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* Crain’s Chicago Business reported on this story almost a month ago. Here’s the Tribune…
Nearly four years ago, legislation that aimed to help low-income electricity customers was making its way to the floor of an Illinois House chamber tightly controlled by its longtime speaker, Michael Madigan.
The bill’s main advocate: Madigan’s daughter, then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan. One of its primary opponents: Commonwealth Edison, the state’s largest electric utility.
By the time the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session was over, ComEd won — because, according to federal prosecutors, Michael Madigan paved the way.
In what may be one of the most intriguing chapters of the federal indictment filed earlier this month against ex-Speaker Madigan, prosecutors alleged he greenlighted efforts to kill his own daughter’s legislation as he pressed ComEd to give jobs to two political allies, including a coveted position on the utility’s board of directors.
“His own daughter’s legislation” is a bit much. They were occasionally at odds, even when she was in the Senate. It was nothing personal with him, just business. And maybe crooked business, if the feds are proved right.
* And ComEd still stands by its 2018 position…
Even today, ComEd said it opposed the plan “because it would have hurt customers.” The utility estimated it would have cost customers $20 million upfront to cover expenses, such as customer system modifications and training, as well as an additional $146 million annually, ComEd’s Shannon Breymaier said.
“It would have put significant restrictions on ComEd’s ability to collect utility service charges from customers who could afford to pay their bills and required costly changes to ComEd’s billing and collection systems,” Breymaier said in an email. “Those costs ultimately would have been paid by our customers, not ComEd.”
* The BGA is finally getting around to reporting on this story that happened two weeks ago…
Following a review by state bureaucracies, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office has lifted a freeze on funding for projects earmarked by Illinois’ now-indicted former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
The temporary freeze came after a group of nine Democratic state representatives requested it in the wake of Madigan’s 22-count indictment on corruption charges on March 2. […]
But two days after their initial letter to Pritzker the same group of lawmakers, led by State Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, backtracked and asked Pritzker to unfreeze the funding after getting pushback from other lawmakers in the state’s Latino caucus. […]
In an email to the BGA on Wednesday, the governor’s top spokeswoman said the review has been completed and the governor ordered the funds released in a March 11 letter. The governor’s office also provided the memos from state agencies detailing the results of the review.
There is no indication in the documents provided to suggest the Pritzker-ordered reviews touched on the lawmakers’ initial requests to examine whether the projects were “appropriate” or whether any conflicts of interest existed.
* Neil Steinberg reviews Ray Long’s new book for the Washington Monthly…
A few chapters are set pieces, capturing the vicissitudes of Illinois politics. There is the drama of June 30, 1988, as Republican Governor Jim Thompson joins Madigan to try to fund a new ballpark for the White Sox when the team is all but on a plane to Florida. The deed had to be done before midnight, when a change in the legislature’s makeup would doom the effort. But Madigan “made time stand still”—literally. He stopped the clock at midnight so that he and Thompson could twist arms while opponents sang that “Na na na na / Na na na na / Hey, hey-ey, goodbye” song that Sox fans use to jeer opposing pitchers off the field.
The episode is so much fun, with that near-biblical stopping of the sun, that it’s possible to overlook—puff away the obfuscating fog of fandom—that government officials were bending the law to put public money into the pockets of a private business.
* Brenden Moore interviews Ray Long…
There’s a chapter on “Operation Cobra,” Madigan’s stealth plan to temporarily raise the state’s income tax in 1989. It passed the House in less than a day with only Democratic votes.
Long said that the legislative attack “caught Thompson totally surprised,” writing that it was “the biggest raw power play I ever saw Speaker Madigan pull off.”
By contrast, when lawmakers voted in 2017 to approve a Madigan-backed plan to end the state’s two-year budget impasse, Long said that Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner “knew it was coming and he couldn’t do anything about it because Madigan outmaneuvered him politically.”
The old-timers’ Operation Cobra stories often kept me awake at night wondering if I’d talked to enough people that day to ensure I didn’t get surprised like Thompson was.
…Adding… Politico…
hTe specter of former House Speaker Michael Madigan is entering the campaign on how the City Council’s ward maps will be redrawn.
In a new poll commissioned by the Latino Caucus and its supporters, respondents were informed that the Chicago United map supported by the City Council’s Rules Committee and the Black Caucus “was drafted by Michael Madigan’s lawyer.”
According to a polling memo obtained by Playbook, more than two-thirds, 69 percent, of respondents indicated “that is a convincing reason to vote against the Chicago United map.”
The memo states: “Perceptions of Madigan aren’t just negative, they are intensely negative — nearly two-thirds (64 percent) give him a strongly unfavorable rating. Negative perceptions of Madigan extend across all regions of the city and important voter subgroups like Democrats (84 percent unfavorable), Independents (85 percent unfavorable), and white voters (91 percent unfavorable).”
And just in case we didn’t get it, the memo continues, “Madigan is nearly universally disliked in Chicago.”
OK, except the Latino Caucus has a Madigan person of their own working on the remap. So, if they go there, the other side may as well and any advantage goes up in smoke.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 9:12 am
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In a way I kinda feel sorry for Lisa.
Comment by Blue Dog Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 9:39 am
Interesting section in book about Lisa not running for Governor and Mike Madigan comment on her decision saying she knew he was not retiring. Guess you have to dance with the one that brung ya
Comment by DuPage Saint Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 10:11 am
The lawyer for the Latino map is “on tape” admitting to a crime of quid pro quo
Comment by Wow Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 10:20 am
MJM is damned if he didn’t, damned if he did. If he let a bill move that was Lisa’s everyone would’ve cried favoritism for family, and now that he didn’t everyone will cry about that. As for the map, if you don’t have someone working an issue that came up through those ranks, odds are you don’t have the best. Period.
Comment by ;) Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 10:22 am
===OK, except the Latino Caucus has a Madigan person of their own working on the remap. So, if they go there, the other side may as well and any advantage goes up in smoke.===
Yup, arguably a worse Madigan person. Mike Kasper isn’t a name in Madigan’s indictment.
Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 10:28 am
On the 35th Street exit on the Dan Ryan a bunch of Lisa Madigan for AG signs popped up over the weekend.
Comment by Todd & Margo Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 11:42 am
I see we’re all taking time again to feel bad that the runner born (or adopted in this case) onto third base didn’t get home.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 11:49 am
I’m about 1/3 of the way through Long’s book and it is PDG so far.
Comment by Ben Gazzara Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 12:12 pm
Sorry - I know Kaspar is part of the Chicago United / Black Caucus map, but who is the Madigan person working with the Latino Caucus?
Comment by low level Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 12:24 pm
@low level
Law Firm A
Comment by TradedUpForMitch Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 12:28 pm
Another question and please forgive my ignorance but what exactly was the issue with Operation Cobra? Thompson was blindsided? So what?
Comment by low level Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 12:32 pm
I would think the Council Rules Committee Map is gonna be hard to pass in a Referendum if an organized and well funded Campaign is financed by the Latino Map supporters. Especially worth noting are the favorable boundaries created for the 13th Ward in the Rules Committee Map. Most folks would not consider this a coincidence given Kasper’s relationship with 13th Ward Committeman Michael Madigan and Alderman Marty Quinn. Bottom line….Madigan could be a big drag not only on the Democratic Ticket, but probably also on the Rules Committee Map.
Comment by Ryder Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 1:21 pm
@Ryder How is the proposed boundary on the rules committee map of the 13th ward more favorable than the one drawn on the Latino map?
Comment by Sox11 Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 1:55 pm
== Law Firm A==
Sorry, who is Law Firm A again?
Comment by low level Monday, Mar 28, 22 @ 2:53 pm
@Low Level - Victor Reyes.
@Ryder - I disagree. Look at the Latino map, the only non-latino caucus member from the northside they got was Brian Hopkins ONLY because they included Lincoln Yards for him. And the negatives haven’t started yet on the Latino map, but really easy to say “Why is dark money (Change IL) trying to take away Black power in Chicago?”
Comment by Remap Tuesday, Mar 29, 22 @ 6:41 am