The Spin: After Trump pardon, Casey Urlacher eyeing state Senate run? | Inside ex-Ald. Danny Solis’ deal with feds | Dorothy Brown leading new Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s transition team
Months after President Donald Trump pardoned Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher — brother of Bears Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher — it looks like he’s trying a run for the Illinois Senate. Again.
Casey Urlacher reactivated his “Citizens for Urlacher” political organization and paperwork filed with the State Board of Elections shows he’s eyeing a run for the 26th District Illinois state Senate seat currently held by Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods. McConchie, who currently serves as the Senate’s Republican leader, narrowly defeated Urlacher and Martin McLaughlin in the 2016 GOP primary. More below.
As the federal public corruption case against veteran Chicago Ald. Edward Burke heats up, Tribune federal courts reporter Jason Meisner writes about the deal ex-Chicago Ald. Daniel Solis turned government mole has cut with authorities.
Meisner writes: “In exchange for going undercover and helping the U.S. attorney’s office prosecute 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke, who spent decades near the top of the city’s political food chain, Solis was offered what’s known as a deferred prosecution agreement.”
That likely means Solis will not only escape jail time but also charges after allegedly admitting to taking campaign cash from a real estate developer in exchange for official action as Chicago City Council’s Zoning Committee chair — a blatant case of public corruption that federal prosecutors would typically argue deserves a stiff punishment.
In Chicago’s storied history of politics and public corruption, so-called cooperating witnesses typically face felony charges and catch a break at sentencing.
And The Spin reported earlier this week former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is taking a gig as village manager with Robbins Mayor-elect Darren E. Bryant’s administration. Now, the Daily Southtown’s Ted Slowik says former Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown will lead the transition team of incoming Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard. More here.
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Even in Chicago’s crowded history of FBI cooperators, Daniel Solis’ deal stands out
I’m having a flashback to November 2018. Then-Southwest Side Ald. Daniel Solis, fresh from announcing he would not run for another term, appeared on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight.”
During that interview, which I wrote about here, Solis seemed all smiles and relaxed in a pullover sweater and open-collared shirt as he talked about his retirement. He also commented that another City Council veteran — 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke — should do the same. It seemed very random until later that month when the feds swooped in and raided Burke’s aldermanic offices.
Since then we’ve learned Solis was a cooperating witness who wore a wire and recorded conversations with Burke. Burke was indicted in 2019 on racketeering conspiracy and other charges alleging a host of corrupt schemes, including allegations involving the old main post office deal. He has pleaded not guilty.
It’s not unusual for elected leaders or lobbyists caught in the feds’ dragnet to flip on bigger fish in exchange for what traditionally is a lighter sentence for their own legal woes.
But in talking with members of the legal community, Meisner found out that Solis landed an unusual deal — one that made me think about that apparently calm, cool and collected Solis that appeared on TV in 2018, one of the last times we’ve heard from him publicly.
Meisner explains how the deal worked:
“In exchange for going undercover and helping the U.S. attorney’s office prosecute Burke ... Solis was offered what’s known as a deferred prosecution agreement, lawyers for Burke revealed in a court filing last August.
“As part of the deal, Solis has allegedly admitted to taking campaign cash from a real estate developer in exchange for official action as Zoning Committee chair — a blatant case of public corruption that federal prosecutors would typically argue deserves a stiff punishment.
“But Solis’ agreement means he will not only escape any jail time — he’s likely not going to be prosecuted for the crime at all. What’s more, the deal could allow the 71-year-old Solis to keep collecting his nearly $100,000 annual city pension, which could easily bring in a sizable sum from the taxpayer-funded system over the remainder of his lifetime.” Full story here.
* Indicted Democratic operative Patrick Doherty hit with new charges in red-light camera shakedown scheme: The longtime Democratic operative already was indicted in a sprawling federal bribery investigation when he was hit with new charges yesterday, alleging he helped funnel payments from a red-light camera company agent to former state Sen. Martin Sandoval in exchange for the senator’s help in Springfield, Meisner reports.
The superseding indictment also alleges Doherty, 65, participated in a scheme with his former boss, then-McCook Mayor and Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski, to shake down a real estate developer doing business in McCook. Doherty served as Tobolski’s longtime chief of staff in his county office. Full story here.
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Signs that Casey Urlacher may launch a bid for the state Senate
After waging a successful write-in campaign for another term as mayor of tiny Mettawa in Lake County, Casey Urlacher seems to be eyeing higher office.
State board of election records shows he’s reactivated his “Citizens for Urlacher” political organization, signaling the Republican mayor may be ready to once again challenge Dan McConchie for a seat in the state Senate. The election is next year.
In March 2020, Urlacher was in a federal courtroom pleading not guilty to federal charges alleging he acted as a recruiter and bagman for a sports gambling ring that raked in millions of dollars from hundreds of Chicago-area bettors.
In December, with the charges pending, Urlacher didn’t file to run for mayor again. But in January, President Donald Trump pardoned Casey after an earlier visit to the White House from Urlacher’s brother, former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher. After the pardon, Casey Urlacher launch a successful write-in campaign to keep his job. Read more about the pardon here.
Remap factor? A reminder that this is a redistricting year, that once-a-decade process of redrawing a state’s political boundaries to reflect population changes reflected in census results. With the Democratic-controlled legislature holding pen-to-map, there’s no telling whether Mettawa will still be in the district by the time the year is out.
Citing higher revenue projections and in the face of bipartisan pushback, Gov. J.B. Pritzker agrees to school funding increase
From the Tribune’s Dan Petrella: “Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker backtracked Thursday on one of the most controversial components of his budget proposal, saying improved revenue projections will allow the state to meet the goal in its education funding formula and increase school funding by $350 million over the current year.
“Pritzker has faced a pushback from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle when he introduced in February a $41.6 billion state spending plan for the budget year beginning July 1 that would hold funding for elementary and secondary schools flat for the second straight year.
“With the May 31 deadline for approving a budget fast approaching, Pritzker said Thursday revised revenue forecasts show the state will have enough money to cover an increase that meets the goal established in an overhaul of the state’s school funding formula that was signed into law by his predecessor, Republican Bruce Rauner.” Full story here.
Pritzker announces Canadian electric vehicle maker to build buses and trucks at new Joliet factory, creating 745 jobs over next three years: The Tribune’s Robert Channick writes, “The Lion Electric Co., a Canadian EV truck manufacturer, is planning to invest $70 million to convert a newly built Joliet warehouse into a factory to produce up to 20,000 electric trucks and buses a year and create at least 745 jobs over the next three years.”
“President Joe Biden is looking to boost electric vehicle adoption as part of his $2 trillion infrastructure plan. The proposal includes making the nation’s 500,000 school buses into a zero-emissions fleet by 2030,” Channick notes.
The governor is devoting the state’s entire $89 million VW emissions scandal settlement to building the EV industry in Illinois; Volkswagen paid Illinois to bolster EV infrastructure as part of the automaker’s massive 2016 settlement with federal and state regulators after its 2009-15 TDI diesel cars were programmed to cheat emissions testing protocols. Full story here.
City of Chicago employees’ emails stolen in hack on outside law firm
From the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt: “A cache of city of Chicago emails were stolen during a data transfer to an outside law firm, according to a news release.
“The hacked emails were sent or received by four former city employees over a two-year period, according to the release. No city computers or computer systems were compromised, the release said.
“The records were being transferred to the Jones Day law firm, which is handling the investigation into the Anjanette Young errant police raid case. However, it was unclear whether the records or the hack was related to that probe.” Full story here.
The FBI has been notified of the breach.
2nd analysis of Chicago police search warrants by inspector general finds reporting gaps, major racial disparities
From the Tribune’s Annie Sweeney: “A second analysis by the city inspector general on Chicago Police Department search warrants has flagged concerns about reporting gaps in the details recorded about them, as well as a major racial disparity in who is targeted for the searches.
“The report released Thursday by the public safety section of city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office found that of the residential warrants in which details were recorded about the subject of the warrant, 3.5% were listed as white. Black men were listed as the target in nearly 72% of the cases. Black women were 11 times more likely to be targeted than white women.”
The report also notes that warrants were concentrated on the city’s West and South sides, home to large Black and Latino communities, Sweeney writes.
Analysis of whether a raid was deemed successful also revealed reporting gaps. While something was recovered or an arrest was made in 89% of residential raids, Sweeney writes, that does not mean officers found exactly what they said they were looking for as described in the warrant. Full story here.
The second look comes amid ongoing fallout over the 2019 raid executed at the home of Chicago social worker Anjanette Young. Officers searching the wrong house forced Young to stand handcuffed and unclothed for several minutes in her home.
The case triggered a political crisis for the mayor, who misspoke at several points when the wrongful raid came to light, and for a Police Department facing court-ordered reforms born of concerns about officers mistreating Black and Latino residents.
While the mayor has proposed changes to search warrant policies — which has received some healthy pushback for not going far enough — the Chicago Police Department is in the final stages of finishing a new set of guidelines.
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