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 Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and members of his inner
circle are named in a federal subpoena served on a small village southwest of
Chicago.
An IRS agent on Feb. 14 delivered the subpoena that gives Merrionette Park, a
southwest Chicago suburb, until March 4 to deliver records to a federal grand
jury, according to a copy obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. The subpoena seeks
“correspondence with, or other communications (such as internal email messages)
documenting communications with, Michael Madigan, Michael McClain, Timothy Mapes,
Kevin Quinn and/or Marty Quinn.”
McClain is a former state lawmaker, former Commonwealth Edison lobbyist and
long-time Madigan confidant who was accused of setting up $30,000 in payments
through ComEd lobbyists to Kevin Quinn after he was ousted as a Madigan
political operative. Quinn was accused of sexual harassment by campaign worker
Alaina Hampton, who recently settled with Madigan’s campaign for $275,000.
 Quinn is the brother of Chicago Ald. Marty Quinn, who represents the 13th Ward
where Madigan lives.
Mapes was Madigan’s chief of staff until he was ousted by Madigan in 2018 over
complaints that he bullied state employees and made inappropriate comments in
the workplace.
A long-serving Madigan campaign worker is also a main subject of the subpoena.
Raymond Nice since 2006 worked for Madigan and since 2015 worked as a contractor
for Merrionette Park, according to the Sun-Times. Contracts, checks, payment
records and other documents explaining Nice’s work for the village were sought
by the subpoena. Nice declined comment.
Village attorney Burt Odelson said the village was still gathering records. He
said it did not appear anyone with the village did anything wrong.
McClain was interviewed by WBEZ and said federal agents tried to get him to help
them investigate ComEd and its political dealings. Part of the investigation is
into whether Madigan pressured ComEd to hire lobbyists but require little or no
work from them, the Sun-Times reported.
The newspaper did not reach a Madigan spokesman.
Nice was a business development consultant for the village, former Mayor Dennis
Magee said. Magee said he hired Nice because they were golfing buddies, but that
Nice did the work he was paid to do.
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Nice formerly worked for the Cook County recorder
of deeds, then worked as a ComEd lobbyist for Jay Doherty, also a
ComEd lobbyist and City Club of Chicago leader. WBEZ reported Nice
ended his ComEd work after federal agents raided City Club offices.
In the past year, federal investigators raided offices and homes
across the Chicago suburbs, with red-light traffic camera vendor
SafeSpeed LLC the common denominator in many. Agents appear to be
trying to establish whether pay-offs were made in exchange for
installing the cameras. Merrionette Park has no red-light cameras.
The cameras are responsible for taking $1 billion from drivers in
Illinois between 2008 and 2018, according to an Illinois Policy
Institute investigation. Studies show they fail to improve traffic
safety and increase some types of collisions, serving mainly as
municipal cash grabs.
State lawmakers are considering bills to restrict or ban the
cameras. Five corruption indictments have resulted from schemes to
place the cameras.
While the federal probes progress, Illinois lawmakers should work to
block further opportunities for corruption in Illinois. Pending
bills include:
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House Bill 4558, which would empower the
state’s weak legislative watchdog office and prevent lawmakers
from burying official reports on their colleagues’ misconduct.
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Senate Bill 2314, which would slow the
revolving door from state lawmaker to lobbyist, establishing a
two-year “cooling off” period.
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House Bill 4042, which would bar state
lawmakers from lobbying other units of government.
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House Bill 4041, which would end Springfield’s
honor system for disclosing conflicts of interest, instead
establishing clear rules for when state lawmakers must recuse
themselves from voting on a bill that would benefit them
personally.
Many of these corruption reforms were proposed in
2009 after Rod Blagojevich was impeached as governor for trying to
sell President Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. Blagojevich’s
sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump and ended Feb. 18,
meaning the reforms from his misdeeds have been held captive longer
than he was.
It’s past time for Illinois to release these anti-corruption
reforms.
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