Madigan might be wise to step down — but, first, shame on ComEd

For the sake of Illinois and the important public policies that he himself has fought for, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan should consider stepping down.

The stakes are just so high.

At a time when Illinois is fighting a deadly pandemic, struggling to revive an economy that was in trouble even before COVID-19, and is months away from voting on a badly needed graduated income tax, the state — to our thinking — can ill afford even the slightest perception of compromised leadership. Madigan must decide whether he can continue to lead effectively, or whether his presence is a distraction from the agenda that he and his state Democratic Party support.

But as we read the stunning “statement of facts” that prosecutors laid out Friday that implicated Madigan — but didn’t formally charge him with any crimes — our focus also sharpened on the company that admitted to a series of outrageous bribery schemes: electricity giant ComEd.

The power company admitted to using lobbyists to shower jobs, contracts and payoffs all over Springfield for the sole purpose of gaining favor with Madigan, who denies any wrongdoing but, at minimum, is standing in a bad storm.

ComEd’s criminal conduct is clear and undisputed, and almost comical in its audacity, breadth and sheer enthusiasm.

It’s a wonder — and a shame — that ComEd has only been fined — $200 million — and nobody as of now will be going to prison. The U.S. attorney’s office has deferred criminal charges against the company and its executives for three years, provided they “fully and truthfully cooperate” in the investigation of other “individuals or other entities.” The stock price for ComEd’s parent company, Exelon, closed more than 3% higher in the wake of the news.

It’s a wonder as well, we suppose, that ComEd, a pillar of the Chicago community, could try to work Springfield like a criminal enterprise so aggressively for so long. If nothing else good has come of this, the utility has served up an excellent object lesson in the dangers of tissue-thin regulations on political lobbying in Illinois.

We would hope that every big corporation calls a Zoom meeting next week with their armies of lobbyists to review basic ethical guidelines.

Is ComEd an outlier? We actually rather doubt it. The whole lobbying game, at some level — in Springfield or Washington — is to make deposits in the favor bank, solicited or unsolicited. Let this be a warning to all companies operating in Illinois, and to all lobbyists: you’re long overdue to clean up your acts.

Which takes us back to the speaker. Madigan’s critics have always insisted that he cares about nothing other than power and money, a view we have thought to be overly cynical.

We have seen the speaker stand up for working people — for organized labor, a higher minimum wage, better funding for public schools and a fairer income tax. We have seen him defuse an anti-union governor, Bruce Rauner, who held a destructively extreme free-market view of the world and spent tens of millions of dollars on attack ads to attempt to vilify the speaker.

Over eight years, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, ComEd made more than $1.3 million in payments to Madigan-tied consultants who did little or no work in an effort to win Madigan’s all-important support for legislation worth more than $150 million to the utility company. That legislation included electricity rate increases.

When ComEd hired ghost workers — people paid to do no work — they were Madigan “workers,” the company told the feds. When ComEd subcontracted to certain select vendors, they were Madigan “associates.” When ComEd made direct payoffs, they were to Madigan “allies.”

Did Madigan directly accept any cash? Did he directly arm twist lawmakers to vote certain ways? So far, the U.S. attorney’s office has provided no direct evidence of that, but the investigation continues.

The sad truth is that this ComEd scandal has been bubbling up in Springfield for a couple of years, with huge parts of it previously reported by the media.

And real harm has already been done.

Last year, for example, a strong piece of legislation that could have done wonders for both the environment and your wallet, the Clean Energy Jobs Act, failed even to come up for a vote in Springfield precisely because nobody wanted to touch anything having to do with ComEd.

Where’s all this going next? We suspect we’ll learn soon enough.

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