THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Jones on the stand...Durbin's future
April 17, 2025
Good morning, Illinois.
I goofed this morning and messed up our send time. Sorry about that. Thanks to those that reached out.
The House and Senate are out. The Governor is on the south side at 11 to highlight reductions in gun violence.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
(note: we’re not responsible for paywalls and restrictions from other news outlets, because good journalism isn’t free)
Sen. Emil Jones III denies bribe deal despite what secret FBI recording caught him saying (Chicago Sun-Times)
Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III says he never struck a deal to have a red-light camera executive gather $5,000 for his campaign, even though the FBI caught Jones on camera telling him, “If you can raise me five grand, that’d be good.”
That means “anywhere between zero and five thousand,” Jones told a federal jury Wednesday.
The South Side Democrat said he had no interest in abolishing red-light cameras, either. So when he told Omar Maani that he’d protect him from then-state Rep. David McSweeney — who wanted to get rid of the cameras — Jones said he planned on “doing what I always was doing.”
Finally, Jones insisted that when he tried to convince Maani to hire a former intern of Jones’, it wasn’t part of a deal to alter legislation that Maani feared in Springfield.
“I didn’t think of it as that,” Jones testified Wednesday. “The bill was dead.”
The veteran senator has spent more than five hours on the witness stand, Tuesday and Wednesday, fighting for his freedom and his career in a trial that is suddenly threatening to spill into next week, given Jones’ decision to take the stand.
So far, he’s only been questioned by his own defense attorney. But prosecutors will likely get a chance to cross-examine him Thursday. And they told U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood they might want to call additional witnesses once Jones’ lawyers are done taking their turn.
Prosecutors say Jones agreed to protect Maani in the Illinois Senate in exchange for $5,000 and a job for Jones’ ex-intern, who was paid $1,800 by Maani even though he did no work. Jones filed a bill in February 2019 that could have prompted a statewide study of red-light cameras. Maani, the red-light camera executive, saw it as bad for business.
Related: Sen. Emil Jones III takes witness stand in his own defense at federal corruption trial (Capitol News Illinois)
‘He reminded me of a used car salesman’: State Sen. Emil Jones III blasts FBI mole, calls former colleague Martin Sandoval a ‘bully’ as testimony continues (Chicago Tribune)
US Sen. Dick Durbin’s slow fundraising fuels speculation about his political future (Chicago Tribune)
As Dick Durbin ponders whether to seek reelection to a sixth term in the U.S. Senate, the veteran Democrat reported spending $776 in the Senate’s gift shop in the first three months of the year for presents to supporters.
There’s no indication those were retirement gifts on his first-quarter campaign funding statement filed with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday.
But by reporting raising only $42,695 between Jan. 1 and March 31, the 80-year-old Durbin renewed questions about whether he will be a candidate on the March 2026 primary ballot.
Durbin, who has served in the Senate since 1997, has said he will make public his decision about running for reelection “soon.” And in serving as the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber and as Democratic whip for a decade, he would be expected to have no problem quickly raising big dollars and a clear path to renomination.
However, the falloff in fundraising in the last two quarters has been notable, raising speculation that his current term might be his last.
The state’s senior senator and ranking member of the chamber’s Judiciary Committee began September with nearly $1.85 million in the bank, but he spent $282,947 of that while raising only $110,040 in the final three months of last year. The $1.67 million he had to start the year has now dipped to $1.63 million as of April 1 after he spent more than he raised for the second consecutive quarter.
In contrast, in the same quarter in 2019, before his 2020 reelection to a fifth term, Durbin raised $512,879 and spent $92,972, leaving him at the time with more than $2.4 million in campaign cash, FEC records showed.
Durbin campaign aides said the Democrat is still fundraising.
Related: Illinois Democrats await decisions from Durbin, Pritzker that will spark high-stakes political shuffle (Chicago Sun-Times)
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