About two weeks after his Illinois Democrats once again secured election wins and maintained their lock on the Illinois state capitol, more allies and associates of Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan have been hit with indictments in the unfolding bribery case that has encircled Illinois’ powerful Speaker.
According to the office of U.S. Attorney John Lausch Jr., those indicted include Michael McClain, of Quincy, a former Illinois state representative and Madigan loyalist, who worked as a lobbyist for decades;
Anne Pramaggiore, of Barrington, the former chief executive officer at electrical utility ComEd;
John Hooker, of Chicago, who served as ComEd’s executive vice president of legislative and external affairs from 2009-2012, and now works as a ComEd lobbyist; and
Jay Doherty, of Chicago, a consultant who led the City Club of Chicago and performed consulting services for ComEd for much of the past decade.
The indictments build on the charges brought against ComEd in the summer, which implicated Madigan – referred to as “Public Official A” in the various indictments – in a long-running bribery scheme, in which ComEd allegedly agreed to help Madigan by hiring his associates and political allies to no-work jobs or consulting contracts, or appoint Madigan associates to influential positions within the utility, in exchange for Madigan’s support for new laws that granted ComEd billions of dollars in return, at the expense of ComEd’s ratepayers and Illinois taxpayers.
The new charges also accuse the newly indicted defendants of taking other illegal actions to “influence and reward” Madigan, including leaning on ComEd to hire a Madigan-connected law firm and “to accept into ComEd’s internship program a certain amount of students” favored by Madigan.
The indictments further accuse Pramaggiore and McClain of working together to install a Madigan associate to the company’s board of directors.
Earlier indictments against ComEd accused the company of making payments totaling more than $1.3 million to Madigan associates. In exchange, the indictments said Madigan steered passage of legislation sought by ComEd, including controversial legislation which steered potentially billions of dollars worth of subsidies paid by electrical utility customers to ComEd and its parent company, Exelon, ostensibly to support ComEd’s aging nuclear power plants.
Hooker has also aided Madigan’s political organizations and the Illinois Democratic Party to solidify and maintain power in other ventures.
Presently, that system is dominated by Madigan, as the Speaker of the House, and other Democratic leaders in the Illinois General Assembly.
Critics say Madigan uses the 10-year remap work to reward political allies and hurt his opponents, by gerrymandering districts in a way that increases the likelihood Democratic loyalists will win election.
A grassroots coalition had sought to amend the Illinois state constitution to remove that power from lawmakers and hand that power over to a redistricting panel, which would redraw districts based on less political factors.
A sharply divided Illinois Supreme Court, however, dominated by Democrats, sided with Madigan, and ruled it would be unconstitutional to allow reformers to ask voters to amend the constitution.
According to a report published by reporter Ray Long, of the Chicago Tribune, a lawyer for McClain blasted the indictment against McClain, saying the government “in its zeal to find any evidence” against Madigan is trying to use the indictment to “pressure” McClain to turn on Madigan.
McClain’s attorney said he would fight the indictments, which he described as “attempting to rewrite the law on bribery and criminalize long-recognized legitimate, common and normal lobbying activity into some new form of crime.”
Madigan has not been indicted.
Madigan has served as Speaker of the Illinois House for nearly all of the past four decades. In that role, he controls nearly all of what happens in the General Assembly, which his Democrats dominate by a super majority.
Madigan also serves as chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party. Thanks to that role, he routinely amasses massive hauls of political donations, which he uses to reward loyalists across the state.
His allies are myriad, found throughout Illinois state and local governments, and in Washington, D.C., influencing governance and rules making at all levels in the state, and, by extension, the nation.