Former ComEd CEO testifies she was unaware of Madigan allies' monthly checks for no work

In May 2018, ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore called the utility’s longtime top contract lobbyist, Mike McClain, with some news: she was about to be promoted to CEO of Exelon Utilities.In that role, she would oversee ComEd and five other utilities under the parent company’s umbrella.”Never would’ve happened without you and John and the speaker,” Pramaggiore said on the wiretapped phone call, referring to another of ComEd’s longtime lobbyists, John Hooker, and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. “I mean, really. Because the only reason that I’m in this position is because ComEd has done so well. And you guys have been my spirit guides.”Nearly five years later, Pramaggiore would have to explain her comments to a federal jury in a Chicago courtroom.”First of all, which ones were the spirit guides?” Pramaggiore’s attorney, Scott Lassar, asked on Monday.Lassar’s question elicited a few laughs from the courtroom, now in its sixth week of hosting the trial where Pramaggiore and three ex-ComEd lobbyists stand accused of attempting to bribe the powerful House speaker, who’s set for trial on separate but related charges next year. The four are alleged to have given jobs and contracts to Madigan allies in exchange for an easier path for their favored legislation in Springfield.On Monday, Pramaggiore indicated that when she said “spirit guides,” she was only referring to McClain and Hooker — two of the three defendants in the case — but not Madigan, whom she’d called first with the news of her promotion.So why did Pramaggiore refer to Madigan in her comment to McClain, her attorney asked?”The speaker loomed large in his life and I knew that,” Pramaggiore said of McClain, a longtime friend and close confidant of Madigan. “It’s kind of like throwing in something about a family member; ‘I enjoyed meeting your spouse, meeting your son or daughter.’ It kinda cemented that relationship, so I would kinda throw that out.”In fact, Pramaggiore said repeatedly during her nearly seven hours of testimony on Monday and last week that Madigan was not helpful to ComEd during the entire time she worked for ComEd or Exelon.Madigan was widely known to be skeptical of utilities, and several witnesses in the case said that skepticism was aimed at ComEd in particular after the utility apparently broke his trust in the decadelong electric deregulation process that began in the late 1990s.The defense has repeatedly emphasized the tough negotiation processes ComEd went through with attorneys in the speaker’s office when the utility was attempting to pass three key bills in Springfield.Each of the staffs for the four legislative leaders — the House speaker, the Senate president and the minority leaders of both caucuses — were “very smart,” Pramaggiore said Monday. All four would get involved in negotiating ComEd’s bills to some extent, but the House Democratic staff was “kind of the toughest” to negotiate with, she said.On Monday, as throughout the trial, the defense emphasized that those tough negotiations with Madigan’s staff resulted in concessions by ComEd. In the utility’s signature “Smart Grid” legislation in 2011, those concessions included high-stakes penalties for not meeting certain customer satisfaction performance goals, along with a hard cap on the utility’s profitability.