Mike McClain
CHICAGO – After nearly a dozen years working for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, Tom Cullen went out on his own in 1999, building up a lengthy roster of diverse – and often high-paying – clients that kept him busy. Even so, Cullen continued to volunteer with the Democratic Party of Illinois, overseeing campaigns and…
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QUINCY — Many people asked for their thoughts Monday night about the death of John Spring were quick to note his leadership and sense of community. Ray Heilmann, a teacher and principal at Quincy Notre Dame High School who worked alongside Spring for several years, offered a different perspective. He called Spring “one of the…
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SPRINGFIELD – For the second time in seven months, then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan called up Chicago Alderman Danny Solis after reading about a proposed real estate development in the alderman’s ward. “Danny, I think there’s a, a proposed development in – it’s called Peoria Park,” Madigan said in the January 2018 call, apparently conflating…
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CHICAGO – It’s been a month since the jury in former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s federal corruption trial last heard the name of star government witness Danny Solis during opening statements. The government’s brief explanation that the ex-Chicago alderman agreed to cooperate with the FBI after “abusing his own office” – and the defense’s…
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CHICAGO — When Juan Ochoa was appointed to the board of Commonwealth Edison in April 2019, it was after a year and a half of delays and behind-the-scenes wrangling on his behalf by some of the most powerful people in Illinois politics and Chicago’s business community. But four years later, the emails and calls on…
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While the prosecution’s case against the Com Ed 4’s alleged bribery of former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan is still underway, witness testimony shows how the control Madigan exercised over the legislative process made him a ripe target and warped the system. What is more, the structures Madigan used to make himself the most powerful…
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CHICAGO – It was sunny and approaching 75 degrees when FBI agents arrived at the Quincy home of Mike McClain on a Tuesday in May 2019. McClain, a close friend of longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, had a habit of printing out emails and keeping hand-written notes. That made the agents’ job a bit…
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CHICAGO — About an hour before sunrise on a mid-January morning in 2019, two FBI agents arrived at the home of Fidel Marquez’s mother, where the longtime executive of Commonwealth Edison had been staying. The agents played a series of recordings of wiretapped phone calls for Marquez, featuring Marquez himself. When other people in the…
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CHICAGO – In the weeks following then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s forced ouster of his longtime chief of staff following allegations of sexual harassment, a high-ranking Commonwealth Edison official was considering how to help the disgraced Madigan ally. Tim Mapes had served as Madigan’s chief of staff for more than 25 years and further solidified…
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CHICAGO – As was the case with many big legislative efforts in Springfield, former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s staff was deeply involved in negotiations over what would become the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2015 and 2016. FEJA had many backers in environmental circles and organized labor – two key constituencies for Democrats in…
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CHICAGO – In fall 2018, longtime former State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, received a phone call from Mike McClain, who had spent decades lobbying for electric utility Commonwealth Edison after 10 years in the General Assembly. McClain was delivering a message from House Speaker Michael Madigan, who was worried Lang was becoming a liability to…
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It’s been two weeks since prosecutors indicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and a little more than one week since he and alleged co-conspirator Michael McClain each entered not guilty pleas on charges including racketeering and bribery. While the 106-page, 22-count indictment was the culmination of years of investigation into what prosecutors allege to…
Read Full Article With a sprawling political corruption investigation drawing ever closer to former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Tribune has learned that a Chicago alderman cooperating with the government secretly made audio and video recordings of the once-powerful politician on a variety of topics. Then-25th Ward Ald. Daniel Solis recorded Madigan on numerous occasions as the…
Read Full Article December 21, 2024
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