THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Tapes in the Madigan trial...House GOP sells hope...Affirmative action policy targeted
October 24, 2024
Good morning, Illinois.
It’s 12 days to Election Day. We’re working on some good stuff for paid subscribers over the final stretch. Will you join us?
If you haven’t seen, my friend Tom LoBianco, the incredible national political reporter, and I have started a new podcast called “The Ground Game.” Our new episode dealt with the Latino vote and I found it very interesting. I hope you’ll go watch and subscribe on YouTube.
Governor Pritzker has events in Rockford at 10 and 11:30 and in Machesney Park at 1pm.
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)
Jurors set to hear first of 200 secret recordings in Madigan corruption trial (Chicago Sun-Times)
The backbone of the case against former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan consists of more than 200 recordings that prosecutors promised jurors would hear over the next several weeks.
The tapes could begin to roll as soon as Thursday. And if the first few days of testimony are any indication, things will play out much the way they did early in last year’s ComEd bribery trial, which ended with the conviction of Madigan’s co-defendant, Michael McClain, and three others.
The first bombshell moment of that trial involved the testimony of ex-state Rep. Lou Lang. The FBI secretly recorded a 2018 call between Lang and McClain, in which McClain told Lang to resign from the General Assembly. McClain also claimed to be someone’s “agent” — and the feds say he meant Madigan.
Now, the start of Madigan’s racketeering conspiracy trial is largely mirroring the start of the ComEd trial. Lang is expected to testify Thursday. He was spotted Wednesday down the hall from Madigan’s trial courtroom.
That means testimony — which so far has given jurors a lesson on Springfield, Madigan’s power and ComEd’s need to pass crucial legislation — is about to heat up.
The witnesses so far include ex-state Reps. Carol Sente and Scott Drury, as well as ComEd executive Scott Vogt. Prosecutors told the judge they next plan to call Lang and FBI Special Agent Ryan McDonald. The same group served as the first five witnesses in the ComEd trial.
Madigan’s trial always threatened to serve, in part, as a re-run of that case. The same allegations in the ComEd trial are contained in six of the 23 counts in Madigan’s 117-page indictment. Prosecutors say ComEd paid $1.3 million to five Madigan allies for do-nothing jobs, hoping that he’d act favorably toward ComEd’s legislation in Springfield.
McClain worked as one of ComEd’s lobbyists, and Vogt actually testified Wednesday that he was perhaps the most important lobbyist in its stable.
There are allegations in Madigan’s indictment beyond the ComEd scheme. But another key difference this year is the presence of Madigan’s defense team. For example, Lang has testified about his November 2018 call with McClain twice — once in the ComEd trial and again during last year’s perjury trial of Madigan’s longtime chief of staff, Tim Mapes.
But Lang did not face cross-examination from a Madigan defense attorney either time.
The Lang episode actually threatens to undermine a claim made by Madigan attorney Tom Breen during his opening statement this week: That Madigan was “completely ignorant of what people are saying behind his back” and that people “don’t have the authority to speak that way for Michael Madigan.”
Related: Feds begin laying out ComEd bribery scheme evidence as Madigan corruption trial ramps up (Chicago Tribune)
Feds ‘turned over heaven and earth’ in Madigan probe but found no real bribes, co-defendant says (Capitol News Illinois)
Defense goes after prosecution theory — and mole Solis — as trial of Madigan and ally McClain revs up (WBEZ)
Opinion: After Madigan, power players wise to keep heads down and fly straight (Shaw Media)
GOP leader tries to ‘sell hope’ in uphill battle to cut into Democratic stranglehold on state legislature (Chicago Tribune)
Republicans will try to chip away at the Democratic Party’s virtually unassailable control of the Illinois General Assembly in next month’s election, a task that may not be made any easier by the political polarization that starts at the top of the ballot.
In a decidedly blue state, former President Donald Trump’s candidacy could hurt the GOP in legislative swing districts, said John Shaw, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
“I think there is a guilt-by-association thing going on or a guilt-by-association possibility for Republicans who are running down ballot in swing districts, and even districts that maybe trend just a little bit Republican,” Shaw said.
Trump is “radioactive” not only to Democrats but also to many independents and some Republicans, Shaw said, which Democrats make clear they will try to use in their favor.
“You’re seeing folks leave the other party because of who’s at the top of their party,” Democratic House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said at a recent City Club of Chicago event, going on to say that GOP policy positions are out of step with many Americans.
“Their positions when it comes to workers’ rights, their positions when it comes to women’s rights, their positions when it comes to civil rights, that’s not a reflection of a whole lot of people’s values in this country,” Welch said. “And so they’re leaving that party and joining our party to make us even more diverse.”
House Republican Leader Tony McCombie of Savanna said her party is targeting just a few seats in each election as part of a 10-year plan that will carry them to the next redistricting opportunity following the 2030 census.
“The number one thing is that people expect us to fail,” McCombie said. “I have to sell hope a lot, which is not that hard, because I still am hopeful for Illinois, but it really is a challenge to raise money in this environment.”
Lawyer behind college affirmative action challenges targets Illinois (Crain’s Chicago Business)
A group affiliated with the legal activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to affirmative action in college admissions has sued Illinois over a minority scholarship program for aspiring teachers.
The American Alliance for Equal Rights, founded by lawyer Edward Blum, has sued Gov. JB Pritzker and Kevin Huber, chairman of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, over the 32-year-old Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship Program, which awards as much as $7,500 to qualified minority applicants.
Applicants must be American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Blum’s group asserts that such a race-based qualification violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
“Such blatant race-based discrimination against individuals who could otherwise contribute to a robust teacher pipeline in Illinois serves no compelling government purpose,” says the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield. “It is demeaning, patronizing, un-American, and unconstitutional.”
Another group founded by Blum, Students for Fair Admissions, was at the center of the legal challenges to race-based admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The Supreme Court in 2023 struck down both programs and largely invalidated the consideration of race as it had been practiced in admissions for more than 50 years.
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Opinion: Illinois should abandon plan to interfere with electronic payments (Crain’s Chicago Business)
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