the SOS in the Con-Con case. Hello…that’s kind of her job! How’d you like it if your attorney told you that, although she had to represent your position, she was going to tank your case for political reasons. We’ve got one State official ignoring the constitution for his own ends (hello Gov.). You really want another?
This State is short on bright, honest people willing to run for higher office. Don’t throw one away. My only problem with LM is that she’s not a Republican. You guys don’t want her, we can use 2-3 just like her.
- steve schnorf - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 7:35 pm:
Asking people to get their facts right is setting the bar way too high for a whole lot of bloggers
- Heard it here first, folks! - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 11:14 pm:
Bringing back the Illinios Tollway’s former Chief Engineer Jeff Dailey from the Texas Tollway to be Executive Director is only going to help deepen Rod Blagojevich’s, Brian McPartlin’s, McDonough Associates pockets.
Also be prepared higher tolls in the very near future.
Major Illinois Tollway staff cuts/layoffs are very likely.
- Don't trust this guy LISA - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 11:23 pm:
“McPartlin says he won’t do any tollway-related work for a year, but could he have obtained this job had he not been the director for two years?”
This is from a guy who massaged so many no-bid contracts, so all the money would fall into the proper hands (Blagojevich & Co.) Don’t believe me? Just investigate!
- Just wondering - Monday, Oct 27, 08 @ 11:30 pm:
Rich,
Did Brian McPartlin give you one of those No-Toll / I-Pass transponders?
And are you going to Chicago’s McDonough Associates too?
- Bruno Behrend - Tuesday, Oct 28, 08 @ 9:00 am:
What sort of AG defends unconstitutional ballot language?
There are legal processes that provide an answer to that question, but one hopes that in 2010, some one starts asking that as a political question.