Efforts to transfer a parcel of land in Chinatown from the state to the city were hitting a wall in the spring of 2018, and much of it had to do with a political cold war going on between then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval and Chicago Ald. Daniel Solis, who had backed the opponent of Sandoval’s daughter for county commissioner.
Lobbyist Nancy Kimme, a Republican with connections in the administration of then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, called a longtime confidant of Democratic House Speaker Michael Michael Madigan to talk it through.
Kimme told Michael McClain that Sandoval was putting the brick on the plan to transfer the land, which was owned by the Illinois Department of Transportation, by amending an existing real estate bill, and it may be because of the blood with Solis.
“I believe that Sandoval is just mad at Solis,” Kimme said on the April 2018 call played in Madigan’s corruption trial Thursday.
“Kinda makes sense what’s happening,” McClain responded. “Sandoval’s a small man.”
The call was one of nearly a dozen played for jurors during Kimme’s testimony so far that have painted a detailed picture of the political mechanizations, power plays, and bruised egos that unfolded in 2018 over the tiny 2 1/2-acre parking lot along Wentworth Avenue that a group of deep-pocketed Chinatown developers wanted to turn into a hotel.
Prosecutors allege Madigan agreed to help Solis, whose 25th Ward included the land, with the transfer in return for an introduction to the developers so he could pitch his private real estate firm to do their property tax appeals.
But Madigan knew Rauner, his arch political enemy, would never let the land transfer go through if he knew the speaker’s fingerprints were on it. So Madigan enlisted the help of his friend, retired lobbyist McClain, who in turn went to Kimme to try and seal the deal.
That’s when the problems with Sandoval, a Democrat who headed the powerful Senate Transportation Committee, reared their head. In call after call, Kimme and McClain commiserated over Sandoval’s boorishness, and also lamented the behavior of his colleague, state Sen. Tony Munoz, who at the time was vying to be the next Senate president.
In one call played for the jury, Kimme told McClain, I don’t know why (Sandoval) goes out of his way to piss off the speaker…That’s short-sighted. Madigan could take him out pretty easily.”
McClain responded that all Madigan has to do is put up a Latino in Cicero to beat him.
A few days later, Kimme and McClain talked about ways to get Sandoval and Munoz to “settle down.”
Munoz, Kimme said seemed to be consumed with becoming the Senate president and was “not gonna want to piss off Marty,”
“I’m sure that’s why he got involved (in blocking the Chinatown deal) in the first place…Sandoval’s so crazy,” Kimme said.
“I don’t believe there is any way for Solis to make peace now,” McClain responded. He said Sandoval “had a rally or something several months ago where Sandoval announced that Alex Acevedo is the next alderman.”
Kimme said after a long pause, said, “We’re in the middle of some kind of range war.”
On the stand, Kimme was asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz what she meant by that statement.
“That they were all shootin’ at each other for different reasons,” Kimme testified.
You mean for political reasons? Schwartz asked.
“Yes.”
McClain said suppose they got the Chinese Chamber of Commerce involved to show Munoz “there is a political consequence.” Kimme said Munoz probably wouldn’t care. “He knows that Marty is a bad enemy to have because he reacts so much.”
At the end of the call, Kimme asked, Who is close to Sandoval?
“Victor Reyes,” McClain said, the longtime Democratic political consultant and fundraiser.
“Who is Reyes close to?”
McClain paused for several seconds. “Well…Victor Reyes is close to Victor Reyes,” he said, “But um I got him you know a lot of business over the years.”
A few weeks later, Kimme again asked McClain how they could solve the Sandoval issue, maybe “try and get Victor (Reyes) to go after Sandoval and quiet him down?”
“I think I ought to call somebody and let ’em know that Sandoval is blowing it up,” McClain responded. “So why don’t you give me a day or two?”
Kimme later told McClain that she’d found out Munoz was angry about a city-owned property on Damen Avenue that he’d wanted Solis to sign off on for development, but the alderman was dragging his feet. So she negotiated a plan with Munoz to put both properties in the same bill.
“I think that’s a good deal,” McClain said. “That’s why you’re the master.”
In May 2018, with the session deadline looming, Kimme reached out to Democratic state Rep. Theresa Mah to make her a sponsor of the land transfer. But the deal was later tabled due to pressure from the community that caused other political heavyweights to oppose it, including then-Secretary of State Jesse White, according to evidence the jury has heard.
Sandoval later pleaded guilty to an arrange of bribery schemes unrelated to the Chinatown parcel and was cooperating with investigators when he died of COVID-19 in December 2020.
Kimme’s testimony will continue after a lunch break.
Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise.
He is charged alongside his longtime confidant McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from downstate Quincy. Both men have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Prosecutors could rest their case in chief as early as next week.
Before the jury took their seats Thursday, prosecutors said they want to call former state Rep. Eddie Acevedo as a witness next week. But Acevedo’s attorney signaled that she would try to keep him off the stand on grounds that he is not competent to testify, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu.
In addition, Bhachu said, Acevedo has invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, meaning prosecutors must jump through administrative hoops in order to compel him to the stand.
Acevedo, a Chicago Democrat, pleaded guilty in 2021 to a relatively minor tax charge stemming from the federal probe into ComEd’s lobbying practices. He was sentenced to six months in prison. Before his sentencing, his attorneys filed a memo from his doctor on the public docket saying he had “mild cognitive impairment,” gout, hypertension, high cholesterol and depression and anxiety.
Acevedo has not testified in any of the Madigan-related trials so far.
One of the conspiracy counts against Madigan and McClain alleges that AT&T Illinois boss Paul La Schiazza agreed to pay $22,500 to Acevedo for a do-nothing consulting job in exchange for Madigan’s help passing a bill to end mandated landline service.
Acevedo also allegedly was hired by ComEd as a favor to Madigan, one of many people whom prosecutors say were given jobs as part of a bribery scheme.
Jurors last month saw a memorable email in which then-ComEd executive Fidel Marquez seemingly lost his cool after Acevedo asked for a job for a friend.
“Geez…he has a son and a nephew at ComEd. He’s got a contract at ComEd. Has he no limit?” Marquez emailed McClain.
McClain responded using his frequent euphemism for Madigan, saying that Marquez’s rant “sounded like our Friend.”
Also Thursday, jurors heard a series of phone calls meant to emphasize Madigan’s influence over state board appointments.
“Think about Carrie to go to the Illinois Commerce Commission,” then-state Rep. Michael J. Zalewski told McClain in a November 2018 call, referring to his wife.
“Pritzker gets two picks in January and the pay is the same, so it wouldn’t get us a story for bumping her pay, he could say she gets the same amount of money,” Zalewski said.
Madigan ended up successfully recommending that Pritzker put Carrie Zalewski on the commission.
Madigan and McClain are accused of getting ComEd to hire Michael J. Zalewski’s father, former 23rd Ward Ald. Michael Zalewski, as a no-work subcontractor, in order to sway Madigan’s support for utility-friendly legislation.
Jurors also heard Madigan tell McClain about a meeting he had with Pritzker in December 2018. Madigan’s former chief of staff testified Wednesday that at that meeting, Madigan suggested Pritzker could reconstitute boards and commissions and appoint all new members.
“You can wipe out the board too … So I put that idea in his head,” Madigan told McClain on the recording jurors heard Thursday.
Madigan’s sway over board seats is crucial to prosecutors’ allegations that he was planning to recommend Solis to a lucrative position on a board. Solis has testified he was not actually interested in a seat, but the FBI directed him to ask about it.
Jurors last week saw undercover video from an August 2018 meeting in which Solis asked Madigan about a board seat appointment, and emphasized all the business he could bring in for Madigan’s firm. Moments later, Madigan asked Solis to put in a good word with the nonprofit Resurrection Project on behalf of his son Andrew, who worked at an insurance broker.
The CEO and co-founder of the Resurrection Project, Raul Raymundo, testified Thursday that Solis had reached out to him in 2018 and asked him to consider meeting with Andrew Madigan.
Raymundo subsequently connected Andrew Madigan with the Resurrection Project’s chief financial officer, who ultimately decided to start working with Andrew Madigan’s firm.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
