THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...Madigan...Sorensen...Pritzker
October 28, 2024
Good morning, Illinois.
Eight days left.
Tick.
Tock.
We’ll be crisscrossing the state this weekend to bring you the latest on the final weekend of the 2024 election. Will you become a paid subscriber to help us foot the bill? Just click below.
Governor Pritzker speaks at a military award ceremony at 2:30.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
(note: we’re not responsible for paywalls and restrictions from other news outlets, because good journalism isn’t free)
Dozens of secret recordings at Madigan trial show close ties with McClain, undercutting key defense point (Chicago Sun-Times)
This week began with opening statements in the racketeering conspiracy trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, whose attorneys insisted that no one had the right to speak for the speaker — that Madigan was “ignorant” of what people said behind his back.
But it ended with prosecutors playing a crush of about 30 recordings that suggest otherwise: That Madigan’s longtime friend Michael McClain went straight from retiring as a lobbyist in late 2016 to doing “assignments” for Madigan — what a prosecutor called his “dirty work.”
“This is no longer me talking,” McClain told a veteran lawmaker in one such recording from 2018. “I’m an agent.”
Defense attorneys punched back, though, taking a longtime FBI agent to task over the way he and a colleague convinced former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez to wear a wire for the feds and make crucial recordings of his friends and colleagues that jurors will likely see soon.
McClain attorney Patrick Cotter challenged Special Agent Ryan McDonald over whether the “best way to get a cooperator” was to put them in the backseat of a car and keep talking to them after they said they were scared, like Marquez did.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the best way,” McDonald said.
“It worked here,” Cotter retorted.
The fireworks came as prosecutors began to drill into core pillars of the case against Madigan and McClain — the alleged racketeering enterprise and the bribery scheme at ComEd.
Much of the evidence related to ComEd was aired at a separate trial last year. It ended with the convictions of McClain and three others. Still, the introduction of secret FBI recordings, and the key testimony from former state Rep. Lou Lang, livened things up in the 12th floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge John Blakey as the first week of testimony came to a close.
The evidence supported prosecutors’ claim that Madigan led a criminal enterprise designed to enhance his political power and enrich his allies, with McClain serving as his agent. It also undermined the argument from Madigan attorney Tom Breen in opening statements that Madigan was “completely ignorant of what people are saying behind his back.”
“They don’t have the authority to speak that way for Michael Madigan,” Breen said.
Related: Hazy world of Springfield politics at center of ex-Speaker Madigan’s trial (Chicago Tribune)
‘My client is the speaker’: Jury hears wiretapped calls of Madigan co-defendant, longtime friend (Capitol News Illinois)
Jurors hear first wiretaps in Madigan corruption trial, recordings that suggested ex-speaker was hands-on boss (Chicago Tribune)
Rep. Eric Sorensen seeks second term against retired judge Joe McGraw (Bloomington Pantagraph)
In 2022, voters in Illinois’ 17th Congressional District sent former meteorologist Eric Sorensen to represent them in Washington.
The Moline Democrat defeated Republican Esther Joy King by four percentage points in that race, considered one of the hottest congressional contests in the country. The two campaigns combined to spend nearly $8 million while national political action committees poured in another $15 million.
Two years later, Sorensen is seeking a second term against a new Republican: Joe McGraw, a retired state judge from Rockford.
This time around, the 17th remained largely off the national radar. Outside PACs linked to House Democratic leadership and House Republican leadership have mostly stayed out — a signal that the parties do not view the race as competitive as it was the last time. Non-partisan political handicapper Cook Political Report rates the district as “likely Democratic.”
But, as happens with the weather at times, McGraw believes such forecasts are off, predicting that voters in the blue collar district have buyer’s remorse and, on Election Day, will send Sorensen packing.
"My polling, my unscientific polling, comes across the kitchen table from looking in the eyes of the folks that talk to me, listening to their voices, listening to their concerns," McGraw told Lee Enterprises in an interview. "And they don't feel that Sorenson has represented them. They feel that he's a Washington elitist who has forgotten what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck."
But Sorensen, who never held elected office prior to winning in 2022, said that assessment was off the mark, maintaining that he still has a pulse on his constituents’ needs and should be returned for a second term.
"I don't have means — I worked in small market television," Sorensen said. "I'm still paying off credit cards. I know what that means when the price of eggs goes up or the price of gas goes up. I know what it means for people.
“But then also, I've just served the people in a different way for 20 years by keeping people ahead of what was next,” he said, referencing his time as an on-air meteorologist in the Quad Cities and Rockford. “And now it is preparing the next generation for what we're going to give them. And having somebody in Congress that doesn't have a background in politics, that didn't have a letter after their name until two years ago, there is value in that.”
By the way, we’re expecting to talk to McGraw this week. Sorensen’s campaign hasn’t returned about a gazillion messages.
Related: Inside the one Illinois congressional race that could affect control of the US House (Chicago Tribune)
Eric Sorensen is almost certain to win in Illinois's 17th district (The Economist)
CTU wants Pritzker to take another stab at the graduated income tax (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Is a proposed graduated Illinois income tax clawing its way out of the political grave?
The answer will be “yes” if the Chicago Teachers Union gets its way, though the odds of a full-body resurrection now appear iffy at best.
The proposal to switch from the state’s current flat tax to one that would allow increased rates for high-income groups has almost disappeared from public discussion since voters in 2020 rejected Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposed “fair tax” constitutional amendment, with more than 53% voting "no."
But now, CTU is locked in a bitter fight with Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez over how to cover the cost of increased staffing and pay raises that the union says are needed, and the administration is actively looking for new revenue sources.
Enter the fair tax.
In a press briefing yesterday regarding where negotiations stand with CPS on a new contract, CTU Research Director Pavlyn Jankov said that to raise the at least $1 billion a year CPS needs, officials ought to “revisit” the moribund graduated income tax plan.
Jankov’s comment was not just an isolated aside. Though there is no sign, at least now, that the CTU is revving up a full-fledged campaign to take a second try at passing the constitutional amendment, the graduated income tax is prominently mentioned in a 35-page update on negotiations that the union released as part of the briefing.
TOP STORIES LAST WEEK ON THEILLINOIZE.COM
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
‘It’s got to be a fair deal’: Arlington Heights legislators open to Bears funding if the team comes back to town (Daily Herald)
Illinois has the most public bodies in the nation, multiplying opportunities for graft (Chicago Tribune)
State, Cook County use similar arguments to defend assault weapon bans (Capitol News Illinois)
Why does seemingly popular legislation die at the Illinois capitol? (WBEZ)
Local 150 steps into Springfield power vacuum aiming to promote clean energy and protect jobs, efforts often at odds (Chicago Tribune)
Illinois elected officials deploy to swing states to get out the vote for Harris-Walz and Congress candidates (Chicago Sun-Times)
Budzinski touts wins, offers Farm Bill update at Decatur Chamber Ag Cafe event (Decatur Herald & Review)
GOP hopeful Evans gets cash boost from U.S. House Speaker Johnson — but total lags behind Foster’s (Daily Herald)
Editorial: Illinoisans, vote ‘no’ on the millionaire’s tax ballot question (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Tribune Illinois House endorsements, Part 3 (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Tribune Illinois House endorsements, Part 4 (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Many issues are being debated this election; one means more than all the others — decency (Daily Herald)
Opinion: Public funding for sports stadiums just doesn't pay off for taxpayers (Chicago Sun-Times)
Opinion: Chicago transit proposal leaves suburban counties in the lurch (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Opinion: The day Democratic fundraising spiked (Champaign News-Gazette)
Opinion: State joins growing national effort to bolster behavioral health services (Shaw Media)
Opinion: State lawmakers offer hopeful sign that pension reform is a real priority (Chicago Tribune)
JOIN US