Shortly after she left her state job as a senior adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, longtime political operative Nikki Budzinski collected more than $500,000 in consulting and other fees in 10 months, including more than $80,000 from a Springfield lobbyist Budzinski helped while working for the governor.

At least $100,000 of that payday came from progressive organizations that don’t disclose their donors — despite Budzinski now running for Congress downstate as a Democrat in the 13th District on a platform that includes getting “dark money” out of politics, a Better Government Association examination of government records found.

The lobbyist who paid Budzinski $82,810 after Budzinski left the Pritzker administration is longtime Springfield operative Julie Curry.

A BGA review of state and federal public records shows a cozy relationship between Budzinski and Curry, who frequently reached out when her clients needed assistance, whether it was to set up a meeting with the governor for a client or access for an event at the governor’s mansion.

One expert said Budzinski’s actions after she left the Pritzker administration highlight weaknesses in Illinois’ ethics laws.

State workers are generally barred from accepting compensation as a lobbyist for one year after leaving government work. Since Budzinski was not a registered lobbyist, but rather worked as a consultant to the lobbyist paying her, Illinois’ executive order did not apply to her, records and interviews show.

“The law should also include work for a lobbying firm,” Southern Illinois University law professor and former lieutenant governor Sheila Simon told the BGA.

Budzinski, 45, declined a BGA interview request and would not respond to detailed written questions about her consulting business or work inside the Pritzker administration. Neither Curry nor Budzinski would describe the work Budzinski did for Curry’s lobbying firm.

“Nikki has always taken state and federal ethics laws very seriously and will continue to do so if elected to Congress,” her campaign manager Josh Roesch wrote in a brief email. “After Nikki left government, she was never a lobbyist, never registered as a state or federal lobbyist, and she complied with all ethics laws.”

A longtime political operative in Illinois and nationally, Budzinski had served as labor outreach director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign after serving in policy positions for unions for 10 years. She started as one of Pritzker’s earliest campaign aides in 2017 and later became executive director of Pritzker’s transition team before taking a state job as the governor’s senior adviser. The Pritzker campaign paid Budzinski $322,363 — making her one of its highest paid staffers, according to a BGA analysis of state election reports. Starting in 2019 as a senior adviser to the governor, Budzinski was paid $278,000 a year, among a handful of trusted aides who had their state salaries doubled after Pritzker dipped into his personal wealth using his company East Jackson Street LLC.

In public, Budzinski stood by Pritzker’s side at meetings with labor leaders and downstate public figures. Behind closed doors, she took part in weekly meetings with the governor, his chief of staff, the four deputy governors and Pritzker’s general counsel, according to the governor’s calendar and state emails. She was the governor’s point person on labor issues and Internet broadband, and played a key role in briefing the governor on gaming.

This BGA account is based on state and federal public records including email exchanges between Curry and Pritzker administration officials, the governor’s calendars, IRS filings, campaign spending reports, corporate records and Budzinski’s ethics disclosure forms. 

“Nikki is widely beloved downstate and is a close ally and friend,” Pritzker told reporters when she left state government in 2020. “She is also the first person who supported me, helped me to decide to run for governor and helped put together my campaign from our earliest days. As a senior adviser, she was a valued voice in the administration.”

Curry connection

At times, Budzinski used her voice in the Pritzker administration on behalf of a person she called “my friend,” Curry.

Unlike Illinois lobbyists who depict the Capitol Dome on their websites and tout their connections, Curry’s firm has no social media visibility and registers only her as its exclusive lobbyist.

Yet from the first days Pritzker took office in January 2019, Curry had the ear of Budzinski, government emails show.

Curry reached out to Budzinski that month to set up a Pritzker meeting with top executives from Curry’s client Centene Corp., the Fortune 500 Medicaid contractor.

“Let me circle back to you,” Budzinski quickly responded. 

Curry soon was in contact with the deputy governor for healthcare, Sol Flores, who helped set up an April 2019 meeting between Pritzker and the CEO of Centene.

Curry later sought Budzinski’s advice when she could not reach Flores and her deputy to iron out some last minute logistics with Pritzker’s appearance at a Centene ribbon cutting in May 2019 in Carbondale.

In addition to the Medicaid powerhouse Centene, Curry’s 2019 and 2020 clients included the cable industry trade group, a gaming company and local governments. 

Budzinski helped Curry in other ways important to the lobbyist by making introductions to top Pritzker staffers and providing Curry with details of the governor’s legislative positions and schedule.

Curry had been Macon County treasurer before serving for eight years in the General Assembly representing an East Central Illinois district. In 2003 and 2004 Curry was deputy chief of staff for economy and labor in the administration of then Gov. Rod Blagojevich, responsible for the management and oversight of 16 state agencies, according to the resume Curry provided to a state commission. She opened her lobbying firm in 2008.

Budzinski introduced Curry as “my friend Julie” in an email to Deputy Governor Jesse Ruiz after Curry got a $60,000-a-year state contract to be the legislative consultant to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission from the Pritzker administration. Ruiz was the deputy governor in charge of education at the time. Both the governor’s office and the commission said Budzinski played no role in Curry’s contract.

Curry requested Budzinski’s help in getting access to the governor’s mansion in March 2019 for an event involving the House Democratic Women’s Caucus, according to an email. The event was attended by the governor and first lady.

Curry also asked for Budzinski’s help in getting a cable company executive, who was also an officer for the Cable Television & Communications Association of Illinois, appointed to a working group of the state’s Broadband Advisory Council, which was advising the rollout of the state’s $420 million investment in broadband infrastructure, according to another email.

Budzinski was chairman of the council, and Curry was a lobbyist for the association.

The cable company executive was appointed to the state working group, records show, which gave her a prestigious role in shaping state policy. The Pritzker administration said the council by statute requires industry representation.

Budzinski, who briefed the governor on gaming, also forwarded to Curry information shared among the governor’s top staffers on the gaming expansion bill shortly before it was voted on in 2019. Two of Curry’s clients were in the gaming industry – the U.S. sports betting company DraftKings, and local gaming executive Rick Heidner, who was amid an ultimately unsuccessful bid to get state approvals to build a new horse racing track and casino in Tinley Park.

DraftKings and Heidner declined to comment.

The governor’s office said in an email that it “routinely shares bill analyses with stakeholders” to ensure they “understand what the governor will and won’t sign . . . Nikki did not have any role in the governor’s office in dealing with Heidner’s gaming issues.” 

Budzinski complied with all required ethics reviews before leaving the administration, the governor’s office added. In response to a public records request, the governor’s office provided 41 pages of emails showing Budzinski notified them that she would be working for Curry and others.

Dark money paychecks

Budzinski’s separate 2020 work for “dark money” organizations contrasts with her campaign platform to “get dark money out of politics by requiring disclosure of all large dollar donations” as she runs for Congress in the newly drawn 13th District. The district was redrawn by Democrats to include African American and university communities stretching from East St. Louis to Springfield, Decatur and Champaign. She is running against Republican Regan Deering, a Decatur community activist and scion of a prominent American agribusiness family.

Budzinski’s federal forms contain a variety of inconsistencies including the amounts she was paid and by whom. But they show the candidate received more than $100,000 from politically prominent Washington D.C.-based nonprofits that do not disclose their donors.

Budzinski took in $60,000 from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which The Atlantic called “the indisputable heavyweight of Democratic dark money.” It was co-founded by former Clinton administration appointee Eric Kessler.

In a brief email to the BGA, Sixteen Thirty denied having “the major purpose of influencing federal elections,” and said it “empowers advocates and philanthropists to quickly and efficiently launch projects to tackle today’s toughest issues.”

In a Federal Election Commission complaint case, Sixteen Thirty said in 2020 it spent $60 million in contributions to federal political committees, out of $410 million in spending that year.

In one of Budzinski’s federal disclosure reports she listed a $60,000 paycheck as coming not from Sixteen Thirty but from a related group, Demand Justice, a courts-focused progressive group founded and run by former Hillary Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon. 

Demand Justice was established as a project of Sixteen Thirty, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.

Because Budzinski’s disclosure forms contain omissions and revisions, it is not clear whether that $60,000 is another reference to the work she did for Sixteen Thirty.

Demand Justice then and now advocates for reshaping the U.S. Supreme Court by adding four justices. A June 2020 Tweet from Fallon said: “Defund the police.”

Budzinski did not respond to BGA questions about whether she endorsed the positions of Demand Justice or other groups that paid her in 2020.

In 2021 Demand Justice spun off from Sixteen Thirty and became a separate dark money organization.

Budzinski also reported earning $48,000 from another organization, New Venture Fund, in 2020 for “consulting services.” Using trade names including “Demand Progress,” the New Venture Fund is a tax-exempt charity that says it works on global health, international development, education and the arts. It also was co-founded by Kessler. In 2020, New Venture reported revenue of $965 million from unidentified donors and said it gave $86 million to Sixteen Thirty.

In the Federal Election Commission complaint case, New Venture said it did not have the major purpose of influencing federal elections.

The nonprofit watchdog OpenSecrets has called New Venture and Sixteen Thirty “sister” funds that have used more than 50 trade names in ways that leave almost no paper trail.

“The complexity of dark money groups makes it more difficult for average Americans to understand who is bankrolling campaigns and issue advocacy, and how they stand to gain or lose,” said OpenSecrets Executive Director Sheila Krumholz.

In January 2021 Budzinski went to work for six months in the Biden administration as chief of staff in the Office of Management and Budget. Then she entered the race for Congress in the 13th Congressional District.

In early 2021, when Budzinski joined the OMB, she did not list payments from Curry or New Venture Fund on her federal disclosure forms, even though that was required. 

Budzinski later listed the Curry and New Venture fees on disclosure reports congressional candidates submit to the House clerk.

Besides the brief email from Sixteen Thirty, none of the entities for which Budzinski worked in 2020 responded to BGA questions.

As a congressional candidate who aims to champion working families, Budzinski says her state government accomplishments included helping pass a $15-an-hour minimum wage in Illinois and helping expand high-speed Internet across the state.

Her campaign website currently makes no mention of her time as a consultant, when she earned fees from Curry and the big-money Democratic groups.

Among the earliest supporters in Budzinski’s race for Congress were Pritzker and his wife, who each donated the maximum $5,800, records show.

Curry gave $2,900 a day before Budzinski formally announced.

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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s vast investment portfolio includes interests in a dozen for-profit companies that earned more than $20 billion in state business since he took office in 2019, a Better Government Association investigation has found.

In some cases, state dollars flowed to companies registered to lobby Pritzker, who as the state’s chief executive held enormous sway over their contracts.

The intersection between Pritzker’s personal bottom line and his role as governor comes despite his 2019 promise to divest his personal fortune of investments in state contractors and to transfer his multibillion-dollar portfolio into what he called a “blind trust.”

A BGA investigation of Pritzker’s holdings — including an examination of his annual economic interest disclosures, thousands of pages of state contracts, corporate filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Illinois secretary of state and gubernatorial email communications — shows at least 12 cases large and small in which the governor’s office and the agencies he oversees took action that created a potential conflict of interest for Pritzker.

Authorities on trust law and government ethics told the BGA because Pritzker must disclose each year what is in his blind trust, his promise to avoid conflicts of interest by remaining blind to his investments was both impractical and oversold.

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“The term ‘blind trust’ is being used here as a thin shield to conceal the governor’s pursuit of personal profits,” said Bridget J. Crawford, a professor at Pace University’s law school who reviewed the BGA reporting. “This is not a blind trust in any meaningful sense of the phrase.”

Pritzker declined a BGA request to be interviewed for this report.

Spokespeople from his office and his campaign responded in writing to some BGA questions.

“The BGA seems to be suggesting that because the governor is following the law, he is doing something wrong,” said campaign spokeswoman Natalie Edelstein. “Governor Pritzker’s trust is blind. This means he is not a part of any decisions, nor does he have any information regarding any investments. He receives no regular reporting on what the trustees and investment advisers decide to purchase and plays no role in any investment decisions. Period.”

Pritzker’s staff and his campaign office refused BGA requests to provide basic financial reports — full tax returns, a copy of his blind-trust agreement or a detailed accounting of his personal holdings. Pritzker also won’t say when he bought any of the stock or at what price.

In her response, Edelstein acknowledged Pritzker has not yet calculated the profits he accrues from stock of companies with state contracts — money he has pledged to donate to charity.

“If the governor receives any return from an investment currently held in trust that has state contracts, he will contribute the corresponding amount to charity,” she said, adding there will be a full accounting after he leaves office.

Pritzker’s finances have heightened importance as he considers a potential 2024 presidential bid. He has positioned himself with speeches to Democratic leaders in New Hampshire and Florida. If he pursues the presidency, Pritzker will face more detailed federal ethics reporting requirements and possibly a new level of public scrutiny into his tax returns and family trusts in offshore tax havens.

Company executives meet with Pritzker

Three of the state contractors in which Pritzker and his trust invested also registered to lobby Pritzker directly, including during the years his trust owned their stock, state records show.

One of them — by far the company in Pritzker’s portfolio with the largest amount of state business — was insurance giant Centene Corporation. Since 2019, its subsidiary Meridian Health Plan of Illinois has been paid $20.6 billion from its state Medicaid contracts and other health programs, according to a BGA analysis of voucher payments and annual reports filed with the Illinois Department of Insurance and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Centene has registered five firms to lobby Pritzker directly and three other firms to lobby the governor’s staff and the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, among other state agencies.

Email traffic and the governor’s calendar show Pritzker personally attended at least two meetings in the spring 2019 with top company executives who at the time were planning a $17 billion acquisition of Medicaid insurer Wellcare, the then-parent of Meridian.

Records show Pritzker also attended an internal phone meeting with his top lawyers to discuss the state’s required approval of a key part of the merger, a memorandum of understanding with state health officials being drafted at the time.

In 2019, Pritzker’s first year as governor, Centene faced federal antitrust scrutiny amid concerns it would control more than half the Medicaid market in Illinois and other states. To clinch the merger, Centene needed the Pritzker administration’s approval to swap thousands of patient accounts with other state Medicaid contractors.

“I can’t thank you enough for your help in setting up the meeting between Governor Pritzker, yourself and Michael Neidorff, CEO of Centene Corporation,” said Centene lobbyist Julie A. Curry in a March 29, 2019 email to Illinois Deputy Gov. Sol Flores.

Curry followed up with a July 30, 2019 email to Anne Caprara, Pritzker’s chief of staff.

“Anne, any help that you can give in getting the Governor’s Office to complete their internal review of the Centene/Wellcare MOU with HFS would be greatly appreciated,” Curry wrote. “Please let me know if you any questions or concerns. Thank you for your consideration and help!!”

In May 2019, Pritzker also accepted an invitation from then-CEO Neidorff to speak at a ribbon cutting for a new Centene facility in Carbondale.

Then in September 2019, Pritzker’s calendar listed an hour-long call “on Centene Merger” with seven top aides, including Ann Spillane, his general counsel, and her deputy general counsel. One of the attendees, Emily Bittner, the governor’s deputy communications director, downplayed the importance of the meeting as “general background on the issues relating to the Centene merger.”

“The GC and deputy GC were not asking the governor to make any decisions, only giving him background,” Bittner said in an email to the BGA.

In a written statement to the BGA, Spillane said it was her job — and not the governor’s — to “make final decisions” on the memorandum of understanding between Centene and the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

“I provided the Governor and senior staff with a detailed background briefing to address questions and to assure the Governor that all potential legal issues had been considered,” Spillane told the BGA. “I then advised HFS that the agency could sign the MOU.”

Bittner portrayed Pritzker’s meetings with company executives as insignificant.

“Governor Pritzker meets regularly with CEOs who do business in the state of Illinois, and he regularly attends events to celebrate the creation of new jobs throughout the state,” she wrote. “Our records indicate that the April meeting with the CEO of Centene was a brief introductory meeting and that the company was informed in advance that the meeting would not involve any discussion of the Wellcare transaction. The Governor was not involved in the transaction.”

In December 2019, with the approval of the Pritzker administration, Centene announced it was selling thousands of patients to another insurer, easing federal antitrust concerns.

In January 2020, Centene closed its deal to purchase Wellcare. That year, Pritzker’s trust bought his Centene stock, his ethics filings show. Also that year, the state oversaw a bulk patient transfer agreement that gave Centene a toehold in the Cook County Medicaid market, and Illinois activated Centene’s separate contract for the medical care of 36,000 juvenile state wards.

With these new lines of business secured, Centene subsidiary Meridian reported profits of $181.5 million on premiums from Illinois Medicaid contracts worth $5.2 billion in 2021. Those profits did not include more than $1 billion in management fees Meridian paid to its affiliates under intercompany arrangements, state insurance filings show.

Pritzker’s ethics filings show he made a capital gain from selling Centene stock last year, but the amount of the gain is not specified.

Neither Centene officials nor their lobbyist Curry responded to requests for comment.

Invested in 12 state contractors

Pritzker was notified of his holdings in Centene in 2021 when it was listed among the 300-plus entities on his annual economic disclosure filings, a report required of all elected officials. Those disclosures require public officials to list all holdings worth more than $5,000. The specific value of the holdings does not have to be disclosed, nor would Pritzker provide it.

The BGA first reported his trust’s Centene investment in February. At that time, the Pritzker administration said he was not involved with Centene.

“The governor is not involved in the contracting process related to Centene,” Jordan Abudayyeh, Pritzker’s communications director, told the BGA. “There is nothing he would have to recuse himself from.”

Questioned by Chicago media days later, Pritzker made a striking admission: The governor said he only learned of his investment in Centene when the BGA contacted him about it.

“I only learned that literally because a reporter called last week from BGA,” Pritzker told WGN News at the February press conference.

“By law, I have to sign a statement of economic interest. I think that’s a terrific thing. The state should keep that in place. I sign that every year,” Pritzker said, scrolling his right hand in the air as if signing a document.

“I get it, I go to the signature page, and I sign it every single year,” he said.

When signing his annual Illinois Statement of Economic Interests forms, Pritzker attested the list of his investments was “correct and complete.” The penalty for willfully filing an incomplete or false statement can include imprisonment for up to one year and a fine that is currently up to $2,500, his most recent state disclosure form says above his signature.

Based on Pritzker’s suggestion he did not verify his disclosure statements, the BGA enlisted a team of DePaul University journalism graduate students to help analyze whether hundreds of entities in Pritzker’s four ethics statements filed since 2019 had state business.

Pritzker retained stock in five companies that already held state contracts when Pritzker placed those stocks into his trust, the BGA found. These included stock in two rail companies that play roles in the $3.4 billion expansion of toll roads surrounding O’Hare International Airport, a key Pritzker administration infrastructure priority.

And after Pritzker took office in 2019, his trust invested in seven more companies that have held contracts with Illinois state agencies Pritzker oversees, the BGA found.

In one example, Pritzker’s trust last year acquired stock in Apple Hospitality REIT Inc., which owns hotels across the United States, including the Hampton Inn & Suites in Skokie. In February, the Illinois Department of Human Services signed a $1,087,920 contract with Apple Hospitality to house Afghan refugees in 104 rooms at the Skokie hotel.

Among other companies with state business in which Pritzker is invested are CSX, JPMorgan Chase & Co., United Healthcare, Morgan Stanley, BNSF Railway, Union Pacific, Marriott and U.S. Foods. For more on each investment and the company’s state business, click here.

Pritzker’s impossible pledge

Pritzker took office in 2019 promising to divest his portfolio of companies that did business with the state and put his remaining stocks into a blind trust.

“Governor-Elect Pritzker is divesting his personally held direct interests in companies that have contracts that are wholly or partially funded with state dollars,” said a 2019 public statement by top Democratic Party attorney Marc Elias, who advised Pritzker on establishing his trust.

“He is committed to taking all steps necessary to comply with Illinois ethics rules and to promote transparency and accountability to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in the Governor’s Office.”

Experts interviewed say Illinois law requiring Pritzker to list his assets renders it impossible for him to keep his pledge to remain blind to decisions made about his investments.

“To me, the more troubling thing is that he just signs the ethics statement without reading it,” said Anne-Marie Rhodes, a professor at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a specialist in estate planning.

“It sounds like a very human response: We all sign things without fully understanding what we’re signing. Everyone who’s ever been to a doctor’s office gets all these papers — if you actually read them, you would miss your appointment,” Rhodes said. “But I think we should expect someone who’s signing an ethics statement to at least have looked at it.”

As governor-elect, Pritzker promised to make charitable contributions matching gains in his trust’s holdings from entities that hold state contracts.

On his ethics disclosures, he reported income and capital gains from transactions involving 11 of the 12 companies that did business with the state while he invested in their stocks. Pritzker declined to reveal whether he had donated to charity based on his earnings from these 11 stocks or others since he took office.

Grace Golembiewski is one of seven DePaul University journalism graduate students who provided research for this article, along with Abena Bediako, Quinn Castaneda, Andrea Cato, Kayla Minor, Juliana Pelaez and Darryl Washington. DePaul journalism program chair and associate professor Jason Martin contributed.

BGA reporters Sandy Bergo and Jared Rutecki contributed to this report.

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Following a review by state bureaucracies, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office has lifted a freeze on funding for projects earmarked by Illinois’ now-indicted former House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The temporary freeze came after a group of nine Democratic state representatives requested it in the wake of Madigan’s 22-count indictment on corruption charges on March 2.

“Although some of the funding for these projects may have already been allocated,” said the March 7 letter submitted to Pritzker by the lawmakers. “We request another layer of review to determine whether they were an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.”

The lawmakers cited a Jan. 21 investigation by the Better Government Association, published in the Chicago Sun-Times, that found four projects included by Madigan in a 2019 infrastructure bill all benefited those to whom the former speaker has personal, professional or political ties.

But two days after their initial letter to Pritzker the same group of lawmakers, led by State Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, backtracked and asked Pritzker to unfreeze the funding after getting pushback from other lawmakers in the state’s Latino caucus.

“They and other community leaders have been vocal advocates for these projects, and they remain vital investments in their communities,” the lawmakers wrote in a second letter to Pritzker. “We stand behind their need to get these projects finished.”

At the time, Pritzker’s office said the freeze would remain in place pending a review in an abundance of caution.

In an email to the BGA on Wednesday, the governor’s top spokeswoman said the review has been completed and the governor ordered the funds released in a March 11 letter. The governor’s office also provided the memos from state agencies detailing the results of the review.

There is no indication in the documents provided to suggest the Pritzker-ordered reviews touched on the lawmakers’ initial requests to examine whether the projects were “appropriate” or whether any conflicts of interest existed.

Instead, the reviews were of the kind conducted on most state expenditures, making sure paperwork is complete, state policies are in place and backgrounds vetted.

Each of those Madigan-sponsored projects — among nearly $4 billion in pork-barrel funding slipped unceremoniously into the $45 billion legislation — are now back on track.

Of that $4 billion in projects added into Rebuild Illinois by politicians, $2 billion are from Pritzker, the BGA investigation found.

In their letter to Pritzker, the lawmakers said the indictment accusing Madigan of trading his office to enrich himself and his friends raises new questions about the potential for parallels.

“Everything that is tied to Madigan is called into question,” Williams told the BGA at the time. “We owe it to the taxpayers to carefully scrutinize these projects.

“If there is a way to recoup any misused funds and put them to use for infrastructure projects for schools, roads and bridges, mental health clinics, food pantries, or other such critical needs, we should find it,” she said.

Among the four projects listed by the lawmakers was a $98 million noise abatement project at the Belt Railway yards, where screeching train brakes have interrupted the sleep of patrons at nearby hotels in Bedford Park.

The hotel owners, Jon and Mark Weglarz, have been clients of Madigan’s tax appeal law practice Madigan & Getzendanner.

“Was this huge expenditure of taxpayer funds intended to benefit the community or was it advanced to benefit Madigan’s private law clients?” Williams said in her original press release. “It appears that in this case, the interests of Illinois residents took a back seat to the culture of cronyism which was the hallmark of the Madigan era.”

Although the $98 million brake job would benefit the Weglarz-owned hotels and their patrons, the grant request came from the Village of Bedford Park. The work is being managed by the Illinois Department of Transportation. According to the review memo, the IDOT found a less expensive alternative to reducing the noise. Funding for this project has been reduced to approximately $22 million.

The lawmakers also asked Pritzker to freeze payments pending a review of three other projects listed in the BGA report.

Those projects included a $31 million earmark for the Academy for Global Citizenship, $9 million for the John Hancock College Preparatory High School and another $6 million to build a control tower at Lewis University Airport in Romeoville.

All were sponsored by Madigan and were supported by Madigan political allies or lobbyists with close ties to Madigan.

They were all funded through a process largely shrouded in secrecy, where Madigan and other powerbrokers in state government were allowed to move many of their favored projects — traditionally called pork — to the top of the list without the normal bureaucratic scrutiny and screening usually given to massive public works projects, the BGA found.

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker has agreed to freeze tens of millions of dollars in state funding for four projects sponsored by indicted former Speaker Michael J. Madigan, his office said Tuesday.

The freeze came after a group of nine Democratic state representatives requested it in the wake of Madigan’s 22-count indictment on corruption charges last week.

In a letter to Pritzker on Monday, the lawmakers cited a January investigation by the Better Government Association that found at least $144 million went to the four projects earmarked by Madigan as part of a 2019 infrastructure improvement measure called Rebuild Illinois.

Each of those Madigan-sponsored projects — among nearly $4 billion in pork-barrel funding slipped unceremoniously into the $45 billion legislation — benefited those to whom the former speaker has personal, professional or political ties, the investigation found.

In their letter to Pritzker, the lawmakers said last week’s indictment accusing Madigan of trading his office to enrich himself and his friends raises new questions about the potential for parallels.

Contacted by the BGA on Tuesday, a Pritzker spokeswoman said in an emailed response the governor has agreed to investigate the Madigan-sponsored earmarks.

“At the request of members of the General Assembly who voted for the capital plan, the administration will freeze the funding for the projects outlined in their letter,” wrote Pritzker’s Press Secretary Jordan Abudayyeh.

The Governor’s office did not elaborate.

The pronouncement from Pritzker’s office came after Pritzker received a two-page letter signed by nine Democratic state representatives.

“Although some of the funding for these projects may have already been allocated,” the letter says. “We request another layer of review to determine whether they were an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.”

The group was led by State Rep. Ann M. Williams, D-Chicago, who mounted an unsuccessful bid against Madigan to become speaker last year. Each of the representatives who signed the letter were among the 19 lawmakers whose votes helped deny Madigan another term as speaker amid the corruption probe.

“Everything that is tied to Madigan is called into question,” Williams said Tuesday in an interview with the BGA. “We owe it to the taxpayers to carefully scrutinize these projects.

“If there is a way to recoup any misused funds and put them to use for infrastructure projects for schools, roads and bridges, mental health clinics, food pantries, or other such critical needs, we should find it,” she said.

Madigan did not respond to a request for comment.

Among the four projects listed by the lawmakers was a $98 million noise abatement project at the Belt Railway yards, where screeching train brakes have interrupted the sleep of patrons at nearby hotels in Bedford Park.

The hotel owners, Jon and Mark Weglarz, have been clients of Madigan’s tax appeal law practice Madigan & Getzendanner.

“According to the Better Government Association, the brothers said they never requested the funding,” the letter to Pritzker said. The BGA investigation was published by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Was this huge expenditure of taxpayer funds intended to benefit the community or was it advanced to benefit Madigan’s private law clients?” Williams said in a press release. “It appears that in this case, the interests of Illinois residents took a back seat to the culture of cronyism which was the hallmark of the Madigan era.”

Although the $98 million brake job would benefit the Weglarz-owned hotels and their patrons, the grant request came from the Village of Bedford Park. The work is being managed by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

“We were not involved in the grant application nor even aware of it,” the Weglarz brothers said in an email to the BGA on Tuesday. “This decision and process is up to State officials, IDOT, and the Village of Bedford Park.”

A spokesman for the Belt, General Counsel Chris Steinway, said the Railway “did not request any funds from the state of Illinois, nor were we the intended recipient.”

“Our operations will not be impacted if these funds are frozen,” said Steinway.

The lawmakers also asked Pritzker to freeze payments pending a review of three other projects listed in the BGA report.

Those projects included a $31 million earmark for the Academy for Global Citizenship, $9 million for the John Hancock College Preparatory High School and another $6 million to build a control tower at Lewis University Airport in Romeoville.

All were sponsored by Madigan and were supported by Madigan political allies or lobbyists with close ties to Madigan.

They were all funded through a process largely shrouded in secrecy, where Madigan and other powerbrokers in state government were allowed to move many of their favored projects — traditionally called pork — to the top of the list without the normal bureaucratic scrutiny and screening usually given to massive public works projects, the BGA found.

Contacted Tuesday, officials of the district that owns the airport said its control tower project would pass muster if the Governor ordered a new review.

“We are confident that the Governor will find few other projects more important to the state and the region than the Traffic Control Tower Project which will protect the safety of over 100,000 takeoffs and landings every year, including the many aviation students at Lewis University,” said David Silverman, chairman of the port district that owns the airport.

He said he worries a freeze on funds would harm work-in-progress.

“The Tower has been under construction for many months, is nearing completion and will soon be staffed by Air Traffic Controllers under the Federal Contract Tower Program,” Silverman said. “Holding funding at this point will not only jeopardize public safety but may expose the Port District to financial consequences.”

Representatives of the two other projects listed could not be reached Tuesday.

Williams said she would favor lifting the freeze on funds for the four Madigan-sponsored projects if a Pritzker review finds them worthy.

Among the other lawmakers listed as signatories are:

Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn; Rep. Deb Conroy, D-Elmhurst; Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago; Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago; Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview; Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook; Rep. Kathy Willis, D-Addison; and Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, D-Naperville.

“The indictment of the former Speaker has cast a shadow over the work of the General Assembly,” said Rep. Costa Howard. “And we have a duty to the people we serve to make sure that every Rebuild Illinois project will serve the interests of taxpayers – not insiders.”

Rep. LaPointe reiterated the point.

“In the interest of rebuilding trust and a fair resource allocation, freezing and scrutinizing projects led by our now-indicted former speaker is critical.”

For the better part of the last decade, hotel owners Jon and Mark Weglarz fought hard to dampen the aggravating noise caused by screeching train brakes outside their Midway-area properties.

It took the intervention of the Weglarz brothers’ longtime property tax lawyer — then House Speaker Michael J. Madigan — to find a solution. Now Illinois taxpayers are footing the $98 million bill for what would undoubtedly be one of the most expensive brake jobs in history.

A Better Government Association investigation found the Madigan-sponsored project is among nearly $4 billion in pet projects slipped unceremoniously into the state’s largest-ever capital projects bill by politicians during the 2019 legislative session.

Dubbed “Rebuild Illinois,” the package was supposed to help advance Illinois into the 21st Century with $45 billion in infrastructure improvements including roads, bridges, rail improvements and other public works projects.

But through a process largely shrouded in secrecy, individual powerbrokers in state government were allowed to move many of their favored projects — traditionally called pork — to the top of the list without the normal bureaucratic scrutiny and screening usually given to massive public works projects, the BGA found.

Until his ouster last year amid a sweeping federal corruption probe, Madigan played an outsized role in the allocation of funds for these projects, referred to in state records as “leadership additions.”

A BGA examination of public records found at least $144 million went to just four projects backed by Madigan, the longest-serving house speaker in U.S. history. Each of those projects benefitted those to whom the former speaker has personal, professional or political ties.

In addition to the $98 million brake job, Madigan delivered another $31 million for a charter school that provided the BGA records detailing only $1.5 million in requests to lawmakers, $9 million for a Chicago high school even though nobody from the Chicago Public Schools sought it and another $6 million for a suburban airport control tower a Madigan political ally wanted for years.

Madigan declined to be interviewed for this report. In a written response, the Weglarz brothers said they never requested the $98 million, and declined to answer questions centered on whether Madigan’s dual roles as both their lawyer and the elected state representative for their hotels played a role in securing it.

The longstanding practice of awarding lawmaker pork-barrel projects to help win favor back home has been the subject of criticism, ethics panels and media reports for decades. In 2011, federal lawmakers banned the practice in Washington amid allegations it was a conduit for corruption and wasteful spending.

Last year, the practice made a comeback in Congress, but with reforms. Elected leaders in Washington must publicly disclose — on their websites — each earmark they’ve requested, with dollar amounts and justifications for the use of taxpayer funds.

No such disclosures are required in Illinois.

Unvetted and secret

The Rebuild Illinois capital improvement spending passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2019, crammed with pools of money for public works projects to be vetted by state agencies, many long sought by officials from traffic engineers to parks superintendents to airport administrators.

Most of the $45 billion in projects were lumped into general categories where approval for specific projects — which actual bridge gets fixed, which bike paths gets built — isn’t determined until after proponents successfully pitch the plans to state bureaucrats and other officials.

But the subset of $4 billion in “Leadership Additions to Rebuild Illinois” — like the noise-abatement project — were tacked on with little public scrutiny by the Democratic majority leaders in the General Assembly who control both houses, as well as by Gov. J.B. Pritzker himself, according to documents from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget.

Of the $4 billion, $2 billion went for 18 projects each labeled a “Governor’s Office Addition,” the GOMB documents showed, while $368 million were labeled “House Democrat Leadership Addition,” and $326 million were labeled “Senate Democrat Leadership Addition.” The remaining $1.2 billion were identified only as “leadership additions.”

The $4 billion came in addition to “member initiatives” that were part of the Rebuild Illinois plan in which $600 million was set aside for state senators and representatives for projects in their districts.

Finding out which lawmaker — or leader — sponsored which earmark is not straightforward, as sponsors’ names are not cited in the bill.

The BGA requested lists of sponsors from the governor’s office as well as the four legislative caucuses representing the House and Senate Democrats and Republicans. None supplied their lists.

And nowhere does the term “leadership additions” appear in the legislation Pritzker signed into law. Only after the BGA requested project records from the GOMB — two years later — was the existence of the “leadership additions” revealed, and the list of projects specified.

Asked how specific projects wound up as part of the select group of additions, the Pritzker administration said the governor picked his projects based largely on his personal contacts and observations.

“Project ideas came from every corner of Illinois. The governor gathered ideas as he witnessed the need with his own eyes and from listening to residents as he traveled the state, even before he was elected the state’s chief executive,” GOMB spokeswoman Carol Knowles said.

“Lawmakers…held public meetings throughout the state and working groups/legislative committees discussed projects and funding options throughout early 2019. Project ideas often came from multiple groups.”

In addition to Pritzker, the two other key players who oversaw the additions were Madigan and then-Democratic Senate President John Cullerton, records show. Madigan declined to answer a list of written questions. Cullerton, now retired from elected office, said his memory was cloudy.

“I’m sorry, I really don’t remember the details of this legislation that was well over two years ago,” he said.

‘I was stunned’

The noise problems for the Weglarz brothers began in 2014 after a near-accident at the nearby Belt Railway switching yard — the largest in North America — prompted officials there to add a second set of brakes on the tracks. After that work was completed, patrons at the Weglarz brothers’ three hotels in suburban Bedford Park complained about sleepless nights due to screeching train brakes.

The noise peaked at 95 decibels, far exceeding the 65 decibel maximum allowed by village ordinance, according to a study commissioned by the hotel owners.

For years, the brothers vigorously relayed to authorities the complaints of their guests, especially flight crews laying over from Midway. They got local tax dollars to help pay for sound insulation at the hotels. They hired noise consultants, as did suburban leaders. The brothers even took their complaints to the state’s pollution control board.

They also enlisted the help of Bedford Park Village President Dave Brady, who told the BGA he decided to ask Madigan for the money “on a whim.”

“I was stunned when we got the call,” Brady said of the earmark, which was the largest Rebuild allocation the BGA found with direct ties to Madigan.

A spokesman for the railyard said no officials there requested the state grant. In recent years, the Belt has taken other steps to lower the level of noise caused by the brakes. While it has helped, noise issues still persist.

The earmark authorizes the Illinois Department of Transportation to spend up to $98 million. IDOT is currently assessing the noise issues as the state works to solve the problem.

Madigan’s property tax appeal law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner, has represented the brothers’ Bedford Park hotel properties for years, saving them $3 million in property taxes over three years, according to Cook County records.

Even with the property taxes reduced, the hotels are an important source of revenue for the village and other government bodies, paying $4.1 million in state and local taxes a year, according to a brief the Weglarz brothers filed when they made their since-dropped noise complaint to the pollution control board.

Brady said he approached Madigan about money for another project besides the railyard work — an overpass at Harlem Avenue and 65th Street that received $150 million in state funding through the regular state operating budget.

Ties between Madigan and Bedford Park run deep.

Madigan’s longtime friend and ally, former U.S. Rep. Bill Lipinski, has lobbied for the village since 2007. Madigan & Getzendanner also has handled property tax appeals for Lipinksi and his two children, including former U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, though a Madigan spokesperson said the law firm did not collect fees for the work that saved them almost $30,000 over six years.

At the time Rebuild Illinois was being debated in Springfield, Bill Lipinski was collecting $5,000 a month from Bedford Park. He made more than $500,000 from the village between 2012 and 2020, village records show.

Brady said while Lipinski knew about the noise problem he did not lobby specifically for that earmark. Still, in the months immediately preceding Rebuild Illinois’ passage Lipinski was talking to Madigan as many as four times a month, according to invoices Lipinski filed with other lobbying clients.

Bill Lipinski did not respond to emailed questions.

The $6 million tower

The relationship between Madigan and the Lipinski family also played a role in a $6 million “Leadership Addition” that was added to Rebuild Illinois for a control tower at Lewis University Airport in Romeoville, which serves corporate aircraft and is a reliever airport for Midway and O’Hare airports.

As a congressman, Dan Lipinski worked for years to get federal funding for the control tower but when federal government funding was slow to materialize, records show Lipinski got the Illinois legislature to move quickly.

In an email obtained by the BGA through a public records request, the airport’s lobbyist, Jason Tai, wrote that Lipinski launched the earmark process by pushing for the grant with Madigan. Tai noted elected officials “carried a whole lot of water on this from the initiation of this from Congressman Lipinski advocating with Speaker Madigan to kick star(t) things.”

Before Rebuild Illinois passed, Tai, a one-time congressional chief of staff for both Dan and Bill Lipinski, asked airport officials in another email to check with state lawmakers and see if funding for the control tower could be included in the capital bill.

“Heard from someone close to the Speaker that its (sic) getting quite real,” Tai wrote, following up days later with news their efforts had succeeded “(t)hanks to the leadership of Congressman Lipinski, (Romeoville) Mayor (John) Noak and your state legislators …”

John Connor, then the state representative for the district, including the airport, told the BGA he pressed for tower funding as part of Rebuild Illinois. However, he said he was “not privy to the process used to determine which projects from members made it into the capital bill or why certain projects were not included.” Connor was elected as a state senator in 2020.

The airport is located in the third congressional district that Dan Lipinski represented until last year. The congressional seat is now held by U.S. Rep. Marie Newman, who defeated Lipinski in the 2020 Democratic primary. Madigan backed Lipinski in the primary and carried the Madigan-controlled 13th Ward for Lipinski. Madigan is also the longtime Democratic State Central committeeman for the congressional district. Lipinski had listed getting the tower funding as a major accomplishment during the campaign.

In response to BGA questions about efforts to get Rebuild Illinois money for the control tower, Lipinski said he worked on the initiative “after serving as a transportation co-chair on Governor Pritzker’s infrastructure transition committee.” He also said the project was a long-time priority for him.

“When the new congressional maps were released in spring 2011, I visited with all of the mayors in what would be the new sections of the Third Congressional District,” Lipinski said in his email response. “One of Romeoville Mayor John Noak’s top priorities for economic development in the village and the surrounding area was to improve the safety and ease of use of Lewis University Airport (LOT) which included adding a control tower.”

David Silverman, chairman of the governmental district that owns and operates the airport, told the BGA it was “fortunate to receive the $6 million” and that the tower was “difficult to finance because the Joliet Regional Port District does not levy any property taxes,” and as such is dependent on operating revenues and government grants. The port district acquired the airport from Lewis University in 1989.

He said the tower was “much needed” and will “increase greatly the safety of over one-hundred thousand takeoffs and landings” each year. “The Lewis University Airport is one of the busiest airports in the State of Illinois,” he said.

The tower, now under construction, is scheduled to open in May.

‘Tell me you’re not kidding’

The third earmark tied to Madigan went to the Academy for Global Citizenship, a privately run but publicly funded charter school founded in 2008 on the Southwest Side near Madigan’s district. It received $31 million, almost enough to fully fund the school’s plans to build a new campus on six acres formerly occupied by the LeClaire Courts public housing development west of Cicero Avenue and just south of the Stevenson Expressway.

The $31 million is more than half of the $58.3 million earmarked for individual Chicago schools in the entire Rebuild Illinois infrastructure bill, according to Chalkbeat Chicago. The grant is especially remarkable because charter schools typically receive little taxpayer support for school construction.

The grant came after the Academy in 2019 hired Jeffrey Glass, a former top Madigan state employee turned lobbyist, public records show.

Following Glass’ advice, school founder Sarah Elizabeth Ippel met with state Sen. Antonio Munoz, a Democrat from Chicago, and requested he sponsor a $1 million grant as one of his “member initiatives,” since the school is in Munoz’s district, according to emails and texts the BGA received through public records requests.

But Munoz told the BGA he didn’t do that, saying the $31 million grant was “not my initiative.”

During the busy final weeks of the legislative session in 2019, Glass and Ippel made multiple attempts to secure funding. In addition to the two courting Munoz, Glass also told Ippel he intended to meet with Madigan, the emails and texts show.

The emails and texts do not detail precisely what happened next but other public records show that around the same time Glass was approaching Madigan Glass also hired former Chicago Ald. Michael Zalewski, 23rd, a close Madigan ally, to work with him on the Academy account.

Zalewski has become embroiled in the same sweeping federal probe that forced Madigan from office.

The investigation has focused on utility giant Commonwealth Edison and its efforts to hire lobbyists tight with Madigan in order to influence him to advance ComEd’s political efforts in Springfield. As part of the probe, investigators are examining how it happened that ComEd hired Zalewski, though neither he nor Madigan have been charged with wrongdoing.

One month after hiring Zalewski and telling Ippel he planned to meet with Madigan, Glass texted Ippel with news as the Rebuild Illinois bill was being finalized.

“I think I got you $31 million,” he wrote.

“Please tell me you’re not kidding,” Ippel responded.

“Slow down. I’m checking the figure and the decimals,” Glass texted back, then added, “It’s correct. $31 million.”

“This is an incredible day,” Ippel wrote back.

State records show the $31 million was another “House Democrat Leadership Addition” line item.

Neither Glass nor Madigan would answer questions from the BGA about the grant. But disclosure reports filed by Illinois lobbyists show Glass had unique access to Madigan: in 2019, he was the only lobbyist who reported picking up the tab for dinner or drinks with the speaker in Springfield or Chicago.

The Academy paid Glass $7,500 for six weeks of work, public records show. Once Rebuild passed, Glass “provided a verbal cancellation notice,” according to the Academy’s director of operations.

A year later, in July 2020, Chicago rezoned the former CHA property to permit the Academy to build its school. In the following months, Ippel tried repeatedly to get the state funds released, emails and records show, by sending direct messages to the governor himself and dropping Madigan’s name in emails to Pritzker’s staff.

“I also confirmed that Speaker Madigan has submitted the request to the Governor’s office,” she wrote to Bria Scudder, one of Pritzker’s top deputies. Emails show Scudder quickly forwarded the message to the director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, which plays a critical role in releasing state grant funds.

Ippel also traded at least 19 messages with Mark Jarmer, a top Madigan aide, who in turn repeatedly called another state official on the academy’s behalf, records show, before finally succeeding in getting the money released to the academy.

“I spoke with GOMB today at 430 and was told your paperwork was sent yesterday. I am relieved, as I know are you,” Jarmer texted Ippel.

Ippel declined multiple requests for an interview but in response to written questions academy officials said through a spokesperson they received the $31 million grant because the school project “will extend beyond the public school mission,” provide a neighborhood hub on vacated CHA land “that has experienced decades of disinvestment” and “catalyze revitalization on Chicago’s southwest side.”

Academy officials did not answer questions about what role Madigan played in helping secure the $31 million. Neither Jarmer, Madigan, Glass, nor Zalewski responded to emailed questions from the BGA.

CPS didn’t ask for $9 million school grant

Another grant listed as a “House Democrat Leadership Addition” is a $9 million earmark for the John Hancock College Preparatory High School, a selective-enrollment high school in Madigan’s legislative district that has been a pet project of his for a decade.

The school received the funding even though nobody at CPS asked for it, according to records and interviews.

For 10 years, Madigan and his political ally Ald. Marty Quinn, 13th, pushed city officials to create a school on the Southwest Side for high-achieving students, in part because Quinn thought it would keep families from moving out of the city in search of better education opportunities.

In 2014, Madigan and Quinn got their wish when then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Hancock would become a selective-enrollment school. Four years later, Emanuel, Madigan and Quinn jointly announced Hancock would get a new state-of-the-art building to be located at 64th Place and Long Avenue in Madigan’s 22nd state legislative district.

The $9 million Rebuild Illinois grant is set to pay for “capital upgrades” for a construction project budgeted at $82 million.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the $9 million grant was not requested by the board, but rather, “independently initiated by the Illinois House Democratic Caucus as a result of community requests” and would supplement the construction budget.

The grant was intended to help build a black box theater, eight additional classrooms, a second hard-wired computer lab, and increased lunchroom space that allows the school to consolidate lunch time from four periods to three, according to the board’s response to a BGA public records request.

The building was finished last year in time for the first day of school in August. The school board is working with state officials to collect the grant funds, according to CPS spokeswoman Sylvia Barragan.

The Madigan-favored school got $9 million of the more than $58 million earmarked in Rebuild for specific Chicago schools. Of the 642 Chicago public schools only the Academy for Global Citizenship received more. Most Chicago schools received nothing.

In 2009, with yet another governor ensnared in scandal, Illinois’ Democratic legislative leaders authored a package of laws they promised would begin to reform Illinois’ culture of corruption.

One of the biggest items in the legislative package would finally establish statewide limits on campaign contributions, a measure Illinois was one of the last states to adopt.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, who sponsored the legislation, hailed it as a way to “help restore public confidence in Illinois government.” State Sen. Don Harmon, the Democratic sponsor in the Senate, praised it for enacting “historic contribution caps, real disclosure requirements and strict enforcement measures.”

But years later, Madigan and Harmon are using a controversial loophole written into the reform bill to raise millions of dollars above the limits the legislation set. Their Republican counterparts have also blown past the limits, as all four men have collected a combined $44 million more than the contribution limits allow, a Better Government Association examination shows.

Most of that money was doled out to support favored candidates in their respective chambers, records show, as part of a longstanding tactic to win loyalty and ensure their own status atop their party hierarchy.

“They completely gamed it,” said Cynthia Canary, former executive director of the organization now called Reform for Illinois, who helped negotiate the decade-old reform measure.

At the time, the law limited individual campaign contributions to $5,000 per politician, corporate and union contributions to $10,000 and contributions from political action committees to $50,000.

All four leaders are unapologetic about bypassing the limits as part of a political strategy they say is necessary for their parties to compete in elections.

“As a leader in the fight against radical Republicans and the party of Donald Trump, I will not surrender any tool to elect Democrats to stop them,” said Harmon of Oak Park, who in January succeeded John Cullerton as Illinois Senate president.

The tool Harmon refers to is dubbed the “millionaire’s exemption,” which allows all candidates in a General Assembly race to exceed legal campaign limits and raise unlimited funds from contributors, but only after any one candidate in a specific race spends more than $100,000 in personal funds on his or her own race.

Harmon — the most recent lawmaker to use the loophole — defended the millionaire’s exemption a decade ago as a way to level the playing field for underdogs challenged by ultra-wealthy, self-funded candidates.

None of the four lawmakers exceeding the limits has ever been threatened by self-funded millionaires. Harmon isn’t even up for re-election until 2022.

Yet, the heir apparent to Cullerton began blowing through the limits within weeks after Cullerton announced last fall that he planned to retire.

On Dec. 4, Harmon loaned his own campaign exactly $100,001, which triggered the millionaire’s exemption, and later that day the Friends of Don Harmon campaign fund collected a cascade of cash from unions, lawyers, corporations and others. In all, the fund brought in $527,300 that day, $131,600 of which came in above the limits that had been in effect one day earlier.

After he was elected Senate president, Harmon began parceling out the extra cash to favored Senate Democratic candidates and committees.

According to the fund’s latest campaign disclosures, Harmon has raised nearly $1.3  million in donations that exceed the limits, about one-third of the more than $3.9 million he raised during 2019 and 2020.

Among the contributors exceeding the limits were three PACs tied to labor unions, which collectively gave him $900,000, marijuana industry investor Stephen Schuler and his philanthropist wife, Mary Jo, who together gave $75,000, and a total of $100,000 from three gaming companies.

‘A BAD LAW AND A BAD IDEA’

The Democrats who authored the limits are not the only ones to benefit from the loopholes. The two top Republican lawmakers in Illinois, harsh critics of the reform effort they felt didn’t go far enough, are cashing in as well.

“There’s more holes in this legislation than a ton of Swiss cheese,” state Sen. Bill Brady said during a floor debate in 2009.

“Supporting this is doing nothing more but give authority to a few individuals who control party purse strings, who can raise money and shift campaign contributions,” he said. “Don’t vote for this.”

Rep. Jim Durkin of west suburban Western Springs also spoke out when the General Assembly in 2012 extended the millionaire’s exemption for campaigns when outside groups independently spend more than $100,000 advocating for or against particular candidates.

“Have you forgotten the crimes of Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan? Have you forgotten how large campaign contributions to politicians made Illinois a national laughingstock?” Durkin asked during the 2012 floor debate, echoing an advocacy group’s opposition to the bill. “This is a bad law and a bad idea. Vote no.”

The reform measures followed nearly a decade of scandal in Springfield that first sent ex-Gov. George Ryan to federal prison and then former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was charged with — among other things — trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat then being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Blagojevich in 2009 was impeached and removed from office, and later sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. In February, President Donald Trump commuted Blagojevich’s sentence and he was released.

Since their failed opposition to the reform measures, both Brady and Durkin received promotions in Springfield. Brady became Senate GOP leader in 2017 and Durkin became head of the House Republicans in 2013. Three years later, Durkin became the beneficiary of the same exemption he once railed against. 

On Oct. 5, 2016, records show, an independent political committee backed by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner spent $101,843 on radio ads promoting Durkin’s re-election campaign.

The group, Turnaround Illinois, was funded by Rauner, a Republican, and billionaire investor and former Chicago Tribune executive Sam Zell to help legislative candidates who sided with Rauner, and “to oppose those who stand in the way.”

Beginning the day after the exemption was triggered and throughout that October, Durkin’s campaign committee raised $12 million from Rauner, his wife, Diana, Rauner’s campaign committee, and $5 million from hedge fund founder Kenneth Griffin — all well above the limits.

Durkin ran unopposed that November, and didn’t need the $17 million for his own legislative race. Instead, he sent $14.3 million to support other Republican candidates for the General Assembly and more than $4 million to the Illinois Republican Party.

In 2018, Durkin took advantage of the loophole again, this time with help from a DC-based group called the Republican State Leadership Committee, or RSLC. The group spent $105,000 on a website promoting Durkin’s candidacy.

With limits off again, Durkin raised $6 million from Griffin, then gave $5.7 million to the House Republican Organization and another $525,000 to the Illinois Republican Party.

In June of this year, Durkin broke the limits a third time, records show, after the RSLC spent $105,000 to promote his campaign. It’s too early to tell how much Durkin will collect over the limits this year, but he’s already taken in $300,000 from the Chicagoland Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC, far above the current maximum of $57,800 for PAC donations.

Durkin’s campaign spokeswoman, Eleni Demertzis, said Durkin “has complied with the finance laws passed by the Democratic majorities. He stands by his statements from 2012 and will continue to follow the law.”

Neither Rauner, Zell, nor the RSLC responded to emailed questions or calls for comment.

Durkin’s ability to raise unusually large sums may have helped his party pick up four House seats in 2016, robbing Madigan of the Democratic “supermajority” that made it easier to override vetoes by then-Gov. Rauner.

After Brady became Senate Republican leader in 2017, the Bloomington Republican took advantage of the millionaire’s loophole in the month before the 2018 general election.

He too was unthreatened by a self-funded millionaire when he made a $100,001 personal loan to his campaign on Oct. 1, 2018, declared his race self-funded and set the stage for unlimited donations.

As a result, Griffin was able to donate a total of $1.5 million to Brady, and conservative billionaire Richard Uihlein chipped in $270,000.

Brady was unopposed in the general election and with money to spare, he helped finance Republican campaigns for the Illinois Senate, directing more than $2.5 million to the Republican State Senate Campaign Committee and distributing $327,000 among six GOP candidates facing close races against Democrats. Of those, two won.

In December 2018, Brady’s campaign repaid his loan, records show.

“One of my responsibilities is to support Republican candidates for the Senate and to work to elect more Republicans to the Illinois Senate,” Brady said in an emailed response to BGA questions. “All our fundraising and financial activities are conducted openly and legally.”

Once limits were lifted in these races, no single donor gave more than Griffin, who contributed millions to support Republicans in the General Assembly. 

“Leadership in Springfield has failed to improve our schools, end decades-long corruption, and stop the pattern of reckless spending that threatens to bankrupt our state,” he said in an emailed response.

Uihlein declined to be interviewed. 

‘AN EXISTENTIAL FIGHT’

In 2018 — two years after Durkin first broke the limits, — Madigan fought back, using the $100,001 technique.

On Aug. 16 of that year, the speaker personally donated one dollar above the $100,000 trigger and notified the Illinois State Board of Elections that he was “self-funding” his unopposed re-election race for state representative.

Madigan then used his district campaign committee as a depository for contributions he could disburse to other Democrats, a maneuver he’s made repeatedly over the years to help him secure his power as speaker and one of the most powerful politicians in the state.

By breaking the limits, Madigan raised nearly $12 million more than normally allowed, records show. He sent $5.9 million to the Democratic Party of Illinois and the Democratic Majority, two campaign funds he also controls and uses to distribute cash to favored Democratic legislative candidates. He also spent more than $2.1 million on payroll and other office expenses for his political organization. 

The influx of cash apparently worked. Democrats gained seven House seats in 2018, restoring Madigan’s “supermajority.”

In August of 2019, Madigan broke the limits again with a second $100,001 personal donation and has since raised more than $6 million in over-the-limits funds for the 2020 election.

Madigan justified breaking the limits, saying in a written statement that the Rauner administration had attempted a “hostile takeover” of the state.

“Rauner attempted to leverage his personal fortune to bully lawmakers into enacting an extreme agenda that would have padded the profits of big corporations and further enrich billionaire CEOs,” Madigan’s statement said. “Because I stood in his way, the vast majority of this spending targeted me personally…but his real target was middle-class families.”

Since breaking the limits, Madigan’s three biggest contributors  have been union and construction industry PACs, which collectively donated more than $8 million during the three-year period, far above the maximum the three PACs could have donated under statutory limits.

“We saw just constant attacks on union wages, on rights at work, on workplace protections, all under the guise of workplace reforms,” said Ed Maher, spokesman for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, which is affiliated with two of Madigan’s top contributors. “This is an existential fight.” 

Campaign finance expert Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois Springfield, said the exceptions to the limits were intended to defend against ultra-wealthy candidates and interest groups.

“They were not meant to be offensive mechanisms, used proactively to gain leverage by allowing your supporters to make unlimited contributions on your behalf,” he said. 

The repeated use of loopholes is “unseemly,” said Christine Radogno, Senate Republican leader until 2017.

“Stop playing the game that we have limits because we really don’t.”

En el 2009, con otro gobernador envuelto en escándalos, líderes demócratas de la rama legislativa de Illinois promulgaron una serie de leyes que prometían comenzar a erradicar la cultura de corrupción en Illinois.

Uno de los puntos más importantes de este conjunto de leyes fue que finalmente establecería límites estatales al financiamiento de campañas políticas. Illinois fue uno de los últimos estados en adoptar estas medidas.

El presidente de la Cámara de Representantes del estado, Michael Madigan, quien patrocinó la legislación, celebró las nuevas medidas como una forma de “ayudar a restaurar la confianza del público en el gobierno de Illinois”. El senador estatal Don Harmon, patrocinador demócrata en el Senado, elogió la ley como un paso “histórico” al promulgar “límites sobre contribución a campañas electorales, con reales acuerdos de divulgación, y estrictas medidas de cumplimiento”.

Pero años más tarde, Madigan y Harmon utilizarían un polémico resquicio escrito en la reforma para recaudar millones de dólares que superarían los límites en donaciones políticas que la ley establece.

Sus colegas republicanos también han sobrepasado estos límites. En total, cuatro de los funcionarios electos más prominentes en Illinois han recaudado un total de $44 millones más de lo que los límites de contribución permiten, según una investigación realizada por el Better Government Association.

Gran parte de dichas contribuciones fueron usadas para apoyar a otros candidatos políticos en sus respectivas cámaras, de acuerdo a registros, como una táctica para ganar su lealtad y asegurar que su estatus jerárquico dentro del partido se mantuviera intocable.

“Lo jugaron por completo”, dijo Cynthia Canary, ex directora ejecutiva de la organización, ahora llamada Reforma para Illinois, quien ayudó a negociar las medidas de la reforma hace una década.

En aquel tiempo, la ley limitó las contribuciones individuales a $5,000 por político, contribuciones corporativas y sindicales a $10,000 y contribuciones de comités de acción política (conocido en inglés como PAC) a $50,000.

Los funcionarios electos que han usado esta táctica no han ofrecido disculpas por eludir los límites como parte de una estrategia política, que señalan es necesaria para que sus partidos compitan en las elecciones.

“Como líder en la lucha contra los republicanos radicales y el partido de Donald Trump, no renunciaré a ninguna herramienta con el fin de elegir a los demócratas que los derrocarán”, dijo Harmon de Oak Park, quien en enero asumió el cargo de John Cullerton como presidente del Senado de Illinois.

La herramienta a la cual Harmon se refiere es conocida como la “exención del millonario”, que permite a todos los candidatos políticos que compiten para la Asamblea General, exceder los límites legales de sus campañas y recaudar fondos ilimitados de sus contribuyentes, siempre y cuando el candidato desembolse más de $100,000 de sus fondos personales en su propia candidatura.

Harmon, el legislador más reciente en utilizar este tecnicismo legal, defendió la “exención del millonario” hace una década como una forma de nivelar las condiciones en que candidatos más desaventajados se enfrentan en campañas políticas a candidatos ultramillonarios y autofinanciados.

Ninguno de los cuatro legisladores mencionados en esta nota ha competido contra multimillonarios autofinanciados en sus respectivas campañas. A Harmon ni siquiera le toca competir para su reelección hasta el 2022.

Aun así, Harmon comenzó rápidamente a recaudar exorbitantes cantidades de dinero solo semanas después de que su predecesor Cullerton anunciara el otoño pasado que planeaba retirarse.

El 4 de diciembre, Harmon destinó a su propia campaña exactamente $100,001, desencadenando la “exención del millonario”, y más tarde ese mismo día el fondo de campaña Amigos de Don Harmon recaudó una millonada de dinero en efectivo de sindicatos, abogados, corporaciones, entre otros. En total, el fondo acumuló $527,300 en solo un día, de los cuales $131,600 superaron los límites que habían entrado en vigor un día antes.

Después de ser elegido presidente del Senado, Harmon comenzó a repartir el dinero extra para favorecer a los candidatos y comités demócratas del Senado.  

Según las últimas revelaciones a cerca de los fondos de su campaña, Harmon ha recaudado casi $1.3 millones en donaciones que exceden los límites, alrededor de un tercio de los más de $3.9 millones que recaudó durante el 2019 y el 2020.

Entre los contribuyentes que superaron los límites estaban tres grupos de PAC vinculados a sindicatos, que de forma conjunta le dieron $900,000, el inversionista de la industria de la marihuana Stephen Schuler y su esposa filántropa, Mary Jo, que en conjunto donaron $75,000, y un total de $100,000 de tres compañías de juegos de azar.

‘UNA  MALA LEY Y UNA MALA IDEA’

Los mismos demócratas creadores de la ley de límite de contribuciones no son los únicos que se han beneficiado bajo este vacío legal. Los dos principales legisladores republicanos en Illinois, duros críticos de esta reforma que decían era insuficiente, también se están beneficiando.

“Hay más agujeros en esta ley que en una tonelada de queso suizo”, dijo el senador estatal Bill Brady durante un debate legislativo en el 2009.

“Apoyar esta [reforma] no es más que darle autoridad a unos pocos quienes controlan el bolsillo del partido, los mismos que pueden recaudar dinero y re-asignar contribuciones de campaña”, dijo Brady. “No voten por esto”.

El representante Jim Durkin, del suburbio de Western Springs, también se pronunció cuando en la Asamblea General del 2012 amplió la “exención del millonario” para las campañas, tiempo en que grupos externos gastaban de forma independiente más de $100,000, favoreciendo o perjudicando a ciertos candidatos.

“¿Se han olvidado de los crímenes de Rod Blagojevich y George Ryan? ¿Se han olvidado cómo las grandes contribuciones de campaña a los políticos hicieron de Illinois un hazmerreír nacional?”, Durkin señaló durante el debate del 2012, apelando a un grupo activista, opositor a esta ley. “Esta es una mala ley y una mala idea. Voten no”.

Las medidas de la reforma se implementaron casi una década después del escándalo en Springfield, que primero envió al ex gobernador George Ryan a una prisión federal y luego al ex gobernador Rod Blagojevich, quien fue acusado de, entre otras cosas, tratar de vender el puesto del Senado de los Estados Unidos cuando Barack Obama (quien era senador de los Estados Unidos en ese entonces) había sido elegido presidente.

En el 2009, Blagojevich fue acusado y removido de su cargo como gobernador de Illinois, y más tarde fue sentenciado a 14 años en prisión federal. En febrero, el presidente Donald Trump revocó la sentencia de Blagojevich y fue puesto en libertad.

Desde su fallida oposición a las medidas de la reforma, tanto Brady como Durkin recibieron ascensos en Springfield. Brady se convirtió en líder del Partido Republicano del Senado de Illinois en el 2017, y Durkin se convirtió en el líder de los republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes de Illinois en el 2013. Tres años más tarde, Durkin se benefició de la misma exención que él mismo había criticado fuertemente.

El 5 de octubre del 2016, según registros, un comité político independiente respaldado por el gobernador de ese entonces, Bruce Rauner, gastó $101,843en anuncios de radio promoviendo la campaña de reelección de Durkin.

El grupo, Turnaround Illinois — financiado por Rauner, un republicano e inversor multimillonario y el ex ejecutivo del diario Chicago Tribune, Sam Zell — fue creado para ayudar a los candidatos legislativos que apoyaban a Rauner, y “para oponerse a aquellos que se interponen en el camino”.

Solo un día después de que la “exención” comenzara y a lo largo de octubre, el comité de campaña de Durkin recaudó $12 millones de dólares por parte de Rauner, su esposa, Diana, el Comité de campaña de Rauner, y otros $5 millones de dólares por parte del fundador de fondos de cobertura, Kenneth Griffin. Todas las contribuciones excedieron los límites.

Durkin compitió por su re-elección sin oposición ese noviembre, por lo que no necesitó los $17 millones para su campaña. En su lugar, repartió $14.3 millones para apoyar a otros candidatos republicanos para la Asamblea General y entregó más de $4 millones al Partido Republicano de Illinois.

En el 2018, Durkin aprovechó el resquicio legal de nuevo, esta vez con la ayuda de un grupo con sede en Washington DC, llamado el Comité de Liderazgo Estatal Republicano (RSLC por sus siglas en inglés). El grupo gastó $105,000 en un sitio web promocionando la candidatura de Durkin.

Otra vez sobrepasando los límites, Durkin recaudó $6 millones provenientes de Griffin, luego donó $5.7 millones a la Organización Republicana de la Cámara de Representantes y otros $525,000 al Partido Republicano de Illinois.

En junio de este año, Durkin rompió los límites una tercera vez, como demuestran los registros, después de que la organización RSLC gastara $105,000 para promover su campaña.

Es demasiado pronto para saber cuánto acumulará Durkin este año o si sobrepasará los límites, pero ya ha recibido $300,000 del PAC de Gestión Laboral Conjunta de los Operadores de Chicago, muy por encima del máximo actual de $57,800 por donaciones de un PAC.

La portavoz de la campaña de Durkin, Eleni Demertzis, aseveró que Durkin “ha cumplido con las leyes financieras aprobadas por las mayorías demócratas. Su postura del 2012 sigue estando vigente y continuará cumpliendo con la ley”.

Ni Rauner, Zell, ni el RSLC respondieron a preguntas hechas a través de correo electrónico o a llamadas telefónicas solicitando comentarios.

La habilidad de Durkin para recaudar sumas inusualmente grandes posiblemente haya ayudado a su partido a ganar cuatro puestos en la Cámara de Representantes en el 2016, quitándole a Mike Madigan la “supermayoría” demócrata que facilitó la anulación de vetos por el ex gobernador Rauner.

Después de que Brady se convirtiera en líder republicano del Senado en el 2017, el funcionario electo de Bloomington se aprovechó de la controversial regla cuando sin ningún escrúpulo se hizo un préstamo de $100,001 a su propia campaña el 1 de octubre de 2018, declarando su campaña política autofinanciada, lo que abrió el camino a donaciones ilimitadas.

Como consecuencia, Griffin pudo donar $1.5 millones a Brady mientras que el multimillonario conservador, Richard Uihlein, donó otros $270,000.

Brady era un candidato sin oposición en las elecciones generales y con dinero de sobra, ayudó a financiar campañas republicanas para el Senado de Illinois, destinando más de $2.5 millones al Comité de Campaña del Senado Estatal Republicano y distribuyendo $327,000 entre seis candidatos del Partido Republicano que se enfrentaban a candidaturas políticas competitivas contra los demócratas. De ellos, dos ganaron.

En diciembre de 2018, la campaña de Brady pagó su deuda, de acuerdo a los registros.

“Una de mis responsabilidades es apoyar a los candidatos republicanos para el Senado y trabajar para elegir a más republicanos para el Senado de Illinois”, dijo Brady en una respuesta por correo electrónico a las preguntas de la BGA. “Todas nuestras actividades financieras y de recaudación de fondos se llevan a cabo de forma abierta y legal”.

Una vez que se levantaron los límites en estas competencias políticas, ningún donante aportó más que Griffin, quien contribuyó con millones de dólares para apoyar a los republicanos compitiendo para la Asamblea General.

“El liderazgo en Springfield no ha logrado mejorar nuestras escuelas, poner fin a la corrupción de décadas y detener el patrón de gastos excesivos que amenazan con llevar a nuestro estado a la quiebra”, dijo en una respuesta por correo electrónico.

Uihlein declinó ser entrevistado.

‘UNA LUCHA EXISTENCIAL’

En el 2018, dos años después de que Durkin rompiera los límites por primera vez, Madigan se defendió, usando la técnica del $100,001.

El 16 de agosto de ese año, el presidente de la cámara se auto donó $1 dólar más que el tope de $100,000 y notificó a la Junta Electoral del Estado de Illinois que estaba “autofinanciando” su carrera de reelección para representante estatal.

Madigan luego usó su Comité de campaña de distrito como un banco de depósitos de contribuciones que podría ser distribuidas a otros demócratas, una maniobra que ha repetido a lo largo de los años para asegurar su poder como presidente, convirtiéndose en uno de los políticos más poderosos del estado.

Al exceder los límites, Madigan recaudó casi $12 millones de dólares más de lo que normalmente está permitido, los registros indican. El poderoso político dio $5.9 millones al Partido Demócrata de Illinois y a la mayoría demócrata, dos fondos de campaña que también controla y utiliza para distribuir dinero en efectivo a los candidatos legislativos demócratas que le favorecen. También gastó más de $2.1 millones en nómina y otros gastos de oficina para su organización política.

Aparentemente, la inyección de dinero funcionó. Los demócratas ganaron siete puestos en la Cámara en el 2018, reestableciendo la “supermayoría” de Madigan.

En agosto del 2019, Madigan excedió los límites nuevamente con una segunda donación personal de $100,001 y desde entonces ha recaudado más de $6 millones en fondos que sobrepasan los límites para las elecciones de este año.

Madigan justificó su actuar, diciendo en una declaración escrita que la administración Rauner había intentado una “toma hostil” del estado.

“Rauner intentó aprovechar su fortuna personal para intimidar a los legisladores de promulgar una agenda extrema que solo beneficiaría a las grandes corporaciones, enriqueciendo aún más a los directores ejecutivos multimillonarios”, dijo Madigan. “Debido a que yo era un estorbo en su camino, la gran mayoría de sus gastos iban dirigidos en mi contra… pero su verdadero objetivo era contra las familias de la clase media”.

Desde que excedió los límites, los tres mayores contribuyentes de Madigan han sido comités de PAC de sindicatos y de la industria de la construcción, que colectivamente donaron más de $8 millones de dólares durante un período de tres años, muy por encima del máximo que las tres PAC podrían haber donado bajo los límites legales.

“Vimos ataques constantes a los salarios sindicales, a los derechos laborales, a las protecciones en el lugar de trabajo, todo bajo el pretexto de reformas laborales”, dijo Ed Maher, vocero del Sindicato Internacional de Ingenieros Locales 150, que está afiliada a dos de los principales contribuyentes de Madigan. “Esta es una lucha existencial”.

El experto en finanzas de campañas electorales, Kent Redfield, profesor emérito de ciencias políticas en la Universidad de Illinois en Springfield, dijo que las excepciones a los límites tenían como objetivo defenderse de los candidatos y grupos de interés ultra millonarios.

“La intención no era crear mecanismos de ataque, ni para ser utilizado proactivamente para ganar ventaja al permitir que sus partidarios hicieran contribuciones excesivas en su nombre [del candidato]”, dijo.

El uso repetido de esta este vacío legal “no se justifica”, dijo Christine Radogno, líder republicana del Senado hasta el 2017. “Dejen de jugar el juego de que tenemos límites porque realmente no los hay”, dijo.

In his final days as Illinois Senate president, John Cullerton transferred $92,000 from a political account he controlled to the campaign funds of two senate colleagues under federal investigation for corruption: his distant cousin Thomas Cullerton and Martin Sandoval.

Thomas Cullerton, who got $32,000, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges accusing him of taking a salary and benefits for a no-show Teamsters job. Sandoval received $60,000 after he resigned his Senate seat and just days before he pleaded guilty to taking bribes.

Within days of receiving the money in January, records show, both men made sizable payments to their defense attorneys.

Both Sandoval and Tom Cullerton are recent examples of public figures using a controversial yet legal practice that allows politicians to spend campaign contributions defending themselves against charges involving their public office.

“It is unseemly to see campaign funds be used for legal defense, especially when the situation is egregious,” said Aaron McKean, a lawyer for the national elections watchdog group, the Campaign Legal Center. “Campaign donors can rightly look at this and say that’s not how they wanted their contributions to be used.”

The cash came from the Senate Democratic Victory Fund, controlled by John Cullerton and established, according to state records, to “elect Democratic candidates to the Illinois State Senate.” Such funds are typically set up by party leaders to finance favored candidates.

But neither Tom Cullerton nor Sandoval were candidates for the 2020 elections at the time they received the refunds. Tom Cullerton is not up for re-election until 2022, and Sandoval resigned his office effective Jan. 1.

In a report the Senate Democratic fund filed April 15 with the Illinois State Board of Elections, each of the payments was labeled a “contributions refund.”

In an email response to questions from the Better Government Association, the former Senate president said he transferred the money after both men asked that previous contributions they made to the Senate Democratic fund be returned.

“I did not know what they intended to do with it; they didn’t discuss that with me,” John Cullerton, a partner in Chicago law offices Thompson Coburn LLP, said in the emailed response. “They decided what to do with the funds.”

By the time John Cullerton paid out the money, both Sandoval and Tom Cullerton’s campaign funds had been drained, state records show, in part because they had been using them to pay their criminal defense attorneys. In the last three months of 2019, Sandoval spent $90,000 on lawyers and Tom Cullerton spent $25,000 on lawyers, leaving him with just $240.

The Senate Democratic fund made the payments to Sandoval’s campaign committee on Jan. 14 and Tom Cullerton’s committee on Jan. 17. John Cullerton’s last day in office as Senate President was Jan. 20.

The next day, Tom Cullerton paid $25,000 to his defense lawyer, Dan Collins, of Drinker, Biddle & Reath. The firm’s name has since changed.

Sandoval paid two sets of lawyers in February, with $50,000 going to the Chicago law firm of Freeborn & Peters and $25,000 to Cherry, Frazier & Sabin, a Springfield law firm.

Reached by phone, Sandoval’s attorney, Dylan Smith, of Freeborn & Peters declined to comment. Sandoval did not respond to a detailed list of emailed questions.

Tom Cullerton’s spokeswoman Lissa Druss said the refund “complies with state campaign finance law.”

Experts in campaign finance told the BGA state and federal candidates generally have free reign over how to spend funds from donors. The one main exception is that campaign funds cannot cover personal expenses.

On the federal level, public officials and candidates have long been allowed to use campaign funds for criminal defense, backed by Federal Elections Commission advisory opinions that take the position legal expenses are not personal if they relate to politicians’ jobs or campaigns.

By contrast, the FEC has ruled lawyers’ fees for drunk driving or divorce proceedings are purely personal.

“The law is pretty permissive in terms of the use of campaign funds to pay lawyers,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation for Common Cause, a non-partisan public interest group.

The same holds in Illinois, where campaign finance law specifically lists the kinds of expenditures that are prohibited. Defense of corruption charges is not on the list.

“It’s not explicitly prohibited,” said Matt Dietrich, the Illinois State Board of Elections’ spokesman. He said the Illinois General Assembly would have to change the law to bar the practice.

Experts could not cite any examples of states that have explicitly outlawed the practice.

“It’s overwhelmingly common that states don’t restrict the use of campaign funds for criminal defense. It’s normal,” McKean said.

In 2015, The New York Times revealed how $7 million in New York political contributions were used to pay legal bills during the previous decade, even as some state lawmakers attempted to ban the practice. The reform effort died in a legislative committee without ever coming to a vote.

In Illinois, politicians used $5.3 million in campaign funds last year to pay their legal bills, according to an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times. Among the top spenders was Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, who spent $800,000 on legal bills in 2019 following his arrest on extortion charges.

Both John and Thomas Cullerton are part of the Cullerton family political dynasty whose roots go back to the original settlers of Chicago and who take pride in being the longest-serving family in Chicago politics. One of their forebears was elected alderman in 1871; family members have been on the City Council for more than 140 years.

Former president Cullerton cited two other examples of refunds he authorized for two members of the Senate in recent years, but neither were to pay for legal fees, according to interviews.

The two politicians — Daniel Biss and Ram Villivalam — said they needed the refunds to help finance their respective campaigns.

Biss said he needed the refund to support his 2018 run for governor, which was unsuccessful.

“I gave a contribution of $100,000 to the Senate Democrats very late in the 2016 election cycle, not anticipating that I would be running for governor in the subsequent election,” he said in an email. “I asked that the Senate Democrats return the money, which they did. The money was spent in support of my candidacy for governor.”

Freshman state Sen. Ram Villivalam said he requested his $10,000 donation to the Senate Democratic fund be returned in October 2019 “to assist my official office’s constituent operations, to support candidates who share my policy platform, and to plan towards my reelection.”

John Cullerton refunded the money from his own campaign committee, Villivalam campaign records show.

This March, Villivalam campaigned for, and won, a full term to another office — 39th ward Democratic committeeperson. He continues to serve as state senator.

The only other recent refunds to lawmakers went to Sandoval and Tom Cullerton. Records show Sandoval contributed $81,700 over the last decade to the Senate Democratic fund. Sandoval received a $60,000 refund, because, according to John Cullerton, that’s all he requested.

Tom Cullerton donated $32,000 to the Senate Democratic fund during his seven years in office, records show. John Cullerton refunded all of it, even though the party fund spent roughly $2 million over the years helping him win elections in his hotly contested DuPage County district, a BGA analysis found.

In 2018 and 2019, state campaign finance records show 37 state senators or candidates contributed more than $4.5 million to the Senate Democratic fund. When asked why he didn’t distribute refunds to other senators as he was winding down the committee, John Cullerton said that he only returned money to contributors who requested it.

“I’m unaware of other senators who have asked for returns of contributions,” John Cullerton said.

When John Cullerton filed the fund’s report on April 15, he also disclosed he had closed out the committee, after transferring the balance, $7,796.13, to a committee formed by his successor as Senate president, Don Harmon of Oak Park.

The financial help was not of out character for John Cullerton, who consistently cited the principle of presumption of innocence while resisting pressure to remove Tom Cullerton or Sandoval from their committee chairmanships and later deciding to refund their campaign donations.

It was first reported in April 2019 by WBEZ that federal prosecutors were investigating Tom Cullerton’s financial relationship with the Teamsters. But it wasn’t until August — a few days after Tom Cullerton was formally indicted on charges he embezzled $274,000 in salary and benefits from the Teamsters — that he was removed as chairman of the Illinois Senate Labor Committee. He was then shifted to chairman of the Illinois Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, allowing him to keep his extra pay as a committee chairman.

“When I switched his committees, Tom Cullerton was a senator in good standing and presumed innocent. I made him the chairman of the Veterans’ Committee because he’s a vet,” said John Cullerton. Tom Cullerton continues to serve as a senator, awaiting trial.

A week after the Sept. 24 federal raid of Sandoval’s Springfield office, Gov. J.B. Pritzker called on John Cullerton to strip Sandoval of his transportation committee chairmanship if Sandoval refused to step down.

“Sandoval retained his chairmanship because at the time he had not been charged,” Cullerton told the BGA.

On Oct.11, Sandoval stepped down as chairman. The formal charges against Sandoval were filed in late January, but by that time, Sandoval had resigned from the Senate. Sandoval pleaded guilty on Jan. 28 to taking $250,000 in bribes, and has agreed to cooperate with the continuing federal probe.

John Cullerton defended the refunds, and reiterated he was unaware the funds would be used to pay criminal defense attorneys’ legal fees.

“I had the discretion to give them the money back,” he said. “At the time the funds were returned, Tom Cullerton had pleaded not guilty. He’s entitled to the presumption of innocence. Sandoval had not been charged.”

When Springfield insider Michael McClain announced his retirement nearly three years ago, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan broke his usual silence to praise McClain publicly for his “complete honesty and integrity.”

McClain stopped registering as a lobbyist in the Illinois Capitol and informed state officials he was retiring from being a lawyer.

But an investigation by the Better Government Association and WBEZ found McClain continued to get paid for years after that by what had been a longtime lobbying client: Commonwealth Edison.

The giant electric utility reported shelling out $361,000 to McClain for “legal services” in the two years after his retirement in December 2016, even though he is no longer authorized to practice law in Illinois, records show. 

McClain got $150,000 in 2017 and $211,000 last year from ComEd, according to financial reports the utility filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission.

The revelations come to light amid an ongoing federal investigation that saw FBI agents raid McClain’s home in downstate Quincy earlier this year. WBEZ has reported authorities are probing allegations that ComEd hired multiple politically connected consultants — some with ties to Madigan — in exchange for favorable actions in Springfield, including electricity rate increases.

The federal raid at McClain’s home came on the same day that agents also visited at least three others with close ties to Madigan or ComEd. Those raids included agents searching the City Club of Chicago, a nonprofit civic group whose president, Jay Doherty, lobbied for ComEd for nearly a decade.

And on Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reported that authorities have secretly recorded phone conversations involving McClain, taking advantage of a wiretap on his cell phone.

ComEd spokeswoman Jean Medina said this week McClain stopped working for the company in May. That was when the federal raid occurred at McClain’s home.

And Medina said ComEd executives contend the payments to McClain in 2017 and 2018 were “mislabeled” as being for legal services when the utility made its filings to state regulators. 

“These amounts were for political consulting services,” Medina said. “Those payments were neither for lobbying nor legal work.”

Medina would not describe exactly what political consulting services McClain performed for the utility since his retirement, nor would she say why he resumed working for ComEd soon after retiring.

Medina noted that the payments to McClain “were correctly categorized as consulting services” in other documents ComEd filed with the state.

ComEd is not yet required to file similar disclosures of what it has spent on outside contractors this year. Medina would not say how much McClain was paid in 2019 before he again stopped working for the company in the spring.

For decades, McClain served as a loyal confidant and ally to Madigan, the head of the state’s Democratic Party and Illinois’ most powerful politician.

McClain, 72, did not return phone and email messages and did not respond to an interview request left at the high-rise condo he owns in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.

In July, when the BGA and WBEZ were the first to report on the feds’ interest in McClain, he made his only public comment on the matter: “There’s nothing against the law about asking for a job.”

Nobody has been charged in the ongoing federal investigation. A spokesman for John Lausch — the U.S. attorney whose office in Chicago is heading the probe — declined to comment this week.

McClain and Madigan’s ties date back to the earliest years of their careers in Springfield.

Together with Madigan, McClain had been a Democratic state representative in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1981, Madigan was the House minority leader and picked McClain to be assistant minority leader. 

Although Madigan aided his re-election bid, McClain lost his seat in a district in western Illinois in the 1982 election, in a rare setback for a Madigan ally.

Despite losing McClain’s seat, the Democrats took control of the House, and Madigan went on to become the longest-serving state House speaker in the country’s history.

McClain, meanwhile, formed his own law firm with the woman who is now his wife in 1983, state records show. He represented ComEd and many other big clients in Springfield for about 30 years.

‘An outstanding career’

McClain was part of the inner circle of the famously reclusive Madigan, even as he sought to win support from his friend and other elected officials for legislation that positively affected ComEd’s fortunes.

The speaker’s spokesman, Steve Brown, did not respond to email and phone messages this week about McClain.

Madigan recently told reporters in Springfield, “I’m not a target of anything.”

Veteran Springfield journalist Rich Miller, who revealed McClain’s retirement plans in 2016, described him as a “vitally important sounding board and strategist for the speaker.”

“He’s never been afraid to clash head-on with other members of Madigan’s inner circle when he’s believed they’ve given his guy the wrong advice,” Miller wrote at the time of the retirement announcement, also highlighting McClain’s role in Madigan’s political strategy sessions.

In 2016, McClain told the Quincy Herald-Whig that he had delayed his retirement for a year to win approval of a bill that provided subsidies to Exelon for its nuclear power plants in Illinois. During that time, Madigan was locked in a bitter stalemate with then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican.

“Then we had the Exelon bill come up, and my friend Mike Madigan was facing some tough times, and so [the retirement] kind of got put on hold,” the newspaper quoted McClain as saying. 

According to the Quincy newspaper article on McClain’s retirement, Madigan said McClain “had an outstanding career as a legislator and a lobbyist, operating with complete honesty and integrity.”

McClain was never registered as a lobbyist again after 2016.

McClain’s law license became “inactive” on Dec. 30, 2016 and he retired from practicing law on Jan. 9, 2017. He has not reinstated his attorney’s license since then, according to the state’s attorney-registration agency.

In November 2017, McClain and his wife informed the Illinois Secretary of State’s office that they had dissolved the law firm they formed 34 years earlier. His wife had also told the state she retired as a lawyer on same day McClain did.

McClain’s work with former Chicago alderman

State lobbyist disclosure reports show McClain also lobbied in the past with two other men who have attracted the attention of federal investigators or have long-standing connections to ComEd.

McClain’s firm, Quincy-based Awerkamp & McClain, hired The Z Consulting Group for lobbying work in 2006 and 2012, records show. Z Consulting is led by now-retired Chicago Ald. Michael Zalewski.  

Neither McClain nor Zalewski disclosed which of McClain’s clients Zalewski was hired to lobby for in 2006 or 2012, according to state records. McClain represented more than a dozen clients in those years, among them ComEd.

The FBI raided Zalewski’s home on the Southwest Side on the same day agents served a search warrant at McClain’s house. Part of the probe centers on efforts to get work for Zalewski at ComEd and the interactions between Madigan, Zalewski and McClain, three sources familiar with the federal investigation told the BGA and WBEZ last summer. 

Zalewski also was named in a July 30 federal subpoena sent to the village of Schiller Park, where he had a $5,000-a-month lobbying deal. 

He retired as alderman of the 23rd Ward on the Southwest Side in 2018. His lawyer, Thomas Breen, has said Zalewski did nothing wrong.

McClain’s firm also contracted from 2014 through 2016 with John Hooker, a former ComEd executive-turned-lobbyist. Hooker was ComEd’s executive vice president of legislative and external affairs when he retired in 2012 after 44 years with the company. He reported that he lobbied for ComEd and Exelon under McClain’s firm.

After working with McClain, Hooker lobbied for ComEd under a deal with the lobbying firm of Michael Kasper, a top legal aide to Madigan and the state Democratic Party. But last month, Kasper’s firm notified state officials that it had ended its relationship with Hooker.

Hooker did not respond to email or phone messages this week.

Two grand jury subpoenas

As the investigation intensified in October, Anne Pramaggiore — who was CEO of ComEd from 2012 to 2018 — stepped down from her lucrative job as a top executive of ComEd’s parent company, Exelon.

ComEd and Exelon have reported receiving two grand jury subpoenas from federal prosecutors this year, and executives say they are cooperating fully with the probe. 

The companies say one subpoena sought records about their lobbying in Illinois. The second subpoena was received on Oct. 2, when the feds asked for all of their communications with “certain individuals and entities.” 

The only name in the second subpoena that the utility has revealed was Democratic state Sen. Martin Sandoval of Chicago. Agents raided Sandoval’s offices in September, seeking documents about ComEd and Exelon officials and about legislation favoring the power companies. 

Exelon also revealed last month that both it and ComEd are the subject of another federal investigation into their Illinois lobbying activities — this one by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter, and Dave McKinney covers state politics, for WBEZ.  WBEZ Data Editor Elliot Ramos contributed.

Federal authorities subpoenaed Schiller Park for records about the $5,000-per-month lobbying contract the northwest suburb had with retired Chicago Ald. Michael Zalewski, the Better Government Association and WBEZ have found.

The village hired Zalewski in December and fired him in August — days after U.S. Atty. John Lausch’s office issued a grand jury subpoena, according to records the BGA and WBEZ received under a public records request.

Two weeks before the Schiller Park subpoena was issued, the BGA and WBEZ first reported federal agents searched Zalewski’s home on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Sources familiar with that investigation said in July agents were seeking records regarding the former alderman’s longtime political ally, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Three sources familiar with that federal investigation told WBEZ and the BGA that authorities were looking into alleged efforts to get work for Zalewski at ComEd and the interactions between Madigan, Zalewski and Michael McClain, a longtime ComEd lobbyist and Madigan confidant.

It is unclear how the Schiller Park subpoena is connected to the search on Zalewski’s home. Zalewski’s attorney, longtime Chicago defense lawyer Thomas Breen, declined to discuss the matter on Tuesday.

But the subpoena appears to represent another in a wide-ranging series of federal investigative activities that in recent months have touched Chicago City Hall, the state Capitol and the southwest suburban village halls of McCook, Lyons and Summit.

Amarjeet Bhachu, the assistant U.S. attorney who signed the subpoena, is one of the prosecutors involved in the federal corruption cases filed earlier this year against Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke, 14th, and state Sen. Thomas Cullerton, D-Villa Park.

The July 30 subpoena to Schiller Park sought documents “concerning the retention of, payments to, and work performed by Michael Zalewski, including items discussing the reasons for the retention of Michael Zalewski and actual work performed by Michael Zalewski.”

Since retiring from the Chicago City Council in May 2018, Zalewski has worked as a lobbyist through his home-based company, Z Consulting Group Inc. Zalewski had the side job lobbying state government during most of his time as alderman of the 23rd Ward.

Three days after the subpoena, Schiller Park officials moved to cut their ties to Zalewski and Z Consulting, according to village records.

In an emailed statement, Schiller Park Mayor Nick Caiafa said: “Based on the subpoena, the village does not believe that it is a target of the investigation. The village was not aware of any investigation and terminated the agreement with Z Consulting shortly after it received the subpoena.”

Asked if Madigan recommended Zalewski, the mayor replied, “The Village was not asked or directed by any party to hire Z Consulting.​”

Prosecutors and the FBI declined to comment Tuesday.

Zalewski, 65, was first elected to the Chicago City Council in 1995 and was a loyal ally of former mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel, serving as chairman of the powerful Aviation Committee during Emanuel’s tenure.

When Zalewski retired a year before the end of his term, Emanuel appointed another Madigan ally — then-state Rep. Silvana Tabares — to replace him as alderman of the increasingly Latino ward near Midway Airport.

Zalewski’s son, Michael J. Zalewski, is a Democratic state representative who is closely allied with Madigan.

Schiller Park hired Z Consulting Group on Dec. 20 to be their “legislative counsel,” records show.

The lobbying contract — which was approved unanimously by the suburb’s trustees — came as Zalewski was facing serious financial pressures over unpaid federal income taxes.

Zalewski got the Schiller Park deal less than two months after the Internal Revenue Service slapped him with a lien for $85,864 for back federal income taxes. In March 2019, Zalewski was hit with a second IRS lien, for another $99,770.

Schiller Park paid Zalewski a total of $35,000 before his contract was terminated, village records show.

According to the contract, the town retained Zalewski and his company “to represent its interest in business development, marketing and other governmental matters before legislative bodies, administrative bodies, boards and commissions within the State of Illinois, as well as advise and consult on matters concerning the City of Chicago.”

His monthly invoices do not specify what he did for Schiller Park. But in July, Mayor Caiafa asked Zalewski for help with a Cook County grant application. Zalewski replied in an email: “We’re on it Mayor.”

Zalewski also registered as a lobbyist for Schiller Park with the city of Chicago in June, right after a year had passed since he left the City Council. The city has a one-year “revolving door” ban on former aldermen lobbying the city. Chicago ethics officials said this week that Zalewski earlier this month amended his lobbyist disclosure to delete Schiller Park as a client.

State lobbyist filings show Zalewski also lobbied state lawmakers under a contract with Government Consulting Services of Illinois, a lobbying firm led by Frank Cortese, who did not return calls seeking comment. The firm’s clients included the Pace suburban transit agency and the village of Bridgeview.

Pace and Bridgeview officials said Tuesday they had not received subpoenas or been served with federal search warrants regarding their dealings with Zalewski.

In a statement, a Pace spokeswoman said agency officials spoke with Government Consulting Services of Illinois and Z Consulting about the federal search at Zalewski’s house but credited the firms for contributing to “many state legislative successes Pace has had,” including increased state funding. Pace officials said they plan to continue to work with the two lobbying firms at least until their contract expires in September 2020.

“Pace has had conversations with [Government Consulting Services of Illinois] and Z Consulting concerning the recent media reports,” said the agency’s spokeswoman, Maggie Daley Skogsbakken. “If their status were to change or we find this hampers our ability to be effective in Springfield, Pace is prepared to move in a different direction.”

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.