Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday challenged Gov. JB Pritzker, a fellow Democrat, to use his bully pulpit to strengthen Illinois’ weak ethics laws, saying a “top-to-bottom overhaul” is needed after the federal corruption conviction of their former state party chairman, ex-Speaker Michael Madigan.
Quinn, the last Democratic Illinois governor before Pritzker, urged the incumbent to establish a new version of the Illinois Reform Commission, a panel Quinn created when he became governor after the 2009 impeachment and ouster of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich over a series of alleged shakedowns that ultimately led to Blagojevich being sentenced to 14 years in prison.
“The nation’s eyes are upon us,” Quinn said, “and it’s time we really did something significant with respect to cleaning up corruption and rooting out the purveyors of greed and corruption in state government and all parts of government in Illinois.”
The Quinn commission, headed by former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins, delivered a set of recommendations to upgrade Illinois’ laws, but the results were mixed. Some proposals never passed in part because of a largely recalcitrant General Assembly dominated by Madigan, who Quinn and other critics said impeded wide-ranging reforms. Some proposals that did become law had significant gaps that have allowed public officials to skirt tougher standards.
Acknowledging that he and the commission did not enact all the reforms proposed, Quinn nevertheless maintained they made progress. He said Monday that he hoped new leadership in the House and Senate would move forward with toughening laws on the books and approving changes that didn’t pass 16 years ago.
“At the time, unfortunately,” Quinn said, “there were recommendations and proposals, including some by me, that couldn’t go anywhere because Mike Madigan, the speaker of the House, didn’t support them and wouldn’t even call them for a hearing or a vote. And as a result, they didn’t happen.”
The call for Pritzker to take action comes as a prelude to the governor’s Wednesday budget speech designed to address a more than $3 billion shortfall, leaving open the question of whether he and his fellow Democrats, who control supermajorities in both chambers, will use the fiscal woes and fights with Republican President Donald Trump as political cover to avoid passing tougher state ethics laws.
“It’s important, I think, for the governor to take this step,” Quinn said. “It’s only really the governor who can get rid of the legislative inertia and failure to address issues.”
Pritzker’s office did not immediately respond Monday to Quinn’s comments.
After Madigan’s conviction on bribery and conspiracy charges, Pritzker called last week’s trial result a “vital reminder that we must maintain our vigilance in cleaning up government.” He did not mention that policing Illinois politicians is often left up to federal authorities.
The Tribune last year documented Illinois’ porous ethics laws, including several that were passed as part of the 2009 reform commission work, in its 10-part series “Culture of Corruption.” The series showed that state laws are riddled with loopholes that protect politicians and give elected officials wide latitude that allows them to circumvent campaign finance restrictions, become lobbyists soon after leaving public office and weaken the rules that govern internal watchdogs.
Illinois lawmakers — long leery of being secretly recorded — also have prohibited state and local law enforcement from wiretapping the phones of politicians suspected of corruption, as federal investigators are allowed to do. In the Madigan trial, key pieces of evidence came from federal wiretaps.
Madigan was among the strongest opponents of empowering state and local law enforcement with more authority to expand the use of secret recordings, Quinn said. As state attorney general, Madigan’s daughter Lisa Madigan supported the expansion of power, according to the commission’s report.
Quinn said a new commission could take up the unpassed recommendations from 2009’s reform panel, hold public hearings to consider what else needs to be done and present lawmakers with legislation to take up by the beginning of May, giving them a full month to act before the May 31 spring legislative deadline.
Two major weaknesses still in state campaign finance law allow politicians to easily break campaign contribution limits and fail to fully prevent political action committees from coordinating with favored candidates. The state elections board also has little authority to launch its own investigations or levy tangible penalties that might deter violators.
Given Madigan’s conviction in a bribery conspiracy involving Commonwealth Edison, Quinn said Illinois needs to ban state-regulated utilities from contributing to political campaigns. ComEd and AT&T Illinois both signed deferred-prosecution agreements to cooperate with federal authorities in the far-reaching Madigan investigation in exchange for dropping bribery charges against the utilities. Madigan was found not guilty in a smaller but similar alleged scheme involving AT&T. ComEd paid a $200 million fine, a record in the Chicago federal courthouse, and AT&T Illinois paid a $23 million fine.
ComEd and its parent company, Exelon Corp., gave more than $5 million to state candidates from 2010 to 2018 — a period that encompassed the utility’s far-reaching scheme to stuff Madigan political associates into no- or little-work jobs while the utility repeatedly and successfully sought legislation worth financial windfalls. AT&T gave slightly more during that period.
Madigan once called on ComEd and Exelon to raise $450,000 at their annual fundraiser for the Illinois Democratic Party as negotiations were ongoing over one of the massive pro-utility bills that would later pass the legislature, according to testimony in the 2023 Madigan-related “ComEd” Four trial. Quinn pointedly noted that he had twice vetoed legislation, in 2011 and 2013, that helped ComEd rack up profits, but he was overridden by Democratic-controlled houses both times.
The former governor also called for banning lawmakers from voting on legislation when they have a conflict of interest.
Quinn also said Illinois needs reforms so that legislators’ taxpayer-supported pensions are at least temporarily suspended the moment they are indicted on corruption charges rather than waiting to see if they plead guilty or are convicted.
Madigan’s $158,000-a-year pension was suspended the day after he was convicted of 10 or 23 counts, but he collected pension checks between his indictment in March 2022 and his conviction.
Quinn formed the 2009 commission after he ascended to governor from lieutenant governor when Blagojevich was impeached, booted from office and later convicted of trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Barack Obama won the White House. During his first term, Trump commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence to roughly eight years of time served. Trump then gave Blagojevich a full pardon last week.
“Right now in Washington we see a relaxation of strong ethical standards,” Quinn said. “We see a rolling back of conflict-of-interest rules — or ignoring those rules. We in Illinois need to send a message to the federal government that we, in the Land of Lincoln, the people of the state of Illinois, will not accept that.”