House Speaker Michael Madigan and Illinois Democrats maintain fundraising edge despite ongoing corruption probe
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s main campaign fund has continued footing the bill for legal fees related to an ongoing federal corruption probe even as it and three other funds he controls spend heavily to support Democratic candidates seeking to build on the party’s dominance in the General Assembly.
Friends of Michael J. Madigan paid more than $129,000 in legal fees from July through September to law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, according to the fund’s most recent quarterly state campaign finance disclosure and a Madigan spokeswoman. Madigan’s campaign fund paid Katten nearly $600,000 in the first half of 2020.
While the federal public corruption investigation has ensnared some Madigan associates, he has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has repeatedly denied doing anything improper.
Last quarter’s legal fees were a small fraction of the $7 million spent by Friends of Michael J. Madigan and the three other funds controlled by the speaker, who also chairs the state Democratic Party. The other funds are the 13th Ward Democratic Organization, Democratic Majority and the Democratic Party of Illinois.
The quarterly reports, filed ahead of a Thursday deadline, cover the period during which the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago announced a deferred prosecution agreement with Commonwealth Edison in which the state’s largest utility admitted to engaging in a yearslong bribery scheme aimed at winning Madigan’s favor.
The powerful Southwest Side Democrat has denied having any knowledge of the scheme, which includes payments, jobs and contracts being awarded to his allies.
Madigan has declined to be interviewed by a special House committee investigating whether he engaged in “conduct unbecoming to a legislator” and should face potential discipline. Accusing Republicans of politicizing its work ahead of the upcoming election, the committee’s chairman, Democratic state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside, has postponed hearings until after Nov. 3.
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The intensifying controversy surrounding Madigan, which includes calls for his resignation from a handful of House Democrats, hasn’t turned off the tap of campaign contributions. The four funds together raised nearly $4.3 million in the key preelection quarter, campaign finance records show. More than half of that, $2.4 million, was raised by Friends of Michael J. Madigan, which took in $1.7 million from labor unions and other political action committees.
The four funds ended the third quarter on Sept. 30 with nearly $20 million in the bank.
Republicans have focused on the ongoing investigation and the cloud hanging over Madigan in their campaigns for seats in the state legislature, where they’re currently outnumbered 74-44 in the House and 40-19 in the Senate.
A backlash against President Donald Trump and then-Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner helped Democrats pick up a slew of suburban seats in 2018, and they’re trying to push even further into the collar counties in November.
With multimillionaire Rauner’s money gone from the political scene and other wealthy GOP donors focused on trying to defeat Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed graduated-rate income tax on the Nov. 3 ballot, Republicans are at a huge cash disadvantage.
For comparison, the main campaign fund of House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs and two others supporting House GOP candidates raised nearly $1.2 million in the third quarter and spent more than $3 million, ending the period with less than $1 million in the bank. More than half of the money spent by Durkin’s campaign fund — $1.6 million — was transferred to the state GOP.
Senate Democrats, led by new Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park, have similarly outraised their Republican counterparts, led by Senate GOP leader Bill Brady of Bloomington.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
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