Theresa Eagleson, Director
Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
Marc Smith, Director
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
Re: MCO Train Wreck
Dear Directors Eagleson and Smith:
My staff spent the day dealing with a deluge of inquiries and problems due to Illinois’ decision to precipitously dump 19,000 children into the MCO plan on Saturday despite knowing perfectly well what a train wreck it is. A few of the issues include:
• An MCO insisting to two different sets of adoptive parents that the plan’s “member” is the child (the child of one family is 9 and the child of the other child is 2) and that the MCO can only deal directly with the member unless the member signs a power of attorney. The MCO offered to mail form powers of attorneys to the “members” to sign so that the adoptive parents could access medical care for their young children.
• A 14-year-old adopted girl needed seizure medicine and her pharmacy wouldn’t take her card and couldn’t tell her adoptive parents where to go or what to do.
• The two adopted children of a woman got sick over the weekend and she has been trying to take them to a doctor today but no one is taking her card and she’s been getting the runaround.
• Adoptive parents trying to buy feeding tubes and other critical medical supplies for their adopted children.
These are just a sampling of the calls we have received today. I don’t want to be dramatic, but Illinois is going to end up with a dead child over the decision to prematurely dump all of these children in the MCO plan before all of these problems have been worked out. I implore that former youth in care be extended until April, as Illinois has already done for current youth in care.
Following reports of his alleged involvement in criminal activity, SafeSpeed, LLC terminated Omar Maani’s ownership interest in and association with the company, Sunday, February 2. Omar Maani did not and will not receive any money from the company as part of this process. The company does not believe Omar Maani should profit in any way from his alleged criminal behavior.
Until the reporting of events related to the federal criminal investigation last week, SafeSpeed did not know about the payment of government funds totaling $70,000 by Mr. Maani to Senator Sandoval and had no knowledge of the government’s use of SafeSpeed to further its investigation. That conduct did not benefit SafeSpeed; in fact, the alleged criminality of Mr. Maani and Senator Sandoval has caused significant harm to SafeSpeed’s business and its reputation. Mr. Maani’s alleged criminal activity was done without the Company’s authority; his alleged criminal actions violate every trust the Company placed in him, and contradict and undercut the company’s important work with local municipalities to promote traffic safety and save lives.
While Mr. Maani held a minority ownership interest in SafeSpeed, he has not been active in the Company’s business’s management or operations for more than a year.
To be clear, Omar Maani’s alleged criminality does not reflect the values and integrity of SafeSpeed and its employees—the people who work hard at the company every day and are invested in its success and integrity.
SafeSpeed applauds the government for rooting out corruption. We stand resolute in our commitment to continue to serve Illinois municipalities with honesty, integrity, and a commitment to the law.
The politically connected red-light camera company at the center of former state Sen. Martin Sandoval’s brazen bribery scheme has been hit along with Sandoval and several suburban officials with a federal racketeering lawsuit.
The lawsuit targets SafeSpeed LLC as well as Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski, his chief of staff Patrick Doherty, former Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci, Alsip Mayor John Ryan and Summit Mayor Sergio Rodriguez.
Other defendants include Oakbrook Terrace, former Chicago Deputy Aviation Commissioner Bill Helm, former Justice police chief Robert Gedville, Worth Township Supervisor John O’Sullivan, former state Rep. Michael Carberry, Summit Police Chief John Kosmowski and Bill Mundy, head of public works in Summit.
Finally, the lawsuit names SafeSpeed co-founders Nikki Zollar and Chris Lai, as well as SafeSpeed stakeholders Omar Maani and Khalid “Cliff” Maani.
This is the same plaintiff who is suing because he didn’t get a job at PACE allegedly because of Sandoval. The suit is here.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has announced that statewide adult-use cannabis sales in January totaled $39,247,840.83. Dispensaries across the state sold 972,045 items over the 31-day period. Sales to Illinois residents totaled $30,611,632.22, while sales to out-of-state residents totaled $8,636,208.61. A portion of every cannabis sale will be reinvested in communities harmed most by the failed war on drugs.
“The successful launch of the Illinois’ legal cannabis industry represents new opportunities for entrepreneurs and the very communities that have historically been harmed by the failed war on drugs,” said Toi Hutchinson, Senior Advisor for Cannabis Control to Gov. Pritzker. “The administration is dedicated to providing multiple points of entry into this new industry, from dispensary owners to transporters, to ensure legalization is equitable and accessible for all Illinoisans.”
Last month, the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) released applications for cannabis infuser, craft grower and transporter licenses. The applications are available on the Department’s website here. IDOA will begin accepting completed applications on Friday, February 14 and all cannabis infuser, transporter and craft Grower applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. CST on Monday, March 16, 2020.
Social equity applicants will receive additional points on their application and are eligible to receive technical assistance, grants, low-interest loans and fee reductions and waivers. In the coming weeks, IDOA will be partnering with the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to provide information workshops across the state to answer questions and assist interested applicants. Additional information about the timing and location of workshops will be available in the coming days.
I decided Saturday to drop by the Joliet dispensary on a fact-finding mission on my way home from a funeral and the line was about an hour long, the place was way under-staffed and the product selection was minimal. Still, it’s finally legal and pretty much everyone in that line was just happy to be there.
Monday, Feb 3, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Yesterday was Groundhogs Day. While Punxsutawney Phil could not find his shadow - let’s make sure President Trump does, and send him back to Mar-a-Lago permanently in November.
Trump is a pathological liar who lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan.
Mike is focused on the issues: gun safety, health care and the environment.
While Trump tried to distract America on cable news, Mike was in El Paso, Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles releasing plans on immigration, tax reform and housing.
The most glaring omission in the governor’s address, however, was the state’s overwhelming pension underfunding crisis—an exclusion that had pundits straining to find new ways to describe the avoidance of uncomfortable conversations without invoking the proverbial elephant or gorilla in the room. To be fair, Pritzker did nod to passage of a bill last year to allow police and fire pensions outside Chicago to consolidate statewide, but the savings that will result will be nowhere near enough to fill the shortfall in the state’s public employee pensions.
What the governor apparently would rather not discuss is the need for real, structural tax reform to put the state on a path toward actuarially sound financial terrain. Pols at the Capitol and in Chicago’s City Hall want us to believe budget salvation lies in sin taxes on gambling and pot. But an agreement between the Lightfoot administration and Springfield on the best way to divvy up casino revenue and licenses has been elusive, to put it charitably. Meanwhile, the legalization of the marijuana market, with its high taxes and low supply, seems to have done more to drive pot buyers into the arms of black market purveyors than to raise a meaningful and reliable revenue stream. And yet, even if these two new taxing opportunities had been rolled out to perfection, they wouldn’t come close to being enough to fill the pension hole, which widened $3.8 billion to reach $137.3 billion at the end of fiscal 2019.
What Illinois needs even more than an intelligently functioning marijuana market and an amicable arrangement on casino revenue is a constitutional amendment allowing the state to undo the automatic cost-of-living hikes built into public pensioners’ plans—the ones that exceed the actual cost of living and are causing our debt to spiral ever upward.
The graduated income tax proposal that forms the basis of so many of Pritzker’s plans requires a constitutional amendment—creating an opening to push through a pension fix at the same time. Pritzker won’t walk through that door, no doubt because the unions that helped him win office wouldn’t like it much. But the responsibility Pritzker won was to represent the interests of all Illinoisans, not just those who carry a union card.
The governor is not a dictator. He cannot simply command legislators to do his bidding. We had three populist governors in a row who tried that route and they all failed to one extent or another.
Cutting off their paychecks didn’t work (both times it was tried), holding up a state budget for two years didn’t work, saying members were spending state money like “drunken sailors” didn’t work, threatening to finance primary opponents didn’t work (both times). He has pro-union Democratic super-majorities in both chambers and a sizable chunk of the Republican caucuses wouldn’t go anywhere near a constitutional amendment. And there is some doubt whether it could even pass muster with the voters if it got that far.
By all means, keep pounding on the guy if you want. It’s a free country. Just recognize that there’s only so much a governor can do. Even this one.
As corruption scandals worm through the establishment Democratic Party, Gov. J.B. Pritzker finds himself with new and unexpected leverage. He can push for meaningful ethics reform in Illinois government by removing the barricades his own party’s leaders erected in the past. Those Democrats are wounded. He is not.
So will he lead on real reform?
“Restoring the public’s trust is of paramount importance,” Pritzker said during last week’s State of the State address while his two chamber leaders — House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President Don Harmon — stood at the dais behind him. “Let’s not let the well-connected and well-protected work the system while the interests of ordinary citizens are forgotten. There is too much that needs to be accomplished to lift up all the people of Illinois.”
That effort starts with drawing a fair map of legislative districts after this year’s federal census. It could happen through constitutional change.
Pritzker said as a candidate for governor he supported amending the Illinois Constitution to take the process out of the hands of lawmakers: “We should amend the constitution to create an independent commission to draw legislative maps.” More recently, he said he would not sign into law an unfair map.
He issued the veto pledge around the same time, but whatevs. And fair maps could also happen with a state law: 60-30-1 is a lot easier than 71-36.
Another hot topic that must have been cut from the final draft of Pritzker’s speech: remap reform, a subject that must be aired out as lawmakers prepare to redraw legislative and congressional districts after this year’s national census. Will the governor demand fair maps that give all Illinoisans a say in the state’s business no matter where they live? He missed an opportunity to call on the General Assembly to make it so.
The fairest map imaginable will not elect Republican legislators in hardcore Democratic areas nor will it elect Democrats in overwhelmingly Republican turf (2018 saw a major, if perhaps temporary, shift in voters’ party orientation, not in the maps).
What a fair map would do is make sure that legislators aren’t choosing their voters. Legislators may have large, extended family in certain parts of their districts and they may want those folks in their redrawn districts. They may have represented one area of the district as a mayor or township supervisor or whatever, or they may have a business in a town or are active in a local church or school district and they’ll want those folks who know them well in their new districts. Or they might see an up and comer and want that person mapped out of their districts. Right now, incumbents draw the maps, so they have an unfair advantage over any potential challenger (primary or general) who does not draw those maps. A fair map system would level that particular playing field.
Probably above all else, legislators also want their residences to remain within their districts. A blindly drawn map wouldn’t necessarily take that into account.
One definition of a politically “fair” map is one that results in a balance of power in the state legislature and the U.S. congressional delegation that reflects the partisan divide in that state. If roughly 55% of voters in any state are Democrats, then roughly 55% of the seats should be won by Democratic candidates, for example.
Easier said than done. Mapmakers have to take into account civil rights laws that guarantee majority-minority districts, and they often strive to keep natural communities of interest together. Even those with the purest of motives can end up drawing crazily shaped districts that may or may not seem “fair” to certain constituencies or governors.
But if it could be done in Illinois to be fair to Republicans, should it? Those who study the issue of gerrymandering estimate that, nationwide, the current political maps give the Republican Party at least 20 more seats in Congress than their actual voting strength ought to give them. Research published in 2017 showed North Carolina had three more Republican seats in Congress than it should if the state delegation mirrored the electorate. Republicans in Michigan had two more seats than they deserved.
Meanwhile, Illinois had one more Democratic seat than a “fair” map would yield.
The Democrats have since picked up two more congressional seats, but those were won in districts that were considered pretty darned Republican when they were drawn.
In other words, yes, we are most definitely gerrymandered here. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Democrats have given themselves an egregious partisan advantage. As Senate President Don Harmon recently noted, “Gov. Rauner won 35 or so Senate [districts]” in 2014. There are several seats the Republicans could very well be expected to pick up this year if they weren’t facing such strong DC headwinds. This is politics. Them’s the breaks.
In the biggest Chicago-area Democratic primary, embattled Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., enters the final weeks of the 3rd Congressional District campaign with more cash-on-hand than chief rivals Marie Newman and Rush Darwish.
And in the major Republican primary in the Chicago region, the willingness of state Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, to self-finance his bid — he’s put in $1 million so far — puts him ahead of his key competitors in the seven-way contest for the 14th Congressional District seat held by freshman Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill.
His main competition, state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, and Ted Gradel, a Naperville businessman, also made substantial loans to their bids. They each outraised Oberweis in the last quarter of 2019.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., is the Illinois House fundraising champion, and he faces only nominal primary opposition and no Republican opponent. He has stockpiled a stunning $6,895,927 in campaign cash — more than twice than Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., who ranks second with $3,330,558 cash on hand.
For the three-month period ending Sept. 30, Lipinski reported donations of $176,741, expenses of $191,690 and a balance of $693,088. Newman reported donations of $345,640, expenses of $183,278 and a balance of $514,237. Darwish reported receipts of $210,779, expenses of $83,943 and a balance of $318,113.
13th District: Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigen out-raised incumbent GOP Rep. Rodney Davis in Q4 2019. Londrigan took in $531,090 and is holding $1.14 million heading into a Dem primary against little-known Stefanie Smith. Davis raised $360,937 and has $1.1 million cash on hand. […]
14th District: Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood raised $878,087 in Q4 and has $1.7 million in the bank. There are three leading GOP candidates in the money race: state Sen. Jim Oberweis raised $726,209 and has $1.1 million COH; Ted Gradel raised $269,650 and has $649,126 COH; and state Sen. Sue Rezin raised $217,074 and has $329,389 COH. Four other GOP candidates lag behind, each holding under $40,000.
6th District: Dem. Rep. Sean Casten has $1.9 million COH after raising $639,054 in Q4 2019. He’s awaiting the outcome of the GOP primary between Jeanne Ives and Jay Kinzler. Ives raised $267,997 in Q4 and has $313,366 COH. Kinzler raised $150,903 and has $145,534 COH.
Thoughts?
…Adding… Press release…
With just 43 days before the Illinois primary, conservative Darren Duncan has shown himself to be the clear frontrunner in the race to replace incumbent Congressman John Shimkus.
As Federal Election Commission fundraising reports were filed Friday, Duncan showed immense strength, even though he had a three month delay on Mary Miller raising money and putting together an operation. Duncan closed the end of the year with over $200,000 cash on hand, while Miller’s campaign showed about $100,000.
Miller has tried to portray herself as a fundraising juggernaut in the initial months of her campaign, but it appears much of her rhetoric was inflated. Of Miller’s roughly $100,000 cash on hand, almost $60,000 of it, more than half, is earmarked for the General Election. That means she can’t touch it without the risk of having to pay it back if she loses the primary.
None of Darren Duncan’s Q4 contributions were earmarked for November, meaning every dollar in his campaign account is accessible before March 17.
Duncan has amassed tens of thousands of views on his first web ad, “He’ll Help Trump,” and will be on the air beginning Tuesday.
Since entering the race, Duncan has put together a district-wide operation and has positioned himself as the conservative candidate who will help Donald Trump pass a conservative agenda in Washington.
A seventh-generation farmer, Duncan was endorsed by former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway and the Rural America Counts PAC, chaired by Arkansas Republican Congressman Rick Crawford. He’ll be rolling out high profile local endorsements in the coming days.
The clock is ticking to March 17 and Darren Duncan has shown himself to be the frontrunner for Congress.
Pritzker said “over the past year, Illinois has reduced its unemployment rate more than all of the top 20 most populated states in the nation — and more than our Midwestern peers.”
Federal data back that up. However, the differences between those states’ reductions are minimal, and Illinois’ unemployment rate remains higher than 12 of the states included in that comparison.
The U of I Flash Index began the new year with a slight decline in January, falling to 105.4 from its 105.6 reading in December.
The index remains in the narrow range it has occupied the last 18 months. “This reflects the now-familiar story of both the national and Illinois economies continued growth at a moderate, steady rate,” said University of Illinois economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the monthly index for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. An index reading above 100 denotes growth.
The recently-released fourth-quarter GDP growth rate shows a return to the near 2 percent level that has seems to be the new norm with 2.1 percent, 2.1 percent, and 2.0 percent registered respectively for the last three quarters. “On a positive note, this is actually good news compared with recession fears raised mid-year in 2019,” Giertz said.
The Illinois employment rate fell to 3.7 percent, the lowest in more than 50 years and only two-tenths of a percentage point above the national level.
Two components of the index, the corporate and individual income tax receipts, declined. Sales tax receipts increased slightly compared with the same month last year after adjusting for inflation. The lower corporate receipts may be a response to strong revenues over the last quarter of 2019.
State Representatives Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) and Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore) issued the following statement today upon the announcement that the Ferrara Candy Company will move into a new 1.6 million-square-foot distribution center in the ChicagoWest Business Center near Interstate 88 by the end of 2020:
“Today’s announcement from Ferrara brings a significant investment of 1,000 new jobs that will boost our local economy in the DeKalb region, with 500 new jobs in the first phase alone. We have both said that creating jobs is one of our top priorities. As part of the bipartisan state budget and capital bill approved by the General Assembly last year, we were able to enact pro-business reforms that will lay the groundwork for thousands of new jobs for years to come. Specifically, these reforms included the creation of the Blue Collar Jobs Act to attract large-scale construction; reinstatement of the Manufacturer’s Purchase Credit to encourage further investments in manufacturing in Illinois; and elimination of the Franchise Tax. Passage of these pro-business reforms made it possible for DeKalb to land Ferrara to the ChicagoWest Business Center, and the capital bill secured the funding necessary to prepare the site for such a large investment.
The third-party audit certified by Auditor General Frank Mautino found the [State Board of Elections] had not adequately protected confidential or personal information “most susceptible to attack.”
“The lack of adequate cybersecurity programs and practices could result in unidentified risk and vulnerabilities and ultimately lead to the Board’s volumes of personal information being susceptible to cyber-attacks and unauthorized disclosure,” according to the audit.
The audit’s finding comes after Russian intelligence officers tried to hack into Illinois’ voter registration database in the run up to the 2016 presidential election.
The hackers accessed at least 76,000 voters’ data, but were unable to change voter information data, according to Illinois officials. An indictment obtained by former special counsel Robert Mueller alleged that two officers of the Kremlin’s Main Intelligence Directorate stole voter data from Illinois.
The Elections Board lacks “an adequately documented and tested disaster recovery plan” according to the audit.
McHenry and Nunda Township Road District officials have named Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in a lawsuit challenging a decision to afford voters to right to eliminate townships.
Pritzker signed a law in August allowing McHenry County voters to dissolve the area’s 17 townships through referendum. The new law is an initiative to reduce property taxes in McHenry County by reducing levels of government. If a township is dissolved, its operations, property and employees would be transferred to the county government. The option to eliminate both McHenry and Nunda Townships will appear on the March ballot, but the townships road districts’ officials have questioned whether the law is constitutional. […]
McHenry Township Highway Commissioner James Condon agreed that the law’s specificity to McHenry County means that it is “special legislation,” and therefore in violation of the Illinois constitution.
“It’s our understanding that the constitution doesn’t allow you to write a law that is specific to one group when that same law can be applied to all groups, in other words, to the whole state,” Condon said. “And the law they wrote, they apply only to McHenry County. So they’re singling McHenry County out.”
State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, introduced the bill, which was signed into law in August. Reached by phone Friday, McSweeney wasn’t concerned about the road districts’ amended lawsuit, calling it “a complete waste of time.”
The General Assembly shall pass no special or local law when a general law is or can be made applicable. Whether a general law is or can be made applicable shall be a matter for judicial determination.
This is a standard pilot project, so I’m figuring it’ll be fine with the courts. We shall see.
Mary Miller, Candidate for Congress in the 15th District, will debut her first television spot to coincide with the Super Bowl.
The ad highlights Miller’s support for President Donald Trump, religious freedom and the recent Illinois Farm Bureau ACTIVATOR endorsement.
The ad will debut in conjunction with the Super Bowl and will also run during the State of the Union Address.
Miller (no relation that I know of) is embroiled in a four-way GOP primary race to replace retiring GOP US Rep. John Shimkus. President Trump won this district by 45.5 percentage points in 2016. She is married to Rep. Chris Miller, an Eastern Bloc member. I do not know how much money she has behind this spot.
I’m Mary Miller. My husband and I run a grain and cattle farm. But the crop I’m most proud of are our seven children, who grew up to be strong, Trump-loving Christian conservatives.
Today, Democrats are turning freedom of religion into freedom from religion, degrading our Christian values and our way of life. That’s why I’m running for Congress.
I’ll put an end to godless socialism, defend the unborn and support President Trump’s America First agenda.
Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, was elected to the Senate’s top job on Jan. 19. The election was preceded by two months of constant intrigue, horse-trading, betrayal and plenty of angry finger-pointing.
Along the way, egos were bruised, friendships and alliances were torn, and careers were damaged.
Harmon’s predecessor, John Cullerton, was the Senate president for 11 years before he abruptly announced his retirement in November. Michael Madigan became the Illinois House Speaker in 1983 and, except for two years after the 1994 national Republican landslide, he’s ruled his chamber ever since. He’s served with five different Senate presidents and is the longest-serving legislative leader in American history.
Madigan has chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 22 years after he took command from his former protege and chief of staff, Gary LaPaille. Madigan has been the Democratic committeeman for Chicago’s 13th Ward since 1969. He is, by many measures, the most successful politician in state history.
Madigan takes care of his House members similarly to how he would treat a family member, maybe better. Everything they need, from jobs to sports tickets to getting their relatives out of trouble, is done for them. He routinely raises more than $30 million every campaign cycle to keep his members in office and defeat Republican incumbents.
He has, in other words, made himself irreplaceable to his members.
But after watching the Senate Democrats slug it out among themselves, I started wondering what replacing Speaker Madigan might look like.
“It’s hard for me to swallow how [people] make so much off of you. Right? And I gotta do the work.”
That’s from the July 31, 2018 federal surveillance of now-former state Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) complaining, according to media reports, to one of the founders of the red-light camera company SafeSpeed. Sandoval was bemoaning how he was killing and passing bills on the company’s behalf while watching other people make bank off the red-light cam industry.
This was, apparently, not new behavior for Sandoval. “I usually say, ‘What’s reasonable? You tell me,” Sandoval told the SafeSpeed official when discussing what his bribe would be. He was obviously practiced at shaking people down and ended up demanding $5,000 a month.
His plea deal claims he took $70,000 from the SafeSpeed official (the money was supplied by the government). Overall, though, Sandoval “accepted over $250,000 in bribes as part of criminal activity that involved more than five participants.”
Well, at least we now know how Sandoval could afford the expensive suits he always wore.
The feds may have had Sandoval under surveillance since at least August 16, 2017, when they apparently recorded a phone conversation with the SafeSpeed official about the company’s annual $10,000 campaign contribution.
The feds raided Sandoval’s Statehouse office two years later, in late September of 2019. They seized $3,000 in cash that day and another $18K a few weeks later.
Sandoval has agreed to cooperate in full, meaning all those folks he shook down, or who eagerly ponied up cash to get something done or who profited with him on villainous schemes probably haven’t been sleeping well.
He was the longtime chairman of the Transportation Committee, so it’s assumed Sandoval will be giving up road-building industry types. His federal search warrant mentioned several other types of companies and individuals, including video gaming and sweepstakes businesses.
His plea agreement notes that Sandoval “also engaged in corrupt activities with other public officials.” So, we can expect him to roll over on whoever those folks may be. I assume we can start with some of the local officials whose offices were raided right around the same time as Sandoval’s was searched.
Sandoval was a brazenly greedy bully who specialized in intimidating people who needed something from their government.
His annual golf fundraiser, which was a must-attend for anyone who needed something from him, had grown to lavish excess. And last August, the event wound up attracting unfavorable national news coverage when photos emerged of a server “shooting” someone wearing a Donald Trump mask with a tequila gun. It’s probably no surprise that some of the people who helped Sandoval run that gaudy fundraiser are also under federal scrutiny.
But maybe Sandoval can finally do some good for his state (and himself, by reducing his prison sentence) by helping weed out the people who prefer to take the short-cut of illegal cash rather than doing the real work usually required to get things done.
Also, here’s a little bit of unsolicited advice: If you’re a legislator or a local government official and you’re starting to become envious of the people around you who are making a lot of money, please quit your job right away. Go be a lobbyist or something. Or stop hanging out with rich people.
I’ve seen this happen over and over again and it never ends well. Save yourself the trouble and get out now. There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to better one’s financial situation. But if you can’t do it honestly then you’re heading for disaster. You will be caught. Heck, you may already be caught and don’t even know it, like Sandoval was for two years.
Just go away.
And the leaders have to stop enabling these people. It was no big surprise when Sandoval was busted. Yet, Senate President John Cullerton routinely assigned red-light camera regulation bills to Sandoval’s committee knowing exactly what he would do with them, and also put Sandoval in charge of the massive infrastructure bill last year.
And House Speaker Michael Madigan created a new appropriations committee especially for now-former Rep. Luis Arroyo to oversee the capital plan’s formation. That’s like giving a gas can to a pyromaniac. Arroyo (D-Chicago) was arrested last year for bribery.
Yes, the people of their districts elected them, but the leaders do not have to continually enable their worst clowns.
