A Madigan confidant. A popular executive. An insider lobbyist. A political consultant. Who are the ‘ComEd Four’?
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Outside of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, the main characters in the “ComEd Four” bribery conspiracy trial are hardly household names.
One was Madigan’s loyal confidant. Another was ComEd’s popular chief executive. There’s a consummate lobbyist and a political consultant who was the face of the City Club of Chicago.
But the secretive Madigan, the Chicago Democrat who served a national record 36 years as speaker, not only knew them all, he allegedly knew how they could take care of each other in Illinois’ special brand of insider politics.
So who, exactly, are the “ComEd Four?”
Michael McClain, 75, of Quincy
Before McClain became a central figure in the ComEd scandal, before he became one of the most powerful and feared lobbyists in Springfield, he was a respected Democratic lawmaker.
He was once a champion of finding better ways to protect abused children, and the Chicago Daily News even named the downstate lawmaker one of the “13 movers and shakers” in the legislative term covering 1977 and 1978.
He joined the Illinois House in the 1970s following the death of his father, Rep. Elmo “Mac” McClain, D-Quincy, and soon befriended Madigan, another young lawmaker from Chicago who followed his father into politics.
McClain and Madigan rose together among Democratic ranks in the Illinois House. Madigan, the protege of the all-powerful Richard J. Daley, would get the mayor’s calls and deliver orders to Chicago lawmakers in the Illinois House, rising first to House Democratic Majority Leader.
When Madigan morphed into a fiery minority leader in 1981 he made McClain a member of his leadership team. But while Madigan started his record reign as speaker after the election, McClain lost his reelection race.
It wasn’t long before McClain realized he had a future in lobbying and built an elite client list: Along with ComEd and Exelon, they included the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Comcast and Walgreens.
Earlier this year, prosecutors revealed the McClain had been interviewed by federal authorities twice— in 2014 and 2016 —with one of the topics being that he often referred to Madigan by a code name, such as “our friend” or “a friend.”
It reflected Tribune reports that McClain called Madigan “friend” or “Himself” when sending secret fundraising requests to close allies also known euphemistically as the “most trusted of the trusted.”
McClain allegedly admitted he referred to Madigan as “our friend” in conversations and over email because he “never knows who’s listening.”
Anne Pramaggiore, 64, of Barrington
Pramaggiore was widely considered a rising star in the nation’s corporate world, a brainy CEO gifted in explaining the complex world of utility regulation and adept at racking up big wins in Springfield.
Raised in Dayton, Ohio, she also was a theater major at Miami University of Ohio before earning her law degree at DePaul University, where she served as editor in chief of the school’s law review, and later clerked for a federal judge.
Early in her career, she worked in a private law firm. She once said the Watergate proceedings of the 1970s prompted her interest in policy.
When she became CEO of ComEd in 2012, Pramaggiore inherited a massive utility that had been struggling in the late 2000s, with aging infrastructure prone to widespread power outages and growing dissatisfaction from its 3.8 million customers.
Prosecutors have indicated they intend to show “Pramaggiore viewed all aspects of ComEd’s business through a political lens” and often said things like, “What’s important to the speaker is important to us.”
In one call with Madigan, prosecutors said, McClain said Pramaggiore and the speaker had “developed a real nice relationship” when they both went on a trade-like trip with other officials to Turkey.
When McClain and Pramaggiore allegedly schemed in 2017 and 2018 to get former McPier chief Juan Ochoa onto the ComEd board of directors to help Madigan fulfill a political favor, she assured McClain that Ochoa would get the appointment despite initial resistance from utility officials.
“You take good care of me, and so does our friend (meaning Madigan), and I will do the best that I can to, to take care of you. You’re a good man,” Pramaggiore allegedly told McClain in a September 2018 recorded call.
Prosecutors said they expect Fidel Marquez, the former ComEd senior vice president who has pleaded guilty in the case, to testify that Pramaggiore “did not want anyone from ComEd to anger Madigan.”
She moved up to Exelon Utilities CEO, but she abruptly retired during the investigation less than a week after ComEd acknowledged in 2019 that it had received a second federal subpoena.
John Hooker, 73, of Chicago
Hooker, who for years was ComEd’s chief in-house lobbyist, has long been known for mixing business with politics.
He was a fixture in City Hall and Capitol corridors, building relationships in Chicago and Springfield with Madigan and many other elected officials.
When Pramaggiore ascended to CEO of ComEd in 2009, the company elevated Hooker to executive vice president for legislative and external affairs. A decade before, though, Hooker became involved in scholarship scandal that became a symbol of the close relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists in Springfield.
Two of Hooker’s dependents — a daughter from his first marriage and a stepson from another marriage — managed to secure $21,000 worth of tuition waivers from lawmakers under the since-ended legislative scholarship program, which was long beset by charges of nepotism, favoritism and political abuse.
The Tribune reported in 1999 that one of those waivers came from then-Rep. Shirley Jones, a Chicago Democrat who chaired the very House Public Utility Committee that Hooker went before to lobby for pro-utility legislation. ComEd also gave Jones political donations.
After she left the House, Jones worked 10 years as a ComEd lobbyist, providing an example of the state’s fast-swinging revolving door between politicians and special interests.
In spring 2012, Hooker became a private lobbyist and eventually worked in conjunction with lobbying firms run by McClain and later Michael Kasper, a top lawyer for Madigan’s political and state government operations.
In 2014 and 2016, Hooker led groups that helped, with Kasper’s assistance, block attempts to put before voters proposed amendments to the Illinois Constitution that were designed to undermine the every-decade responsibility of lawmakers to redraw legislative district boundaries. The proposed amendments would have upended a process that Madigan had mastered over the years.
Prosecutors said Hooker and McClain also were caught on tape allegedly talking about how they created a back-channel payment system that allowed ComEd to funnel money through a third party, who would distribute payments to Madigan allies for doing little-or-no work.
Prosecutors pointed to a conversation in April 24, 2018, in which McClain reminded Hooker: “if you remember we have some people that are, um, recommendations from our friend (meaning Madigan) that, um, are, are paid by us, but they work under Jay Doherty.”
Jay Doherty, 69, of Chicago
For decades, Doherty mingled within the power structures of Chicago business and politics by way of jobs that put him in the mix.
He was mostly known in recent years for his long tenure as president of the City Club of Chicago, which hosted big names in both business and politics to hobnob with city players at luncheon speeches.
The federal indictment accuses him of using his consulting and lobbying firm, Jay D. Doherty & Associates, as a funnel for ComEd to send money to loyal Madigan allies.
They allegedly camouflaged the little-or-no-work jobs to justify the payments, including to Ed Moody, the former Cook County recorder of deeds, county board member and, most importantly, a legendary precinct worker and door-knocker in the Madigan political organization.
Along the way, Doherty’s firm carried other Madigan allies, such as former 13th Ward Ald. Frank Olivo, who also received a position with the Illinois Motor Vehicle Review Board, which was overseen by then-Secretary of State Jesse White, a Madigan ally, and received about $20,000 a year for more than two decades.
Prosecutors have also listed Ray Nice, a longtime precinct captain in Madigan’s 13th Ward, as one of the subcontractors who was funneled ComEd money through Doherty’s payroll. Madigan also allegedly arranged for Nice to be appointed to a $15,000-a-year position on the Illinois Department of Employment Security Board.
Prosecutors have said they expect Moody to testify that he was told by Doherty to “keep knocking on doors,” meaning to keep spending his time campaigning even though he was getting paid through Doherty’s firm on behalf of ComEd.
In early 2019, Doherty told ComEd’s Marquez that two of Madigan’s associates had been put on the lobbying firm’s payroll as do-nothing “subcontractors” and that ComEd should not tamper with the arrangement because “your money comes from Springfield,” the ComEd agreement states.
The new hires “keep their mouth shut,” Doherty allegedly said. “But do they do anything for me on a day-to-day basis? No.”
Doherty also allegedly told Marquez the arrangement was to keep Madigan happy.
Months before ComEd reached its agreement with prosecutors and several months before Doherty himself was indicted, he attempted to play down his role in what was becoming a high-profile federal investigation.
In text messages to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Doherty called himself an “innocent bystander caught in the cross-fire,” saying that ComEd “duped me” and that he knew nothing about the alleged efforts to bribe Madigan.
“I was an ‘innocent bystander caught in the cross-fire,’” Doherty texted the mayor in May 2020.
The mayor responded curtly: “Jay, I really cannot accept these kinds of documents from you. Please stop. It is not appropriate.”
Doherty eventually stepped down as president of the City Club in December 2019 as federal scrutiny intensified.
