Forgive the long essay, but I’ve been reading and thinking about the Madigan indictment for a couple of days. Specifically I’ve been thinking about the proverbial dogs that didn’t bark.
The indictment alleges that Madigan tasked two people with criminal assignments: Mike McClain and Danny Solis. McClain was responsible for both the patronage and legislative elements of the ComEd relationship. Solis was responsible for leveraging city zoning needs into law firm business. If someone from outside of the state who had never heard of Madigan read only the indictment, they would assume that those two formed the inner circle of the Madigan Enterprise.
But if you rewind to five years ago, would anyone say that the Chicago alderman closest to Madigan was Danny Solis? That of the entire City Council, each of whom has ward prerogative zoning powers, only Solis would be trusted enough to bring in business for the big guy? I won’t risk banning by naming individuals, but those blanks should fill in pretty quickly. Even the most ardent Madigan-haters would be surprised if you traveled back in time to tell them the nexus of Madigan’s corruption was Chinatown.
As for McClain, he was certainly understood to be part of the inner circle. But the amount of eggs in the ComEd basket is odd. A wide-ranging probe of Madigan failing to turn up any other source of ghost-payrolling or illegal patronage is surprising. No state agency, municipal government, company or non-profit was stashing folks for the most powerful politician in the state? It’s certainly possible, but again I think folks from a few years ago would be surprised to hear it.
Then there’s the list of other people who have been indicted or searched in the last few years that don’t appear in the indictment. The feds got nothing on Madigan via Tim Mapes, Ed Burke, Luis Arroyo, Terry Link, Anazette Collins, Martin Sandoval, Jeff Tobloski, Mike Zalewski Sr or Kevin Quinn. Mapes is of particular interest, just because it’s hard to imagine Madigan entrusting McClain but not Mapes with his most sensitive tasks. Again, it’s certainly possible, but I also think it’s unlikely.
Then there’s Madiganland. I don’t think it’s particularly controversial or speculative to say that, at the height of his power, Madigan exercised an unusual amount of influence over the municipal governments in his district and the surrounding region. Some of those local governments have come under intense federal scrutiny in the last few years, but none of them appear in the indictment. None of the shenanigans in Oak Lawn, Lyons, Crestwood or McCook tied back to the boss. Also in the category of possible but surprising.
There’s a few possible explanations for all this, which I don’t think are mutually exclusive.
The first is that the most conspiratorial Madigan-haters were wrong about the centralization of corruption in Illinois. Certainly there was a lot of corruption, but it wasn’t all on the orders of one man. While folks in the Madigan sphere of influence have long been insulted as mushrooms or lackeys, many were political actors in their own right with ambitions, character flaws and greed all their own. It wasn’t a highly structured mafia, but a moral ecosystem.
The other conclusion I find safe to draw is that the feds didn’t find all or even most of the Madigan-adjacent criminal activity. It stretches belief that Madigan’s only two criminal activity subordinates were McClain and Solis. It stretches belief to think that Madigan had only one source of patronage or one source of illicit legal fees. It stretches belief that Madigan would accept quid pro quo law clients but not seek similar arrangements when advocating for those clients. In a lot of ways, the full allegations in the indictment fall into an uncanny valley of corruption, real enough to not dismiss but small enough to surprise.
I guess this is a long way around to saying that Madigan really did almost get away with it all. The feds only found one willing high-level cooperator and one lieutenant with sloppy email hygiene. Madigan’s layers of protection almost held. He paid taxes on everything and never wrote anything down. He went far out of his way to keep his fingerprints off of everything. Even in private in-person conversations he chose his words through the lens of evidentiary standards for bribery. My guess is that he’ll get convicted, but I’m not 100% sure. He was so dang careful.
Poetry: Where oh where did Illinois’ CAFR go?
Where oh where can it be?
With Assets cut short and Liabilities cut long.
Where oh where can it be?
Prose: 2/3rds of the way through FY 2022, and the FY 2021 CAFR is nowhere in sight. The Feds produced theirs in 4 ½ months (failed due to DoD failing). Wasn’t Rauner / DoIT’s financial ERP supposed to produce the CAFR within 6 months?
The CAFR, particularly if the Management Discussion & Analysis (MDA) is reviewed, can provide valuable information. For example, the FY 2021 cash report shows the June 30th budgetary balance for the General Funds in FY 2021 improved by $3.0 Billion (decreasing from -$5.8 B to -$2.8 B). Replicate that, and FY 2022 ends with a positive budgetary balance (first time since Edgar). The FY 2021 CAFR MDA would provide details as to why such “2003 / 2004 budgetary analysis methods” were not to be relied upon.
So do we think the low level employee just decided on his own to come up with “Defending Madigan” talking points all on their own, on their own initiative?
- Bruce( no not him) - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:12 am:
- OneMan - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:02 am:
That was probably prepared ahead of time, like obituaries of famous people.
Someone didn’t get the memo “for God’s sake, don’t release that”
- hyperbolic liberal - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:30 am:
- OneMan - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:02 am:
Absolutely not. Regular staff do not write caucus-wide talking points, let alone a newly hired ILSIP. Caucus wide talking points are written entirely by senior staff and vetted multiple times , including the Issues Staff director. So I’m not sure why Rich isn’t questioning their response because it is a load spoiled milk.
Vern - that is the most insightful comment I have read in along time on this blog. And I agree with your second scenario. He dang near got away with it all. But I also believe that over 40 years an (im)moral ecosystem did develop where those with enough ambition and greed could flourish on their own as long as they did not get in the way of the boss.
- NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 10:36 am:
Not entirely Illinois related (unless you’re a vendor or stadium employee at Guaranteed Rate, Wrigley, or commute to STL to work at Busch Stadium). But one of the few bright spots coming out of the lockout has been MLB players starting a $1 million fund for workers impacted by the stoppage:
IIRC there was a similar fund during the COVID-shortened season two years ago.
- NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 10:42 am:
This is common sense but Springfield medical facilities (including both hospitals and Springfield Clinic offices) are still requiring masks and will be for the foreseeable future despite the mandate being relaxed. SJ-R actually did a story on this this morning even though it is common sense (and I can’t see masks going away at med facilities for maybe at least a couple years):
=== So I’m not sure why Rich isn’t questioning their response===
Meh, that isn’t the interesting question about that if you ask me. The fact it went out, while embarrassing, likely wasn’t intentional. I am just curious if there was a thought about defending and citing ‘overreach’ as a high-level discussion or someone decided to write it up as an interesting exercise (”if we decided to defend how would we do it”).
If someone decided to write it up as a mental exercise tbh more power to them. Them actually doing this sort of thing (writing contra-arguments or taking a different perspective than expected) as a normal path of doing business is an interesting thought.
That’s the question I find more interesting tbh. Why it was created in the first place.
Vern - G is going to try and convict Madigan anyway they can. Madigan is going to be a trophy on a shelf. G found a weak spot. It won’t matter how Madigan was caught. Only that at long last, Mike Madigan was caught, tried and convicted.
Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion because of a letter his lawyer wrote. Not the years of bootlegging, murders, extortion, etc. G found a weak spot and got Al Capone on income tax evasion.
Vern, so interesting (banned punctuation). you appear to have followed this very closely, so I wonder if you have commentary on the following: who is Elmwood Park in the indictment, and why has mr. inventor of HDO not been touched through all the Fed activity? once upon a time there was a woman at City Hall who seemed to be near more than one person who got indicted. Rumor was that she was a mole. Is there a mole?
The only reference to Elmwood Park in the indictment is as the home of BM-1, the ComEd board member who McClain and Madigan lobbied for. That board member has been widely reported to be Juan Ochoa.
On the other thing, I believe there are a couple of people historically known for founding HDO. Of those people, the closest reference in the indictment is Law Firm A, widely reported to be the firm Reyes Kurson.
In terms of who cooperated, probably best to stay within the bounds of primary documents and reports from reliable journalistic outlets. The main thrust of my comment was to note how much negative space was in the indictment, but I don’t think it’s wise to try and fill in those blanks too far on the strength of guesses.
- Blue Dog - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 8:34 am:
Rich and others. Mrs Blue and I would be willing to house a Ukranian refugee family here in so. Illinois. Amy suggestions?
- Responsa - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 8:36 am:
Somebody competent and level headed absolutely must step forward to run against LL. She is a national embarrassment.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 8:38 am:
Happy birthday, Chicago… 185 years.
- West Side the Best Side - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 8:43 am:
Any more Rich Miller-Mike Madigan conspiracy rants expected today?
- vern - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 8:52 am:
Forgive the long essay, but I’ve been reading and thinking about the Madigan indictment for a couple of days. Specifically I’ve been thinking about the proverbial dogs that didn’t bark.
The indictment alleges that Madigan tasked two people with criminal assignments: Mike McClain and Danny Solis. McClain was responsible for both the patronage and legislative elements of the ComEd relationship. Solis was responsible for leveraging city zoning needs into law firm business. If someone from outside of the state who had never heard of Madigan read only the indictment, they would assume that those two formed the inner circle of the Madigan Enterprise.
But if you rewind to five years ago, would anyone say that the Chicago alderman closest to Madigan was Danny Solis? That of the entire City Council, each of whom has ward prerogative zoning powers, only Solis would be trusted enough to bring in business for the big guy? I won’t risk banning by naming individuals, but those blanks should fill in pretty quickly. Even the most ardent Madigan-haters would be surprised if you traveled back in time to tell them the nexus of Madigan’s corruption was Chinatown.
As for McClain, he was certainly understood to be part of the inner circle. But the amount of eggs in the ComEd basket is odd. A wide-ranging probe of Madigan failing to turn up any other source of ghost-payrolling or illegal patronage is surprising. No state agency, municipal government, company or non-profit was stashing folks for the most powerful politician in the state? It’s certainly possible, but again I think folks from a few years ago would be surprised to hear it.
Then there’s the list of other people who have been indicted or searched in the last few years that don’t appear in the indictment. The feds got nothing on Madigan via Tim Mapes, Ed Burke, Luis Arroyo, Terry Link, Anazette Collins, Martin Sandoval, Jeff Tobloski, Mike Zalewski Sr or Kevin Quinn. Mapes is of particular interest, just because it’s hard to imagine Madigan entrusting McClain but not Mapes with his most sensitive tasks. Again, it’s certainly possible, but I also think it’s unlikely.
Then there’s Madiganland. I don’t think it’s particularly controversial or speculative to say that, at the height of his power, Madigan exercised an unusual amount of influence over the municipal governments in his district and the surrounding region. Some of those local governments have come under intense federal scrutiny in the last few years, but none of them appear in the indictment. None of the shenanigans in Oak Lawn, Lyons, Crestwood or McCook tied back to the boss. Also in the category of possible but surprising.
There’s a few possible explanations for all this, which I don’t think are mutually exclusive.
The first is that the most conspiratorial Madigan-haters were wrong about the centralization of corruption in Illinois. Certainly there was a lot of corruption, but it wasn’t all on the orders of one man. While folks in the Madigan sphere of influence have long been insulted as mushrooms or lackeys, many were political actors in their own right with ambitions, character flaws and greed all their own. It wasn’t a highly structured mafia, but a moral ecosystem.
The other conclusion I find safe to draw is that the feds didn’t find all or even most of the Madigan-adjacent criminal activity. It stretches belief that Madigan’s only two criminal activity subordinates were McClain and Solis. It stretches belief to think that Madigan had only one source of patronage or one source of illicit legal fees. It stretches belief that Madigan would accept quid pro quo law clients but not seek similar arrangements when advocating for those clients. In a lot of ways, the full allegations in the indictment fall into an uncanny valley of corruption, real enough to not dismiss but small enough to surprise.
I guess this is a long way around to saying that Madigan really did almost get away with it all. The feds only found one willing high-level cooperator and one lieutenant with sloppy email hygiene. Madigan’s layers of protection almost held. He paid taxes on everything and never wrote anything down. He went far out of his way to keep his fingerprints off of everything. Even in private in-person conversations he chose his words through the lens of evidentiary standards for bribery. My guess is that he’ll get convicted, but I’m not 100% sure. He was so dang careful.
- Anyone Remember - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 8:52 am:
Poetry and Prose.
Poetry: Where oh where did Illinois’ CAFR go?
Where oh where can it be?
With Assets cut short and Liabilities cut long.
Where oh where can it be?
Prose: 2/3rds of the way through FY 2022, and the FY 2021 CAFR is nowhere in sight. The Feds produced theirs in 4 ½ months (failed due to DoD failing). Wasn’t Rauner / DoIT’s financial ERP supposed to produce the CAFR within 6 months?
The CAFR, particularly if the Management Discussion & Analysis (MDA) is reviewed, can provide valuable information. For example, the FY 2021 cash report shows the June 30th budgetary balance for the General Funds in FY 2021 improved by $3.0 Billion (decreasing from -$5.8 B to -$2.8 B). Replicate that, and FY 2022 ends with a positive budgetary balance (first time since Edgar). The FY 2021 CAFR MDA would provide details as to why such “2003 / 2004 budgetary analysis methods” were not to be relied upon.
- OneMan - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:02 am:
So do we think the low level employee just decided on his own to come up with “Defending Madigan” talking points all on their own, on their own initiative?
https://www.wbez.org/stories/illinois-dems-now-disavowed-madigan-talking-points/c6b7dc9d-8c95-4e9b-990b-921cc4903fa1
- Bruce( no not him) - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:12 am:
- OneMan - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:02 am:
That was probably prepared ahead of time, like obituaries of famous people.
Someone didn’t get the memo “for God’s sake, don’t release that”
- hyperbolic liberal - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:30 am:
- OneMan - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:02 am:
Absolutely not. Regular staff do not write caucus-wide talking points, let alone a newly hired ILSIP. Caucus wide talking points are written entirely by senior staff and vetted multiple times , including the Issues Staff director. So I’m not sure why Rich isn’t questioning their response because it is a load spoiled milk.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:37 am:
=== So I’m not sure why Rich isn’t questioning their response===
She mistakenly sent out a draft that she didn’t write. Take a breath already.
- Captain Obvious - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 9:53 am:
Vern - that is the most insightful comment I have read in along time on this blog. And I agree with your second scenario. He dang near got away with it all. But I also believe that over 40 years an (im)moral ecosystem did develop where those with enough ambition and greed could flourish on their own as long as they did not get in the way of the boss.
- NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 10:36 am:
Not entirely Illinois related (unless you’re a vendor or stadium employee at Guaranteed Rate, Wrigley, or commute to STL to work at Busch Stadium). But one of the few bright spots coming out of the lockout has been MLB players starting a $1 million fund for workers impacted by the stoppage:
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20220304/sports/303049965/
IIRC there was a similar fund during the COVID-shortened season two years ago.
- NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 10:42 am:
This is common sense but Springfield medical facilities (including both hospitals and Springfield Clinic offices) are still requiring masks and will be for the foreseeable future despite the mandate being relaxed. SJ-R actually did a story on this this morning even though it is common sense (and I can’t see masks going away at med facilities for maybe at least a couple years):
https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/coronavirus/2022/03/04/masks-still-required-health-care-facilities-springfield-il-cdc/9364811002/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot
- OneMan - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 10:49 am:
=== So I’m not sure why Rich isn’t questioning their response===
Meh, that isn’t the interesting question about that if you ask me. The fact it went out, while embarrassing, likely wasn’t intentional. I am just curious if there was a thought about defending and citing ‘overreach’ as a high-level discussion or someone decided to write it up as an interesting exercise (”if we decided to defend how would we do it”).
If someone decided to write it up as a mental exercise tbh more power to them. Them actually doing this sort of thing (writing contra-arguments or taking a different perspective than expected) as a normal path of doing business is an interesting thought.
That’s the question I find more interesting tbh. Why it was created in the first place.
- flea - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 11:00 am:
Mr. Blue Dog,
ADM is bringing Ukraine employees to the states and is looking for hosts. You may call the Dcatur office. Very generous offer! thanks
- Huh? - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 11:02 am:
Vern - G is going to try and convict Madigan anyway they can. Madigan is going to be a trophy on a shelf. G found a weak spot. It won’t matter how Madigan was caught. Only that at long last, Mike Madigan was caught, tried and convicted.
Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion because of a letter his lawyer wrote. Not the years of bootlegging, murders, extortion, etc. G found a weak spot and got Al Capone on income tax evasion.
- Blue Dog - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 11:21 am:
Flea. ADM. archer daniels midland?
- Amalia - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 11:58 am:
Vern, so interesting (banned punctuation). you appear to have followed this very closely, so I wonder if you have commentary on the following: who is Elmwood Park in the indictment, and why has mr. inventor of HDO not been touched through all the Fed activity? once upon a time there was a woman at City Hall who seemed to be near more than one person who got indicted. Rumor was that she was a mole. Is there a mole?
- Steve Polite - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 11:59 am:
Blue Dog,
Yes, ADM is the same as Archer Daniels Midland located in Decatur.
- vern - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 12:23 pm:
Amalia -
The only reference to Elmwood Park in the indictment is as the home of BM-1, the ComEd board member who McClain and Madigan lobbied for. That board member has been widely reported to be Juan Ochoa.
On the other thing, I believe there are a couple of people historically known for founding HDO. Of those people, the closest reference in the indictment is Law Firm A, widely reported to be the firm Reyes Kurson.
In terms of who cooperated, probably best to stay within the bounds of primary documents and reports from reliable journalistic outlets. The main thrust of my comment was to note how much negative space was in the indictment, but I don’t think it’s wise to try and fill in those blanks too far on the strength of guesses.
- Amalia - Friday, Mar 4, 22 @ 1:12 pm:
thanks, Vern.