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The ball’s in your court, leaders

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Illinois

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

We’re going to talk some history today.

According to testimony at the federal ComEd Four trial, then-House Speaker Mike Madigan’s former 13th Ward Ald. Frank Olivo was brought on as a subcontractor under then- ComEd Chairman and CEO Frank Clark.

Clark retired in September 2011, almost a dozen years ago. He has never been charged nor has it ever been claimed he did anything illegal. And Olivo didn’t officially register as a lobbyist until the beginning of 2012, according to a 2019 report by NBC Chicago.

Olivo was put on ComEd lobbyist Jay Doherty’s payroll as a subcontractor, according to a secretly recorded video of a conversation Doherty had with ComEd’s top in-house lobbyist at the time, Fidel Marquez. Doherty explained that John Hooker, ComEd’s former top in-house lobbyist, was the person who carried the news to him.

It didn’t stop there, of course. The alleged ComEd scheme was drastically expanded and even perfected under Clark’s successor, ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, who appeared to express surprise when she was told by Marquez how, long ago, Olivo had been hired and by whom. “Oh my God,” she said on a secret government recording when told the news.

Pramaggiore, Doherty, Hooker and former statehouse lobbyist Mike McClain are now all on trial for allegedly carrying out a massive scheme to bribe Mike Madigan.

Give Madigan an inch, and he would always try to take a mile. But this sort of thing often happens with big bureaucracies, private and public. Assign a bureaucracy a task, and it’ll tend to stay on that path, sometimes to a ridiculously absurd conclusion — although rarely does that conclusion wind up with a federal criminal trial, as it has here.

Putting Olivo on the payroll eventually led to a level of absurdity that surpassed anything seen before or since, even if there are legitimate arguments the behavior was not criminal.

Needless to say, this is not how it was all supposed to end when Olivo was awarded a $4,000-a-month Doherty subcontract a dozen years ago.

But there’s an aspect to this lobbying topic that isn’t really being addressed at the ComEd Four trial.

Over the decades, Madigan built a giant “farm system” that became the backbone of his political and statehouse organization. Young people either started out on campaigns before they were put on Madigan’s issues staff or were subsequently sent out to work on campaigns after joining the staff.

The most favored were moved up to the top of the in-house food chain, and the most favored of them were eventually sent forth into the lobbying world, where they could make very good money and continue overseeing campaigns, training the young people hired for the next cycle.

Every other legislative leader had a similar operation, although none were nearly as extensive as Madigan’s far-flung operation. Madigan, as was his habit, “perfected” it to the point where companies and other special interests believed they had to hire his people as contract or in-house lobbyists or their bills wouldn’t advance.

A buddy of mine recently recalled a conversation with a former legislative leader who only half-jokingly predicted a certain bill wasn’t going anywhere because the proponents hadn’t yet hired enough Madigan people to work the legislation.

None of the current legislative leaders have been around long enough yet to set up anything like that. Senate President Don Harmon is the most senior leader, but he’s had the job a little over three years. House Speaker Chris Welch has led his chamber for a bit more than two years, and the two Republican leaders just started in January.

The ComEd Four trial should put a damper on such things going forward. Madigan and the other leaders branded this practice as building “goodwill,” and the accused have used that in their defense. Those who wanted something done did favors for people close to the leaders to grease the skids, and what could possibly be so horrible about that was the feeling.

But doing such things now could well be seen as attempted bribery by the feds.

To be clear, many of the lobbyists themselves are not the issue here. They participated in a tradition that started long before they came to the legislature. And none of them were charged by the feds in this case, after all.

But now the statehouse leaders need to figure out where to go from here.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 1, 23 @ 8:24 am

Comments

Com Ed’s Frank Clark was something of an operator. His former aide, Cheryl Hyman, was appointed as the Chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago by Daley, despite having no real background in academia. Her term was controversial. Eventually, Emanuel chose not to reappoint Hyman.

Comment by Gravitas Monday, May 1, 23 @ 8:40 am
Perhaps they will go back to the model established by a person better known as the ANTI Christ who got campaign workers from a state agency and carefully made sure the workers got “comp timer” for their efforts. Why waste hard o come by campaign bucks when tax dollars will do the trick?

Comment by Annonin' Monday, May 1, 23 @ 9:59 am
Very well written column. The Sun Times really has an edge in having a writer that has lived through and written about what has happened in Springfield over the years.
Respectfully just not buying into the idea that “The ComEd Four trail should put a damper on such things going forward”. I actually would like to agree, but thinking the only things that will slow the Madigan Legacy in “lobbying” down are convictions of the ComEd Four, long sentences and on going investigations of “lobbying” in Illinois by the FBI.

Comment by Back to the Future Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:25 am
The comp time scam was that one guy in one caucus and was a bit of a different animal.

As for what Rich Is describing, a guilty verdict certainly has the potential for shaking up the system as currently practiced.

Comment by low level Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:46 am
Madigan had been Speaker for two decades before the ComEd stuff grew from getting meter reader jobs to Board seats. I find it hard to believe another IL pol will be able to consolidate power the way Madigan did over his long career. Without that power and mystique, nobody is going to feel forced to hire a bunch of do-nothing campaign hacks.

At least at this scale, this grift is over for good in Illinois.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:52 am
I dealt with Frank Clark when I was on a local government board trying to remediate the largest manufactured gas plant pollution in the Chicago area from 1999 through 2003.

Frank Clark was very much involved at that time in the obfuscation of our requests to clean up the site.

I think he has some explaining to do on this matter and his dealings with Madigan.

Comment by Loop Lady Monday, May 1, 23 @ 1:20 pm
===nobody is going to feel forced to hire a bunch of do-nothing campaign hacks. ===

Agreed and it’s not my point. My point is about the beloved by the leader high level staffers who become lobbyists. And that will happen.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, May 1, 23 @ 1:25 pm
Fact of the matter is some of the folks in the legislature were brought on by working fo4 Madigan in one capacity or another.

This is not surprising, or a damnation of said legislators.

Comment by Loop Lady Monday, May 1, 23 @ 1:26 pm
===My point is about the beloved by the leader high level staffers who become lobbyists. And that will happen.===

Agreed. Will leaders have a special relationship with former staffers who become lobbyists? I would think so, and there’s nothing wrong with it. People tend to prefer dealing with others with whom they have a relationship. It’s about trust and experience and subject matter expertise. Will we see a new version of the Magic List? Only if the leaders are there for a long, long time.

My point is that I think a lot of this stuff ended with Madigan. 40 years at the top of the legislature is almost unthinkable for anyone else to duplicate. But ask me again in 10 years.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, May 1, 23 @ 1:34 pm
I view the demise of Mike Madigan and the Irish Democratic Machine politics the same way I view the demise of the Chicago Outfit. There was an Outfit gambling hit at a restaurant in my neighborhood. I saw the blood stains behind the yellow crime scene tape. We accepted this as normal.

Now Madigan and pay-for-play are past their time just like the Outfit. And once again it’s the federal authorities that have to prosecute corrupt enterprises here in Illinois, since we can’t do it ourselves, which is a disgrace. Not much has changed since Eliot Ness was brought to Chicago.

Comment by Payback Monday, May 1, 23 @ 2:46 pm
Where do statehouse leaders go from here? Do the opposite of what got Michael Madigan in trouble. He was powerful for a reason and they could learn some real lessons from that. This looks like a tight web.

Comment by Levois Monday, May 1, 23 @ 5:12 pm