Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Mark Brown2022-12-24T09:00:00-06:00https://chicago.suntimes.com/authors/mark-brown/rss2022-12-24T09:00:00-06:002022-12-21T21:39:30-06:00How Mark Brown’s brush with death reminded him to stop and enjoy it all
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<img class="Image" alt="Except for a little health setback, Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown and his wife, Hanke Gratteau, did&nbsp;a lot of traveling in 2022. Here they are on safari in South Africa." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/62b6b6b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2263+0+381/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fc7Oa6jKU0JsOH8vtWrs6MBy1yTM%3D%2F0x0%3A4032x3024%2F4032x3024%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282016x1512%3A2017x1513%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24241547%2Fon_safari_with_Hanke.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d7fc1df/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2263+0+381/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fc7Oa6jKU0JsOH8vtWrs6MBy1yTM%3D%2F0x0%3A4032x3024%2F4032x3024%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282016x1512%3A2017x1513%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24241547%2Fon_safari_with_Hanke.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown and his wife, Hanke Gratteau, did a lot of traveling in 2022. Here they are on a safari in South Africa.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Provided/Mark Brown</p></div></div>
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<p>I’ve never been good about remembering the dates of important life events. The inevitable questions about “What year did such and such happen?” nearly always stump me.</p><p>But I’m going to remember 2022. It made a lasting impression.</p><p>That’s because 2022 was the first time I’d been forced to seriously confront my own mortality — and the possibility I wouldn’t see another day.</p><p>As you can see, I’m still here and doing just fine, as far as I can tell, so don’t get the wrong idea. That’s not to suggest my earlier concern was misplaced.</p><p>This happened back in July. Came out of nowhere.</p><p>The first sign was a sharp pain in the back of my left thigh during the middle of my daily 4-mile morning walk with my wife, Hanke Gratteau. It lasted about five minutes and went away. I went to the doctor the next day, and they sent me for some tests, which revealed blood clots in my leg.</p><p>In short order, the blood clots migrated to my lungs, blocking my pulmonary artery. Things deteriorated from there. My racing heart went into atrial fibrillation, which I learned is a potentially dangerous irregular heart rhythm.</p><p>It was in the middle of the night in the hospital after the nurse told me that my blood pressure had dropped to 70/40, with the situation seemingly beyond the doctors’ control, that I started trying to bargain with God to allow me to see another sunrise. </p><p>I don’t remember a lot about that, except for desperately wanting one more chance to tell my wife and kids that I loved them, but not wanting to unduly alarm them by waking them. The bargaining with God didn’t go so well because I couldn’t really see any negotiating power on my end. Somewhere in there, it also occurred to me that I sure hoped the great Sun-Times obituary writer Maureen O’Donnell would be assigned to do my obit.</p><p>As it turned out, there was, thankfully, no need for an obituary just yet. </p><p>The doctors performed a surgical procedure the next day that cleared away one of the blood clots and stabilized my condition. After a couple of failed efforts to remove the other clot, they decided a blood-thinning medication would eventually do the trick. After a week in the hospital, life has pretty much returned to normal.</p><p>They still don’t know what caused the blood clots. The usual risk factors were not present, leaving COVID-19 as the prime suspect. I’d had a mild case a couple months earlier, and studies have shown an increased incidence of blood clots among people who have suffered COVID-19. But they don’t really know. </p><p>This is where I’m supposed to impart some universality to this story, some wisdom that I gained from the experience and now can share with you.</p><p>Unfortunately, it hasn’t really worked out that way. My little health scare didn’t make me any smarter or wiser.</p><p>I’ve long understood that tomorrow is promised to no man, but like everyone else, I’m still expecting to be around for it.</p><p>Nor have I made any healthy lifestyle changes. I was already watching my weight and exercising before the blood clots. Now I find it harder to deny myself that piece of cake. I mean, if I’m just going to die anyway.</p><p>As some of you may have noticed, I’m not writing much these days. That started before the health scare. I actually retired officially in July 2021 but kept writing on a part-time basis until I found that nearly as stressful. My wife and I have been traveling a lot, figuring we’d better squeeze it in while we’re able.</p><p>It occurred to me that the blood clots might be a sign I should get back to work and use my remaining time and talents to accomplish something more in life. Then I got over it and started planning the next trip with my wife.</p><p>I wrote at the outset that my 2022 health scare was the first time it occurred to me that death could be near. I assume that could happen many more times before it comes to pass. Or maybe I won’t see it coming at all.</p><p>I don’t intend for this to be the last column I write for the Sun-Times. Still, just in case, it’s been an honor.<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/12/24/23483195/mark-brown-death-scare-covid-blood-clots-atrial-fibrillation-columnistMark Brown2022-11-09T20:39:49.413-06:002022-11-10T08:41:54-06:00Kilbride retention battle actually thwarts GOP plan to take over state Supreme Court
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<img class="Image" alt="Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey (left); Former state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride (right)." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/230978b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FUgA-XSS-WwDldwa3Xd8kBlSNjRc%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x850%2F1275x850%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28595x311%3A596x312%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24183712%2Fbailey_kilbride_combo.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/66267ab/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FUgA-XSS-WwDldwa3Xd8kBlSNjRc%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x850%2F1275x850%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28595x311%3A596x312%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24183712%2Fbailey_kilbride_combo.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey (left); Former state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride (right).</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Pat Nabong/Sun-Times; Provided/AP-file</p></div></div>
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<p>Illinois Republicans were exultant two years ago over their successful effort to bounce Democrat Thomas Kilbride from the state Supreme Court, imagining it would allow them to reverse the Democrats’ 4-3 majority control. </p><p>On Election Night, it became clear they hadn’t quite thought matters all the way through. </p><p>Instead of looking forward to their own majority, Republicans are now facing a 5-2 deficit on the court after Democrats Elizabeth Rochford and Mary K. O’Brien pulled out hard fought victories for two open suburban seats indirectly created by Kilbride’s ouster. </p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatLeft><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-a90000" name="module-a90000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Opinion bug</div>
<div class="RichTextModule-items RichTextBody"><h2>Opinion</h2></div>
</div><p>The wins for Rochford and O’Brien make it likely Illinois Democrats will continue to control the state high court for at least the next quarter century. </p><p>State Supreme Court justices are essentially elected for life except for the requirement they face retention votes every 10 years. Kilbride is the only justice ever removed in a retention vote. </p><p>What Republican strategists failed to anticipate when they orchestrated Kilbride’s removal, or were mistaken that they could overcome, was that Democrats would counter by remapping the state’s Supreme Court districts.</p><p>They also probably didn’t expect to have someone like Darren Bailey at the top of the GOP ticket in 2022, dragging down all the party’s other candidates, or that that Republicans would nominate a poorly qualified candidate in former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran to run against Rochford. But maybe they should have worked harder to avoid those complications. </p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatRight>
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<img class="Image" alt="Former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and Lake County Judge Elizabeth Rochford." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d54d286/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2160x1212+0+114/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FMRbdaV-wkBO2Xa1lqyZ11YrSYps%3D%2F0x0%3A2160x1440%2F2160x1440%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281080x720%3A1081x721%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23658892%2FCollage_Maker_28_Jun_2022_08.20_PM.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d0f9c99/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2160x1212+0+114/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FMRbdaV-wkBO2Xa1lqyZ11YrSYps%3D%2F0x0%3A2160x1440%2F2160x1440%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281080x720%3A1081x721%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23658892%2FCollage_Maker_28_Jun_2022_08.20_PM.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and Lake County Judge Elizabeth Rochford.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Provided photos</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Although the new map was drawn with the blatant intention of making it easier for Democratic candidates to win election to the court, it was legally justifiable — and arguably long overdue — because of major population changes that had taken place since the last time the boundaries were set more than a half century ago. </p><p>Democrats couldn’t as a practical matter draw the map in a way to ensure themselves victory, as much as they might have preferred to do so. </p><p>But the revised suburban districts they created gave them a shot at strengthening their hold on the court if they won both suburban seats. </p><p>The new Second District, centered on Lake and Kane counties, leans slightly Democratic. The Third District, based in DuPage and Will counties, gave Republicans a slight edge. </p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
<div class="RelatedList-title">Related</div>
<ul class="RelatedList-items">
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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2022/11/9/23449279/dems-feared-lose-slim-majority-illinois-supreme-court-ended-up-extending-their-control" target="_blank" >Dems feared they might lose their slim majority on Illinois Supreme Court, but ended up extending their control</a>
</li>
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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/10/24/23421416/abortion-madigan-democrats-republicans-illinois-state-supreme-court-curran-rochford-obrien-burke" target="_blank" >Abortion vs. Mike Madigan? Democrats and Republicans play hole cards in high-stakes battle for control of state Supreme Court</a>
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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2022/9/5/23333704/illinois-republicans-state-supreme-court-redistricting-curran-rochford-burke-obrien-abortion-guns" target="_blank" >Full-court press: Illinois Republicans fight to take control of state Supreme Court for first time in over half a century</a>
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<p>Academics can argue partisanship isn’t really a factor at the state Supreme Court, and I actually had that argument recently with a college professor who knows a lot more about the law than me. Most of the time, party affiliation is probably not a factor. But I see those political types pouring their time, money and effort into the court election and conclude otherwise. </p><p>I can tell you Democrats were very worried in recent weeks about losing their majority on the state court, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning its Roe v. Wade abortion decision. </p><p>Early on, Democrats discovered the demographics of the new districts gave them an edge when the issue of abortion was raised, with voters in both districts favoring candidates who support abortion rights. Rochford and O’Brien were heavily backed by abortion rights groups. Republicans Burke and Curran had the backing of anti-abortion groups. </p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatLeft>
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<img class="Image" alt="Appellate Court Justice Mary Kay O’Brien (left); Illinois Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Burke (right)." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b8e976c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+67/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2F1FMHOmqfLJ4NkD1f4etWHPiebDU%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x850%2F1275x850%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28638x425%3A639x426%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23990231%2Fobrien_burke_COMBO.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4c734f8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+67/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2F1FMHOmqfLJ4NkD1f4etWHPiebDU%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x850%2F1275x850%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28638x425%3A639x426%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23990231%2Fobrien_burke_COMBO.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Appellate Court Justice Mary Kay O’Brien (left); Illinois Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Burke (right).</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>www.obrienforsupremecourt.com; www.justicemikeburke.com</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Democratic angst was heightened when Republicans started pouring money into the same tactic that brought down Kilbride — portraying the Democratic candidates as patsies of indicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. </p><p>It didn’t matter that the linkage was weak, especially in the case of Rochford who said she’d never even met Madigan. </p><p>O’Brien was a former state representative under Madigan. </p><p>The Madigan attacks worked to a point, but guilt by association has its limits with voters. </p><p>In the end, the abortion argument seems to have been more potent. </p><p>Rochford won handily by about eight percentage points. O’Brien’s race against Republican Justice Michael Burke was closer, with a two percentage point margin. </p><p>At this point, Republicans will have to hope the college professor is right and that it doesn’t matter all that much which party controls the court.<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/11/9/23450552/roe-v-wade-kilbride-bailey-republican-supreme-court-burke-rochford-obrien-curran-abortion-madiganMark Brown2022-11-08T21:55:33.349-06:002022-11-08T21:55:36-06:00Giannoulias wasn’t expecting a return to politics but more than a decade later, he’s back
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<img class="Image" alt="Alexi Giannoulias give supporters handshakes after giving his victory speech for Illinois Secretary of State during his election night party at the the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, Tuesday night, Nov. 8, 2022. | Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/807971d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FrvB2uPgG1xg5wzcCmhslkrIvXyE%3D%2F0x0%3A3000x1996%2F3000x1996%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28964x463%3A965x464%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24180791%2Fmerlin_109486477.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5704544/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FrvB2uPgG1xg5wzcCmhslkrIvXyE%3D%2F0x0%3A3000x1996%2F3000x1996%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28964x463%3A965x464%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24180791%2Fmerlin_109486477.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Alexi Giannoulias give supporters handshakes after giving his victory speech for Illinois Secretary of State during his election night party at the the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, Tuesday night, Nov. 8, 2022. </p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times</p></div></div>
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<p>Twelve years after his precocious political career was short-circuited by a stinging defeat for U.S. Senate, Alexi Giannoulias completed his comeback Tuesday.</p><p>With a comfortable victory over veteran Republican state Rep. Dan Brady for Secretary of State, the 46-year-old Giannoulias resumes his place as Illinois’ youngest statewide elected official and as a future Democratic contender for higher office.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
<div class="RelatedList-title">Related</div>
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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2022/11/8/23448549/democrat-alexi-giannoulias-dan-brady-illinois-secretary-of-state-race" target="_blank" >Democrat Alexi Giannoulias wins race for Illinois secretary of state </a>
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<p>It’s rare for any politician to go 16 years between general election wins. Giannoulias, who was elected state treasurer in 2006 at age 30, will tell you he didn’t expect to ever run again after his 2010 Senate loss to Mark Kirk.</p><p>“For a huge portion of that period, I thought I was out [of politics],” Giannoulias told me recently. “I had a fairly comfortable life and anonymity. I married a wonderful person (and now has three young daughters.) I had a little bit of private sector success, and life was good.”</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatRight><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-990000" name="module-990000"></a>
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<div class="RichTextModule-items RichTextBody"><h2>Columnists</h2><br><i>In-depth political coverage, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary.</i><br></div>
</div><p>That changed with Secretary of State Jesse White’s retirement. Giannoulias swears his first move was to study what improvements he could bring to the office, and only later did he explore how to get elected.</p><p>What it took was solid fundraising for which he had a $740,000 head start from his old campaign fund, an array of support from influential labor groups and other individuals with whom he had wisely maintained relationships during his hiatus — and a withering primary campaign against City Clerk Anna Valencia.</p><p>With Democratic voters outnumbering Republicans in Illinois and hapless Darren Bailey at the top of the GOP ticket, an underfunded Brady never really stood a chance Tuesday. Giannoulias stuck with an upbeat campaign flashing the old Alexi charm.</p><p>At this point, Giannoulias says he is focused solely on fulfilling his commitments to modernize the secretary of state’s office, a task he expects will require two terms to complete.</p><p>“I have a vision for this office and what I want to do,” Giannoulias said. “I could be wrong, and we get a lot of stuff done in the first term, which would be terrific, but my gut tells me this is more of an eight-year project.”</p><p>That doesn’t mean Giannoulias expects Illinois motorists to be patient about his promises to make the office more customer friendly with innovations like appointments at drivers license facilities and digital drivers licenses.</p><p>But it could help squelch talk of Giannoulias looking for a promotion in four years when the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat are again on the ballot. His eagerness to move up proved his undoing last time.</p><p>Giannoulias concedes it was a psychological blow to lose that Senate race to Kirk.</p><p>“It hurt very much,” Giannoulias said. “I think I was a little naïve. I thought I would work really hard, and people would meet me and realize I’m a really nice person, and I would win because I had ideas and energy.”</p><p>Instead the election turned on a brutal Republican campaign to saddle the young politician with the problems at his family’s failed Broadway Bank, including loans to unsavory characters.</p><p>The good news for Giannoulias is he will be judged from here on mainly by how he performs as secretary of state.</p><p>Giannoulias told me his interest in public service, not ambition, brought him back to politics. His opportunities to advance will depend on proving that.<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/11/8/23448228/alexi-giannoulias-political-comeback-dan-brady-secretary-state-jesse-white-illinois-broadway-bankMark Brown2022-10-24T18:30:20.147-05:002022-10-24T18:30:21-05:00Democrats and Republicans wage high-stakes battle for control of state Supreme Court
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<img class="Image" alt="Illinois Republicans are hoping to regain control of the state Supreme Court by picking up two seats next week. Clockwise from top left, the candidates are: Republican Mark Curran, Democrat Elizabeth Rochford, Democrat Mary Kay O’Brien and Republican Michael Burke.&nbsp;" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/cc3deed/2147483647/strip/true/crop/840x471+0+75/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FH4KL-WHRIAYN3QKPU0sBCbVRMi8%3D%2F0x0%3A840x560%2F840x560%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28409x311%3A410x312%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24070058%2F90 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c4b5afc/2147483647/strip/true/crop/840x471+0+75/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FH4KL-WHRIAYN3QKPU0sBCbVRMi8%3D%2F0x0%3A840x560%2F840x560%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28409x311%3A410x312%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24070058%2F90 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Illinois Republicans are hoping to regain control of the state Supreme Court by picking up two seats in Chicago’s suburbs in November’s election. Clockwise from top left, the candidates are: Republican Mark Curran, Democrat Elizabeth Rochford, Democrat Mary Kay O’Brien and Republican Michael Burke. </p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Provided</p></div></div>
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<p>It may seem hard to believe from here in Democrat-dominated Cook County in Democrat-controlled Illinois, but there’s a real possibility the Nov. 8 election could result in a state Supreme Court with a 4-3 Republican majority.</p><p>The rare opportunity has Republicans energized and Democrats nervous as the campaigns for two open suburban-based Supreme Court seats head to the finish.</p><p>The Illinois Supreme Court has had a Democratic majority since the 1970 Illinois Constitution, and nobody can say for certain what would be the effect of flipping the court’s control in the Republicans’ favor.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatLeft><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-490000" name="module-490000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Analysis bug</div>
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</div><p>But with millions of dollars being spent to influence the results, it’s clear powerful forces believe there could be alternative outcomes on everything from abortion rights and lawsuit damage awards to future legislative redistricting and election legal challenges.</p><p>Republican Mark Curran, a former Lake County Sheriff, is running against Democrat Elizabeth “Liz” Rochford, a Lake County judge, in the 2nd Supreme Court District. The district comprises Lake, Kane, McHenry, Kendall and DeKalb counties.</p><p>Appointed Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Burke is the Republican candidate in the 3rd Supreme Court district against Appellate Justice Mary Kay O’Brien, a former Democratic state legislator. That district includes DuPage and Will counties, plus Bureau, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee and La Salle counties.</p><p>Although both districts were drawn as “toss-up” districts that either party could win, the 2nd District is believed to lean slightly Democratic based on results from recent elections while the 3rd District leans more Republican.</p><p>Republicans need to win both to take the court majority, while Democrats need just one to preserve their 4-3 advantage.</p><p>This situation was created when voters in the 3rd District voted in 2020 against retaining Democratic Justice Thomas Kilbride after a campaign that sought to link him to since indicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Democrats responded by redrawing the court’s boundaries to give themselves a better shot at retaining control, a political maneuver legally justified by a huge population imbalance that had taken place since the lines were last drawn in 1964.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatRight>
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<img class="Image" alt="Television commercial opposing the retention of then Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride, right, in 2020." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1692f52/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1206x677+8+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FipzYvqBK6_ZzJ9zgvnte6oCohqQ%3D%2F0x0%3A1222x677%2F1222x677%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28611x339%3A612x340%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F22539661%2Faa_KILBRIDE_GOPAD_1.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3bd8602/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1206x677+8+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FipzYvqBK6_ZzJ9zgvnte6oCohqQ%3D%2F0x0%3A1222x677%2F1222x677%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28611x339%3A612x340%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F22539661%2Faa_KILBRIDE_GOPAD_1.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Television commercial opposing the retention of then Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride, right, in 2020.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Screen image.</p></div></div>
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</div><p>I’m told it wasn’t really possible as a legal or practical matter for Democrats to draw the map in a way that would have assured them of winning one of the seats, as would have been their normal tendency.</p><p>Instead, both seats are in play.</p><p>Republicans are rerunning the anti-Madigan playbook that worked against Kilbride, portraying Rochford and O’Brien as “cronies” of the unpopular former speaker. Just before he forsook Illinois for Florida, billionaire Ken Griffin made a parting gift of $6.25 million to Citizens for Judicial Fairness, which is paying for the attack ads. </p><p>There’s been no evidence offered showing any real link between Rochford and Madigan. Rochford said she doesn’t know him.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatLeft>
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<img class="Image" alt="Former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and Lake County Judge Elizabeth Rochford." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d54d286/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2160x1212+0+114/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FMRbdaV-wkBO2Xa1lqyZ11YrSYps%3D%2F0x0%3A2160x1440%2F2160x1440%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281080x720%3A1081x721%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23658892%2FCollage_Maker_28_Jun_2022_08.20_PM.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d0f9c99/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2160x1212+0+114/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FMRbdaV-wkBO2Xa1lqyZ11YrSYps%3D%2F0x0%3A2160x1440%2F2160x1440%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281080x720%3A1081x721%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23658892%2FCollage_Maker_28_Jun_2022_08.20_PM.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and Lake County Judge Elizabeth Rochford.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Provided photos</p></div></div>
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</div><p>That’s not to say she’s not a product of the Democratic political establishment. Her father, James Rochford, was Chicago police superintendent under the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. She later served 22 years on the Illinois Court of Claims, a political appointment that usually goes to insiders.</p><p>And she’s donated $15,000 to Ald. Edward M. Burke through the years, including $1,500 that he reported just after a high profile FBI raid on his City Hall office, although her campaign says she sent the check before that development.</p><p>O’Brien’s connection to Madigan is the same as any former Democratic House member. She served as state representative from 1997 to 2003 after being elected from her home in Kankakee County.</p><p>That meant she took campaign contributions from political organizations under Madigan’s control (that was one of his methods of keeping control), and she voted for him for speaker (the alternative was to vote for a Republican.)</p><p>It doesn’t exactly make her a crony, but that’s the price Democrats are paying for not having pushed Madigan aside sooner. </p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatRight>
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<img class="Image" alt="Appellate Court Justice Mary Kay O’Brien (left); Illinois Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Burke (right)." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b8e976c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+67/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2F1FMHOmqfLJ4NkD1f4etWHPiebDU%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x850%2F1275x850%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28638x425%3A639x426%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23990231%2Fobrien_burke_COMBO.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4c734f8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+67/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2F1FMHOmqfLJ4NkD1f4etWHPiebDU%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x850%2F1275x850%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28638x425%3A639x426%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23990231%2Fobrien_burke_COMBO.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Appellate Court Justice Mary Kay O’Brien, left; Illinois Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Burke, right.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>www.obrienforsupremecourt.com; www.justicemikeburke.com</p></div></div>
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</div><p>The strongest issue Democrats have working in their favor is abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which put the matter in the hands of state officials.</p><p>Although Illinois law offers strong abortion protections, there’s already a pending legal challenge to the state’s latest abortion legislation that the new court could decide.</p><p>Republicans Burke and Curran have the backing of anti-abortion groups but deny they have any pre-determined position on how they would rule on abortion matters. Abortion rights supporters have seen that movie previously at the federal level and didn’t like the ending.</p><p>Curran has gone further than Burke by publicly stating staunch pro-life views.</p><p>Abortion rights groups are firmly behind Democrats Rochford and O’Brien. </p><p>Even among many Republicans, Burke is regarded as a more serious candidate than Curran, who drew a “not recommended” rating from the Illinois State Bar Association. Curran is a former Democrat who just two years ago lost badly while embracing Trump in a bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. Curran has never been a judge. Rochford was “highly recommended” by the bar group.</p><p>Burke has a better rating from the state bar than O’Brien. Both are veterans of the Illinois Appellate Court. Burke has identified his judicial philosophy as being an “originalist” or “textualist,” as did the late conservative U.S. Justice Antonin Scalia, which also sets off Democrats’ alarm bells.</p><p>With Democratic voters turning out in lower numbers in non-presidential election years, their concerns over the Supreme Court races are real, the future uncertain. <br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/10/24/23421416/abortion-madigan-democrats-republicans-illinois-state-supreme-court-curran-rochford-obrien-burkeMark Brown2022-06-28T21:28:35.092-05:002022-06-28T21:28:37-05:00Pritzker picks Bailey as his opponent — now he has to beat him
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<img class="Image" alt="State Rep. Darren Bailey, left, at the state Capitol in Springfield in 2020; Gov. J.B. Pritzker, right, at the Thompson Center in 2020." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/24054b6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FQztAt2sZM770QxZuLM-ccSZn2hI%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x850%2F1275x850%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28628x259%3A629x260%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F19932054%2Fbailey_pritzker_combo_2.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ca9e159/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FQztAt2sZM770QxZuLM-ccSZn2hI%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x850%2F1275x850%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28628x259%3A629x260%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F19932054%2Fbailey_pritzker_combo_2.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>State Rep. Darren Bailey, left, at the state Capitol in Springfield in 2020; Gov. J.B. Pritzker, right, at the Thompson Center in 2020.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>From Facebook; Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times file.</p></div></div>
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<p>Gov. J.B. Pritzker got the matchup he wanted Tuesday for the fall election by investing millions in helping Republican primary voters identify Darren Bailey as the conservative favorite —“too conservative for Illinois” as Democrats framed it with fingers crossed behind their backs.</p><p>Now to win a second term, Pritzker must defeat Bailey, a downstate farmer who gained notoriety as a first term state senator by challenging the governor’s COVID-19 restrictions.</p><p>Conventional wisdom says Pritzker will do so, marking him as a heavy favorite for November in a Democrat-dominated state that for decades has been hospitable to only moderate Republicans in statewide races.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatLeft><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-ee0000" name="module-ee0000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Opinion bug</div>
<div class="RichTextModule-items RichTextBody"><h2>Opinion</h2></div>
</div><p>Bailey is a conservative’s conservative who looks like a candidate from the 1950s with the political beliefs to match and boasts the support of former President Donald Trump, who lost this state by 17 percentage points twice — 944,714 votes in 2016 and 1,025,024 in 2020. Bailey’s path to victory is not readily apparent.</p><p>But that’s why elections probably should come with the same disclaimer as the stock market: Past performance is no guarantee of future results.</p><p>Working in Bailey’s favor is the expectation this will be a big Republican year nationally with the usual mid-term presidential backlash compounded by high inflation and gas prices and a worrisome war in Ukraine.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Former President Donald Trump, right, ushers gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Darren Bailey to the podium at a rally at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Mendon, Ill., in June." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/75a19c1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4000x2245+0+212/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FEVfGOXCmQcQObsPAyj05ZZVitTY%3D%2F0x0%3A4000x2667%2F4000x2667%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282000x1334%3A2001x1335%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23652820%2FElection_2022_Illinois.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ba5b555/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4000x2245+0+212/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FEVfGOXCmQcQObsPAyj05ZZVitTY%3D%2F0x0%3A4000x2667%2F4000x2667%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282000x1334%3A2001x1335%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23652820%2FElection_2022_Illinois.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Former President Donald Trump, right, ushers gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Darren Bailey to the podium at a rally at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Mendon, Ill., on Saturday.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Mike Sorensen/Quincy Herald-Whig via AP</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Throw in the fact Democratic voters often don’t turn out in off-year elections and you start to see why Illinois Democrats better not take anything for granted against Bailey.</p><p>Pritzker was definitely vulnerable, being relatively popular at best, although on solid ground with Democrats.</p><p>It’s been a difficult time to be governor with responsibility for safeguarding public health during a pandemic with decisions about mask mandates and closing businesses, which Bailey casts as restricting freedom. </p><p>On the flip side, the state benefitted greatly from an infusion of pandemic-related federal funding that helped stabilize government finances.</p><p>Pritzker will campaign on his track record of steering the state through its crises, while Bailey will feed off the anger generated against the governor in the process. </p><p>While Pritzker’s strategy in the Republican primary was designed to lift Bailey out of the pack and sideline moderate alternative Richard Irvin, it also served the purpose of defining Bailey for the fall.</p><p>Pritzker will continue to say Bailey is too conservative for Illinois and tie him to the unpopular Trump, while emphasizing Bailey’s reverence for guns and uncompromising opposition to abortion. Expect Pritzker to immediately launch an ad campaign depicting Bailey as even more of an extremist. </p><p>Bailey will counter that Democratic corruption and policies are to blame for the state’s problems with crime, the economy and its omnipresent financial threat — unfunded public pensions.</p><p>Don’t expect Bailey to moderate his views to attract suburban voters or otherwise soften his anti-Chicago profile. His success to date has been predicated on being his genuine self, which has attracted a highly-motivated group of supporters.</p><p>Also unanswered is whether Bailey’s billionaire backer Richard Uihlein will invest enough money in the fall campaign to keep Bailey competitive against Pritzker’s nearly bottomless deep pockets. </p><p>For Pritzker to lose, Democratic voters would have to take the election lightly. That’s always a real possibility.<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2022/6/28/23187490/democrat-pritzker-bailey-republican-nominee-primary-win-irvin-november-general-election-conservativeMark Brown2022-06-12T08:00:00-05:002022-06-13T14:34:18-05:00Mike Madigan not active in the 2022 election, but he remains a factor
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<img class="Image" alt="Former House Speaker Michael Madigan walks away from reporters after a committee hearing in 2021 to decide who would take over the House seat that Madigan had held since 1971." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/14ba5ba/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4668x2620+0+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fhw5uzKPCPoYWibHNF5AJVj3mfFo%3D%2F0x0%3A4668x3112%2F4668x3112%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282381x562%3A2382x563%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23073584%2FSTBEST_Rezin_05.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ed6fd5d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4668x2620+0+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fhw5uzKPCPoYWibHNF5AJVj3mfFo%3D%2F0x0%3A4668x3112%2F4668x3112%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282381x562%3A2382x563%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23073584%2FSTBEST_Rezin_05.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Former House Speaker Michael Madigan walks away from reporters after a committee hearing in 2021 to decide who would take over the House seat that Madigan had held since 1971.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file</p></div></div>
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<p>Aside from stubbornly clinging to his post as 13th Ward Democratic committeeperson, there are no outward signs indicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is playing any active role in the state or local political scene in 2022.</p><p>That won’t save Democrats on the November ballot from facing another election season with Madigan as a major campaign issue to defend against.</p><p>Attacks on Madigan’s influence over state government have been part of the Republican campaign playbook in Illinois going at least as far back as Bruce Rauner’s election in 2014.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatLeft><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-f30000" name="module-f30000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Opinion bug</div>
<div class="RichTextModule-items RichTextBody"><h2>Opinion</h2></div>
</div><p>While the results have been mixed, the combined effect reached critical mass in the 2020 election when anti-Madigan sentiment was credited with defeating both a Democratic state Supreme Court justice seeking retention and a proposed constitutional amendment to allow for a graduated income tax backed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.</p><p>There’s no reason to think that’s going to let up now that Madigan, who resigned his Illinois House seat more than a year ago, has been <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/3/2/22958533/michael-madigan-indicted-charges-illinois-house" target="_blank" >charged with racketeering and bribery</a> by federal prosecutors. </p><p>In fact, the expectation is that Madigan will be a larger focus than ever this fall, despite plenty of other issues vying for center stage such as gas prices, crime, abortion, state finances and the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>“It is a potent and powerful force,” one Republican consultant said of why Madigan will remain a top campaign issue.</p><p>Madigan looms largest in the governor’s race, where one of the leading GOP contenders, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, has signaled his intentions to tie Pritzker to the former speaker while casting himself as the guy who “beat” Madigan. That’s a reference to his 2017 mayoral election over state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, who the speaker supported.</p><p>The other perceived Republican frontrunner, state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, has taken to referring to Irvin as a “mini-Mike Madigan” for the suburban mayor’s own alleged ethical shortcomings.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatRight>
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<img class="Image" alt="Republican gubernatorial candidates Richard Irvin, left, and Darren Bailey, right, in May." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/dfb274f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+110/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FxmVYiR7cYPI4Ctsmq18_0UEpDVY%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x935%2F1275x935%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28638x468%3A639x469%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23599864%2FBailey_Irvin_combo_3.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c012c2a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1275x716+0+110/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FxmVYiR7cYPI4Ctsmq18_0UEpDVY%3D%2F0x0%3A1275x935%2F1275x935%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28638x468%3A639x469%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23599864%2FBailey_Irvin_combo_3.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Republican gubernatorial candidates Richard Irvin, left, and Darren Bailey, right, in May.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Rich Hein; Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file</p></div></div>
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</div><p>But no matter who gets the GOP nomination, Madigan is expected to be a problem for Democratic candidates from the governor on down the ballot.</p><p>That’s because the use of Madigan as a symbol for Illinois political corruption not only motivates the Republican base but also resonates with many independent voters. In the current primary cycle, even some Democrats are attacking their opponents for being too close to Madigan.</p><p>Some of the Madigan attacks may be borderline silly, such as Irvin’s disingenuous campaign ads asserting that if he’s elected governor, he won’t cut Madigan’s prison sentence. I say disingenuous because Madigan is facing federal criminal charges, and even if he is convicted of those charges, no Illinois governor would have the power to reduce his sentence.</p><p>But Pritzker does have some vulnerabilities on the Madigan front. He won the Democratic nomination by forging an alliance with Madigan in 2018, pumped millions of dollars into supporting the speaker’s House campaign apparatus and was slower than others in his party to push for Madigan’s ouster after the Commonwealth Edison case emerged.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
<div class="RelatedList-title">Related</div>
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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2022/6/10/23161925/sun-times-wbez-poll-republican-downstate-farmer-bailey-double-digit-lead-aurora-mayor-irvin-governor" target="_blank" >Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll: Downstate farmer beating the crop out of GOP establishment in gov race — by nearly 2-1 ratio</a>
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<p>Republicans can also be expected to cite Pritzker for picking Madigan-backed individuals for top state jobs and boards and for including questionable Madigan pork barrel spending projects in his Rebuild Illinois program. </p><p>“J.B. Pritzker owes voters an explanation as to why he helped fund the Madigan Criminal Enterprise, hired Madigan cronies and said Illinoisans should be ‘grateful’ for the Speaker’s corrupt tenure,” said Irvin campaign spokesperson Eleni Demertzis.</p><p>Eliza Glezer, Pritzker’s campaign spokeswoman, responded: “The GOP doesn’t have any real policy positions, so per usual, they’ll try to talk about anything but their own records. They’d love nothing more than to make this race about someone who isn’t even on the ballot to distract from their own history of corruption involving pay to play scandals, obstructing justice, and cutting deals for their inner circle.”</p><p>Democrats have already previewed their “best defense is a good offense” strategy through campaign commercials that portray Irvin as the corrupt one, a message that Bailey has parroted with a Madigan spin.</p><p>“Pritzker’s corruption and extreme policies and Irvin’s corrupt record as a mini Mike Madigan speak for themselves. They both lack the integrity to lead Illinois, and it’s time for a new direction,” said Bailey spokesman Joe DeBose.</p><p>The trial of Madigan confidant Michael McClain and former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore is scheduled to start Sept. 12, which would put the matter in the headlines in the heart of the election season.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatLeft>
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<img class="Image" alt="Mike McClain, left; Mike Madigan, right." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/38f8cd3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1136x638+0+42/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fs8Kcf55ziFdTJSZJb6YiKU9jsqE%3D%2F0x0%3A1136x722%2F1136x722%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28568x361%3A569x362%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F19588004%2Fmclain_madigan.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/eab1c6d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1136x638+0+42/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fs8Kcf55ziFdTJSZJb6YiKU9jsqE%3D%2F0x0%3A1136x722%2F1136x722%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28568x361%3A569x362%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F19588004%2Fmclain_madigan.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Mike McClain, left; Mike Madigan, right.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Sun-Times File Photos</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Madigan is not a defendant in that particular case, but the charges revolve entirely around alleged illegal efforts by company executives and lobbyists to influence him. Madigan’s own trial on charges dealing with ComEd and other matters has not been scheduled.</p><p>Democrats exploited former Republican governor George Ryan’s corruption scandal in their political messaging long after his name had disappeared from the ballot, and I can’t blame Republicans for doing likewise with Madigan.</p><p>Don’t be surprised if Madigan still pops up as an issue in the 2024 elections.</p><p></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/6/12/23161832/brown-mike-madigan-speaker-com-ed-2022-election-pritzker-bailey-irvin-governor-federal-investigationMark Brown2022-05-22T21:24:54.1-05:002022-05-23T17:49:41-05:00Michael Mike Madigan caught on wiretap learning about secret payments to ex-political aide Michael McClain, records show
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<img class="Image" alt="Mike Madigan." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/88e0069/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1024x575+0+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FsbaxXiDY44H6437NEEhXlb8NhJg%3D%2F0x0%3A1024x752%2F1024x752%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28555x232%3A556x233%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F18320364%2FMADIGAN_121015_07__1_.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/00e51d1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1024x575+0+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FsbaxXiDY44H6437NEEhXlb8NhJg%3D%2F0x0%3A1024x752%2F1024x752%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28555x232%3A556x233%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F18320364%2FMADIGAN_121015_07__1_.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Former House Speaker Michael Madigan</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Rich Hein / Sun-Times file</p></div></div>
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<p>Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was recorded on a wiretapped phone call in 2018 discussing with lobbyist confidant Michael McClain a plan to arrange secret payments to a close political ally who had been implicated in a sexual harassment scandal, newly released court documents show.</p><p>Madigan has always denied any involvement in the scheme in which McClain allegedly arranged with a group of other lobbyists allied with the speaker to make monthly payments to Kevin Quinn, brother of Ald. Marty Quinn and a key member of Madigan’s political organization who had been ousted over his inappropriate treatment of a female co-worker, Alaina Hampton.</p><p>But in the call from Madigan to McClain on Aug. 29, 2018, McClain is quoted as telling Madigan he had put “four or five people together” who were willing to make monthly payments to Quinn for a six-month period to tide him over until he could find a job.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>The call was referred to in an affidavit sworn out by an FBI agent May 13, 2019, as the feds sought permission from a judge to search McClain’s home in Quincy. A redacted version of the document was unsealed Friday in federal court in Springfield.</p><p>The 136-page affidavit amounts to one of the most detailed court documents to surface publicly about the feds’ investigation of Madigan and McClain. It provides new insights into the investigation, explaining that “the FBI’s Chicago Field Office has been conducting a wide-ranging public corruption investigation involving multiple subjects. Two of the present subjects of the investigation are Michael J. Madigan . . . and Michael F. McClain.”</p><p>Madigan defense attorney Gil Soffer declined to comment as did the lawyer for McClain, Patrick Cotter. Quinn did not return messages seeking comment.</p><p>Madigan and McClain were charged earlier this year in a 106–page racketeering indictment. In part, it alleged that Madigan and McClain sought jobs, contracts and money for Madigan’s associates from ComEd between 2011 and 2019, and that Madigan took official action to help ComEd pass favorable legislation.</p><p>But those accusations are also at issue in a separate case, filed in November 2020, in which McClain is set to stand trial Sept. 12. Also charged are ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-top ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and Jay Doherty, the former president of the City Club. </p><p>Fidel Marquez, another former ComEd executive, pleaded guilty separately to a bribery conspiracy in September 2020. The newly unsealed document states that the FBI approached Marquez on Jan. 16, 2019, showed him “some of the evidence that has been gathered against him,” and he quickly began to cooperate.</p><p>During initial debriefings on Jan. 16 and 17, 2019, Marquez told the feds that McClain was ComEd’s main conduit to Madigan, who was sometimes referred to as “our friend.”</p><p>“Marquez said that when Madigan wanted someone hired by ComEd, the request would come to Marquez or Pramaggiore from McClain,” the document said.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/3/4/22961871/michael-madigan-chinatown-scheme-political-corruption-illinois-house-speaker-chicago" target="_blank" >Madigan’s Chinatown ‘scheme’ </a>
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<p>But it also says Marquez later told the feds he “was not aware of any action by Madigan to defeat or advance a bill ComEd either opposed or supported, respectively. Marquez knew of no ‘obvious’ influence by Madigan to defeat a bill.”</p><p>No charges have been filed in connection with the Kevin Quinn matter, which erupted in the middle of the #MeToo movement and put Madigan on the political defensive as he publicly praised Hampton and sought to distance himself from Quinn.</p><p>When McClain’s efforts on behalf of Quinn were first revealed by the Chicago Tribune, a Madigan spokesperson told the newspaper: “If a group of people were attempting to help Kevin Quinn, the speaker was not a part of it.”</p><p>But the affidavit reveals that after telling Madigan about his plan, McClain then told the speaker he was prepared to talk to an individual whose name is redacted in the court document, about the arrangement, giving Madigan the option of telling that person himself.</p><p>“Yeah, I think I ought to stay out of it,” Madigan answered.</p><p>“Okay,” McClain said.</p><p>“That’s what I think,” Madigan continued.</p><p>“Okay, alright. I’ll take care of it,” McClain said.</p><p>In the affidavit, FBI special agent Edward McNamara interpreted their exchange as Madigan informing McClain “that he wanted to be able to appear to have no knowledge of the payments.”</p><p>The FBI affidavit also sets out phone conversations between McClain and several lobbyists as he attempted to enlist them in his plans to provide financial support to Quinn.</p><p>“During those calls, McClain contemplated the creation of a contract and some work product by Quinn primarily to defeat any tax investigation into why those lobbyists might deduct the payment to Quinn on tax returns as a business expense,” McNamara wrote.</p><p>In one call, McClain told the individual he was recruiting that Quinn had called him to ask for help trying to find a job.</p><p>“And uh, I know, that the Speaker said, this is between you and me, to me that, after he gets sworn in as Speaker, and he’s got the rules, he intends to help Quinn,” McClain said.</p><p>McClain is quoted as saying he was asking each of the lobbyists he contacted to kick in $1,000 to $2,000 a month for Quinn. Only one pushed back with concerns about the propriety of doing so. Most appeared eager to do what they could to please Madigan.</p><p>Regarding the request to help Quinn, McClain told another lobbyist: “And he [Madigan] doesn’t do it very often, but, you know, about every few years, he’s got somebody that he’s gotta take care of for a month or two, right?”</p><p>McClain explained to each of the lobbyists that it would be hard for Quinn to find work pending the outcome of an investigation into his conduct. A report by the state’s Legislative Inspector General later recommended Quinn be placed on the state’s do-not-hire list for his actions. </p><p>Referring to the arrangement, McClain told another that the “only person who’ll know this will be our, our mutual friend,” which was one of McClain’s code references for Madigan.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2022/5/22/23137352/mike-madigan-recorded-learning-secret-payments-controversial-ex-political-aide-court-records-showMark BrownJon SeidelTina Sfondeles2022-05-20T08:00:00-05:002022-05-20T08:51:52-05:00Ellis Lakeview Apartments battle: Cook County judge set to decide about receiver for badly run North Kenwood subsidized building
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<img class="Image" alt="The Ellis Lakeview Apartments, 4624 S. Ellis Ave., where residents are asking that a court-appointed received take over the building because of a host of problems there." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/154dad9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5701x3200+0+301/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FHGOCJhnqmJ0aN7Lja0j28brLyOA%3D%2F0x0%3A5701x3801%2F5701x3801%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282851x1901%3A2852x1902%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23576255%2Fmerlin_96335548.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/93e662e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5701x3200+0+301/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FHGOCJhnqmJ0aN7Lja0j28brLyOA%3D%2F0x0%3A5701x3801%2F5701x3801%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282851x1901%3A2852x1902%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23576255%2Fmerlin_96335548.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>The city of Chicago and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have joined residents of Ellis Lakeview Apartments, 4624 S. Ellis Ave., in asking that a court-appointed receiver take over the building.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Mengshin Lin / Sun-Times</p></div></div>
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<p>Chrishion Reed, a single mom with a 3-year-old daughter, has been sending me videos of the maintenance problems at her North Kenwood apartment.</p><p>Like the brownish water that mysteriously percolates up through her floor. And the mice.</p><p>And how do I ask her to stop before telling me there’s been a recurrence of the unpleasant thing she says happens sometimes when she flushes the toilet?</p><p>It will soon be a full year since I told you about how the residents of Reed’s apartment building, the Ellis Lakeview Apartments, 4624 S. Ellis Ave., were asking a Cook County judge to take control of the deteriorating property from its owner and bring in a receiver to take steps to reverse its downward slide.</p><p>And it hasn’t been a good year for those living there. They say conditions at the federally subsidized, 11-story building have only gotten worse. </p><p>Until now, Cook County Circuit Judge Lisa Marino has been reluctant to order a receivership — an extreme legal measure the residents say is justified by the owner’s poor track record.</p><p>“It’s ridiculous,” Reed told me, especially the mouse she found romping on her daughter’s bed as her daughter lay asleep. “What about all the other moms in the building with little babies?”</p><p>Things are expected to come to a head May 31, when Marino is set to consider an emergency motion from the city of Chicago, which has joined the effort to put a receiver in charge of the building after finally being convinced that the owner, APEX Chicago IL LLC, can’t be trusted to fix the situation.</p><p>The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reached the same conclusion. It’s supporting the move to take control of the building away from APEX, arguing that the company has “demonstrated a pattern of noncompliance” in its dealings with the agency regarding both Ellis Lakeview and another federally subsidized building it owns in Waukegan.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/7/2/22560808/lakeview-apartments-kenwood-apartment-building-housing-dispute" target="_blank" >Residents of Kenwood apartment building try to halt its downward slide under new owner</a>
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<p>HUD has a contract that pays the building’s owner more than $120,000 a month in Section 8 rental subsidies for the 105 apartments at Ellis Lakeview but says it has little leverage to force changes aside from imposing fines.</p><p>HUD’s lawyers said in a court filing that the agency’s only other option would be to cancel the rent assistance and move the tenants.</p><p>“Not only would this leave the property as an eyesore in the community, it would also disrupt the lives of tenants who have already endured significant disruptions and separate the tenants from their community and institutional ties in the neighborhood,” wrote Erin Gard, a special assistant U.S. attorney representing HUD.</p><p>When two housing organizers approached me last year about the Ellis Lakeview situation, I was on the fence about what to do. For all the building’s problems — ranging at the time from broken elevators and poor security to a lack of hot water and other plumbing woes — there are plenty of people in Chicago living in worse circumstances.</p><p>But that was the point, they argued: Why wait for this building to fall into complete disrepair and allow what until recently had been a valuable piece of the city’s dwindling affordable housing stock to become uninhabitable?</p><p>The past year proved them right. </p><p>At a hearing May 3, assistant corporation counsel Steven McKenzie told the judge that efforts to solve the building’s problems had “gone backwards” after a plumbing contractor walked off the job in a contract dispute. Also, the building no longer had a property manager on site. And Peoples Gas had posted a shutoff notice for non-payment. </p><p>In an effort to block a receivership, a new team of lawyers for APEX argues there’s been a “sea change” since that hearing: The plumbing contractor is back. Utility bills have been paid, a security company hired, and a new property manager is being interviewed. </p><p>They also say the problems aren’t serious enough to justify infringing on their property rights.</p><p>But Eric Sirota, who is representing the tenants for the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, isn’t backing off.</p><p>“While APEX is in charge of managing this building, tenants are not safe living there,” Sirota says. “We don’t have to wait for a tragedy.”</p><p>And I don’t want to wait for Ms. Reed to send me another video.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
<div class="RelatedList-title">Related</div>
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<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/5/18/23125981/james-sneider-apartments-rogers-park-hispanic-housing-development-corporation-heat-death" target="_blank" >Owner of senior home where 3 women died during hot spell previously cited for lack of heat</a>
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https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/5/20/23131790/ellis-lakeview-apartments-hud-apex-chicago-tenants-rights-shriver-center-poverty-law-lisa-marinoMark Brown2022-04-22T05:45:00-05:002022-04-22T15:29:20-05:00Stirling Dickinson and San Miguel de Allende: forgotten story of a Chicago artist-adventurer who left his social position to make a difference in a small Mexican town
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<img class="Image" alt="The soaring Parroquia remains the visual focal point of San Miguel de Allende, much as it was when Chicagoan Stirling Dickinson arrived in 1937." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/330b3ab/2147483647/strip/true/crop/823x462+0+34/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FtpzribsHFt6G7lBQoI7dHzolt24%3D%2F0x0%3A823x617%2F823x617%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28399x265%3A400x266%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23406828%2Fparroquia_ben.jpeg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9ef5594/2147483647/strip/true/crop/823x462+0+34/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FtpzribsHFt6G7lBQoI7dHzolt24%3D%2F0x0%3A823x617%2F823x617%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28399x265%3A400x266%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23406828%2Fparroquia_ben.jpeg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>The soaring Parroquia remains the visual focal point of San Miguel de Allende, much as it was when Chicagoan Stirling Dickinson arrived in 1937.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Ben Levinksy</p></div></div>
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<div class="LargeTextEnhancement">SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico — In this picturesque, hillside town steeped in colonial era history and architecture, no tour guide’s spiel is complete without acknowledging the 20th century contributions of a man from Chicago, Stirling Dickinson.</div><p></p><p>For better and worse, Dickinson is widely credited with putting San Miguel on the international tourist map by helping start and promoting two art schools that became a magnet for a large community of Americans and Canadians who moved here.</p><p>That ex-pat community, in turn, became the backbone of a tourism-based economy that enabled the town to grow from a population of around 7,000 when Dickinson arrived in 1937 — four centuries after the founding of the first Spanish settlement here — to more than 72,000 today. Another 100,000 people live in the surrounding area.</p><p>Ten years after Dickinson’s 1998 death, San Miguel was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which cemented its status as one of the world’s top tourist destinations and accelerated the proliferation of high-end restaurants, boutiques and galleries that have greatly transformed the quaint, quiet place that originally attracted Dickinson here.</p><p>Soon after I joined this February’s parade of northern visitors coming to San Miguel to escape the cold, I found myself wanting to know more about this larger-than-life Chicago native who has a street and a baseball field named after him and whose bust stands on a pedestal at the foot of one San Miguel’s fanciest neighborhoods. </p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Stirling Dickinson came to San Miguel de Allende looking for a quiet place to finish work on a book. He stayed for the rest of his life." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1ba7355/2147483647/strip/true/crop/402x226+0+147/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fb_FBLj-_4OwvMw1g3tY69AVtJSI%3D%2F0x0%3A402x520%2F402x520%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28201x260%3A202x261%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23406876%2Fdickinson_on_hill.JPG 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/be661e8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/402x226+0+147/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fb_FBLj-_4OwvMw1g3tY69AVtJSI%3D%2F0x0%3A402x520%2F402x520%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28201x260%3A202x261%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23406876%2Fdickinson_on_hill.JPG 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Stirling Dickinson came to San Miguel de Allende looking for a quiet place to finish work on a book. He stayed for the rest of his life.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Provided</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Instead of the tale I expected of another colorful Chicago schemer looking for quick riches, I learned the story of a beloved figure who abandoned his place as a member of Chicago’s social elite to devote himself to a small Mexican community, someone who started and supported its most important charities and who left a legacy of goodwill.</p><p>Along the way, Dickinson was able to fend off accusations of Communist Party involvement during the red-baiting era of the 1950s while also being credited with helping make the strongly Catholic community of San Miguel a welcoming place for an LGBTQ community that followed him here, even though he never publicly acknowledged his own sexual orientation.</p><p>In a 2008 biography of Dickinson, author John Virtue cast Dickinson as the “Model American Abroad,” the opposite of the commonly held image of the “ugly American.” Dickinson, he wrote, was a shy man by nature, more comfortable socializing with the common Mexican people than the wealthy foreigners he helped attract to town.</p><p>“He was very well liked among Mexicans,” agreed Joseph Toone, a popular tour guide in San Miguel. “He really was interested in Mexicans.”</p><p>A later book tracing San Miguel de Allende’s path to UNESCO recognition, written by University of Charleston history professor Lisa Pinley Covert, portrays Dickinson’s legacy in a more skeptical light. </p><p>Unlike Virtue, Covert never met Dickinson but acknowledges that “he seemed like a very interesting, well-liked, thoughtful person.” Her quarrel is with his role in promoting the tourism industry on which San Miguel came to rely.</p><p>“The downside of that is that it wasn’t an economy that created a lot of upward mobility for a lot of Mexicans,” she told me.</p><p>In the end, Covert argued, for all its charming cobblestone streets and historically preserved buildings, today’s bustling, gentrified San Miguel would be unrecognizable to Dickinson, just as it is increasingly unaffordable to the locals who are being displaced.</p><p>“I don’t really think it would have appealed to him,” she said.</p><p>Could one outsider really have had so much influence?</p><p>William Stirling Dickinson was born Dec. 22, 1909, the son of Frank Dickinson and Alice May Stirling, who moved in Chicago society circles.</p><p>Frank Dickinson was a Harvard-educated lawyer, but it was Stirling’s grandfather William Dickinson who was the source of the family’s wealth. The elder Dickinson had been a partner in one of the city’s leading grain exporting companies, later owned his own grain brokerage and was a vice president of the Chicago Board of Trade. </p><p>Stirling Dickinson and his two younger sisters grew up in the family home on North Astor Street on the Gold Coast. It later was purchased by one of the Pritzkers after the Dickinsons moved to Lake Shore Drive. </p><p>During Dickinson’s youth, the family spent summers on its estate in Charlevoix, Michigan, a popular destination for Chicago’s upper crust.</p><p>In the manner of the period, the family’s comings and goings were chronicled in newspaper society pages, including reports on when the Dickinsons opened their summer home for the season and when the children would be arriving back in town for the holidays from their East Coast schools.</p><p>Dickinson attended the Berkshire School, a college prep and boarding school in Massachusetts, before studying art and architecture at Princeton. He followed with three years of grad school at the Art Institute of Chicago but later said he never had the talent to support himself as a professional artist.</p><p>It was with similar deference that the papers covered Dickinson’s exploits after college, when he and Evanston’s Heath Bowman, a Princeton classmate, turned their six-month tour of Mexico in a 1929 Ford Model A convertible into an adventure book, “Mexican Odyssey.”</p><p>The lighthearted book featuring Bowman’s writing and Dickinson’s illustrations sold well enough to require a fourth printing, no doubt due in part to Dickinson’s public relations acumen and family connections. A Chicago Daily Tribune bestseller list at the time listed “Mexican Odyssey” at No. 10 among non-fiction books. Coming in at No. 1 in the fiction category was “Gone With the Wind.”</p><p>Dickinson and Bowman followed up their book with another travel adventure, “Westward from Rio,” recounting their exploits traversing South America.</p><p>It was with the intention of finding a quiet place to work on a third book, “Death Is Incidental,” a novel based on the Mexican Revolution, that the two men first headed to San Miguel de Allende. </p><p>They were drawn there by Jose Mojica, a Mexican opera singer and Hollywood film star Dickinson had seen perform in Chicago. That’s how he recognized him when they later met by happenstance during his earlier Mexican travels with Bowman. The never-married Mojica, who years later would reject his stardom to become a Franciscan friar in Peru, had built a home in San Miguel for his mother and invited the two young Americans to come see the town for themselves.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center><div class="Enhancement-item">
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</div></div><p>Dickinson and Bowman arrived by train on Feb. 7, 1937, in the early morning dark at the station just outside of town. A mule-drawn cart brought them to the city center at dawn, just as a heavy fog began to lift.</p><p>“I looked up and saw the Parroquia sticking up out of the fog, and I said, ‘My gosh, what a place!’ I think I must have decided in that minute I was going to stay here because 10 days later I bought the house I’m sitting in now,” Dickinson recalled in a 1992 interview for the San Miguel Archive Project, which is posted on YouTube.</p><p>The Parroquia is the striking, neo-Gothic parish church that still dominates the San Miguel skyline, serving as the town’s iconic landmark, somewhat ironically because it was actually built in the late 19th century and is out of character with the centuries-older colonial heritage on which the town stakes its reputation.</p><p>The property that Dickinson and Bowman bought was part of a former tannery located on a hill overlooking the town. Three months later, Bowman suddenly announced he was marrying a woman he had met during their original Mexican trip.</p><p>According to Virtue’s account, Dickinson was heartbroken by his friend’s decision. After finishing their book, Bowman sold Dickinson his share of the house, and the newlyweds moved away. Dickinson, left alone as the only American in town at the time, would remain unmarried.</p><p>Soon after Bowman’s departure, Dickinson was asked to help start the first of the art schools that would transform San Miguel. The Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes was housed in part of a convent confiscated from the church by the government following the Mexican Revolution.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Outwardly, San Miguel de Allende looks much as it did when Stirling Dickinson climbed this hill as a younger man." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d8dfc0a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x1697+0+1167/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FyGwFUO5FxrWRLvI88Jerq50SX7k%3D%2F0x0%3A3024x4032%2F3024x4032%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281512x2016%3A1513x2017%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23407296%2FIMG_4329.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7084e85/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x1697+0+1167/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FyGwFUO5FxrWRLvI88Jerq50SX7k%3D%2F0x0%3A3024x4032%2F3024x4032%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281512x2016%3A1513x2017%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23407296%2FIMG_4329.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Outwardly, San Miguel de Allende looks much as it did when Stirling Dickinson climbed this hill as a younger man.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Ben Levinsky</p></div></div>
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</div><p>With Dickinson’s encouragement, Chicago papers and other publications soon were carrying stories of this popular, new artist enclave in the mountains of Mexico. Wealthy Chicagoans were among the first to make the trip.</p><p>Dickinson’s efforts in Mexico were disrupted temporarily by World War II. He returned to the United States to serve in Naval intelligence and later in the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner to the CIA.</p><p>After the war, Dickinson was able to use his connections to win permission for U.S. servicemen and women to attend the art school on the G.I. Bill, leading to more boom times for the school and the town.</p><p>A 1948 article in Life magazine about San Miguel headlined “G.I. Paradise” carried a photograph of two male art students painting the backside of a nude woman reclining on a hillside patio with the Parroquia in the background, a risqué illustration for the times but no doubt a great marketing tool for the school. Dickinson’s name does not appear in the story, but his fingerprints are on it.</p><p>Trouble would come Dickinson’s way the following year, when a recently arrived member of the faculty, noted Mexican muralist and Communist Party member David Alfaro Siqueiros, got into a dispute with the art school’s new owner, a Mexico City lawyer. Siqueiros led a walkout of students and staff. Dickinson sided with those who walked out.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Stirling Dickinson sat for an interview in 1992 in which he reflected on his arrival in San Miguel, his orchid collection and the changes he’d witnessed." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9024493/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x718+0+41/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FstRfyEu7xGtRNc7Q4BYAxO_0Iec%3D%2F0x0%3A1280x800%2F1280x800%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28640x400%3A641x401%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23406970%2Ffrom_youtube.png 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/566d6bb/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x718+0+41/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FstRfyEu7xGtRNc7Q4BYAxO_0Iec%3D%2F0x0%3A1280x800%2F1280x800%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28640x400%3A641x401%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23406970%2Ffrom_youtube.png 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Stirling Dickinson sat for an interview in 1992 in which he reflected on his arrival in San Miguel, his orchid collection and the changes he’d witnessed.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>San Miguel Archive Project</p></div></div>
</figure>
</div>
</div><p>The eventual upshot was that Dickinson, the faculty and students would move to a newly created art school, Instituto Allende, but not before the owner of Bellas Artes, accusing them of communist involvement, arranged for Dickinson and seven others to be deported by Mexican officials at gunpoint to Texas.</p><p>Dickinson and friends pulled their own strings and were allowed to return a week later, a story they would delight in telling the rest of their lives.</p><p>But the accusations of communist influence would resurface again at the height of McCarthyism, when the New York Herald Tribune and Time magazine published stories in 1957 asserting that his home was a meeting place for exiled U.S. communists. Dickinson enlisted his family’s lawyers to fight back and eventually received retractions from both publications. The Chicago Sun-Times, which ran a news wire service version of the Herald Tribune story, issued an apology. </p><p>Dickinson went on to work 25 more years at the Instituto as its education director.</p><p>His life in San Miguel was hardly limited to the art schools. A big White Sox fan, he started an amateur baseball club, for which he was a player-manager.</p><p>During one stretch, his team won 84 straight games against teams from neighboring towns. He also arranged for baseball fields to be built, which is why, years after his death, the local government recently invested public funds into fixing up one that’s named for him.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="A baseball field in San Miguel de Allende named for Stirling Dickinson." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a20a9da/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2263+0+381/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FJF4KWMvzQ_7bS3Ss0WGSTls7ZzI%3D%2F0x0%3A4032x3024%2F4032x3024%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282016x1512%3A2017x1513%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23407269%2FIMG_2665.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/53dde9f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2263+0+381/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FJF4KWMvzQ_7bS3Ss0WGSTls7ZzI%3D%2F0x0%3A4032x3024%2F4032x3024%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282016x1512%3A2017x1513%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23407269%2FIMG_2665.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>A baseball field in San Miguel de Allende named for Stirling Dickinson.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Mark Brown / Sun-Times</p></div></div>
</figure>
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</div><p>His other love was orchids. Dickinson traveled throughout Mexico and the world collecting the plants, which he then grew across the ravine from his home in a sprawling garden that was open to the public even for a period after his death.</p><p>“It was mostly a home for the orchids, not for him,” joked Felipe Dobarganes, who worked with Dickinson at Instituto Allende, co-founded by his grandmother.</p><p>Dobarganes said the humble Dickinson conducted himself around town like a monk.</p><p>“If you’d see him on the street, you wouldn’t think he had a dime to his name,” Dobarganes said.</p><p>But, all the while, Dickinson was using his inherited wealth to help the locals. Dickinson helped found the town’s first public library in 1954, donated the land for the foreigner section of the local cemetery where his own grave can be found and was particularly proud of his volunteer work delivering books to rural schoolchildren. He also brought them shoes and vouchers to pay for medical care.</p><p>Less easy to document is Dickinson’s impact on the LGBTQ community, which formed an important subset of San Miguel’s ex-pat community from its earliest days. Dickinson’s biographer Virtue was equivocal on the subject of his sexual orientation, though nobody in San Miguel seems to have any doubt.</p><p>“I can assure you there was no question that Stirling was a gay gentleman, and he was a gentleman,” said Howard Haynes, 86, who became friends with Dickinson after moving to San Miguel 25 years ago with his partner Bill Harris.</p><p>“He was one of the great mentors,” said Haynes, a wealthy Kansas City native who has assumed some of Dickinson’s civic duties. “He set the tone for so many people.”</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="San Miguel de Allende resident Howard Haynes credits Stirling Dickinson with paving the way for American ex-pats to move there, in particular for members of the LGBTQ community like Haynes." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e6c6a88/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2263+0+381/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FYDvlBoyB4JOHsFDZvPJEtvlv43k%3D%2F0x0%3A4032x3024%2F4032x3024%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282016x1512%3A2017x1513%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23407283%2FIMG_2662.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6899d4c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2263+0+381/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FYDvlBoyB4JOHsFDZvPJEtvlv43k%3D%2F0x0%3A4032x3024%2F4032x3024%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282016x1512%3A2017x1513%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23407283%2FIMG_2662.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>San Miguel de Allende resident Howard Haynes credits Stirling Dickinson with paving the way for American ex-pats to move there, in particular for members of the LGBTQ community like Haynes. </p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Mark Brown / Sun-Times</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Haynes said Dickinson was sharp and engaged until the end, when he died in a freak accident while leaving a meeting for one of his favorite charities, Patronato Pro Ninos. The meeting was held at a home high on a hill, and Dickinson somehow drove his parked car off a cliff while putting it in gear.</p><p>Patronato Pro Ninos remains the primary charitable beneficiary of the San Miguel historical walking tours, which are conducted three times a week from the plaza across from the Parroquia.</p><p>At some point in those tours, the story always comes back to the role of the man from Chicago.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="This bust of Chicago native Stirling Dickinson, which stands alongside one of San Miguel’s busiest thoroughfares, was erected posthumously. He had always declined such honors." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/05107d2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2263+0+381/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FhPw4Q7S35q39A9TzWeOgcGQeKg0%3D%2F0x0%3A4032x3024%2F4032x3024%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282016x1512%3A2017x1513%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23407074%2Fbust.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3a1e736/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2263+0+381/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FhPw4Q7S35q39A9TzWeOgcGQeKg0%3D%2F0x0%3A4032x3024%2F4032x3024%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282016x1512%3A2017x1513%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23407074%2Fbust.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>This bust of Chicago native Stirling Dickinson, which stands alongside one of San Miguel’s busiest thoroughfares, was erected posthumously. He had always declined such honors.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Mark Brown / Sun-Times</p></div></div>
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https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/4/22/23035864/stirling-dickinson-san-miguel-de-allende-mexico-art-schools-tourism-unesco-communism-lgbtqMark Brown2022-04-15T05:30:00-05:002022-04-15T21:21:55-05:00Danny Solis got too big a break for helping make Mike Madigan, Ed Burke corruption cases
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<img class="Image" alt="Former Ald. Danny Solis." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4ce5099/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3367+0+316/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FmhRTclYiKt9tvIH466Nflw4iAX0%3D%2F0x0%3A6000x4000%2F6000x4000%2Ffilters%3Afocal%283000x2000%3A3001x2001%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23391000%2Fmerlin_65249853.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ca94fcf/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000x3367+0+316/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FmhRTclYiKt9tvIH466Nflw4iAX0%3D%2F0x0%3A6000x4000%2F6000x4000%2Ffilters%3Afocal%283000x2000%3A3001x2001%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23391000%2Fmerlin_65249853.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Under his deferred-prosecution agreement, former Ald. Danny Solis will face no punishment if he continues to cooperate with federal authorities.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Brian Jackson / Sun-Times file</p></div></div>
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<p>Former Ald. Danny Solis deserved favorable treatment from federal prosecutors in exchange for his undercover work that helped them make criminal cases against two major Chicago political figures they had long pursued: Ald. Edward M. Burke and House Speaker Michael J. Madigan. Very favorable treatment.</p><p>Unfortunately, the deal given Solis was too generous by half.</p><p>That deal — spelled out in a deferred-prosecution agreement previously disclosed by Burke’s lawyers but <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2022/4/12/23022449/ex-ald-danny-solis-secret-deal-feds-goes-public" target="_blank" >never publicly unveiled until this past week</a> — essentially will allow Solis to go unpunished for his own wrongdoing.</p><p>I find myself in substantial agreement on this with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who has said she is <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2022/3/10/22971240/lightfoot-solis-madigan-burke-wire-fbi-mole-federal-charges-agreement-prison-chicago-city-council" target="_blank" >“deeply offended”</a> by the lack of consequences Solis is facing.</p><p>In my case, maybe not deeply offended — but offended.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>But there’s nothing we can do about it except argue that federal authorities shouldn’t allow something like this to happen again. </p><p>There’s no undermining Solis’ deal at this point. </p><p>And Lightfoot should tread carefully with her threat to intervene in the court proceedings. What looks like good politics today could seem less so if the mayor draws a rebuke for legally sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>Keep in mind that when prosecutors asked a judge in the spring of 2016 for a warrant to search Solis’ offices, they made clear they believed they had evidence Solis was a crook who had violated federal laws — and the public trust — in multiple ways and on multiple occasions. </p><p>But, under his deal, Solis will face no consequences for his illegal actions, not even the one incident for which he is being charged — shaking down a developer for campaign contributions.</p><p>If Solis continues to “fully and truthfully cooperate” and fulfill his end of the bargain, prosecutors agreed to seek dismissal of the lone charge against him.</p><p>Left unstated in the agreement but certainly understood: if the charge against Solis is dropped, there will be no felony conviction on his record. </p><p>Under Illinois law, therefore, there would be no basis to deny Solis his city pension, which stands at more than $103,000 annually. He’s already been drawing it for three years.</p><p>So not only will Solis not face any jail time nor have a criminal conviction on his record, he will, for the rest of his life, continue to benefit financially from his dishonest public service — at our expense.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>I can assure you that a top priority of most Illinois politicians facing criminal charges is to protect their pensions, which tend to be very generous. For many, that’s an even more important consideration than avoiding jail because they’re counting on that money to support themselves in their old age.</p><p>You would have thought that would have given prosecutors more leverage in this case.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>I don’t mean to minimize the importance of Solis’ cooperation, the full extent of which might not yet have been revealed. Burke and Madigan would be two of the biggest catches ever for federal prosecutors here, assuming they can turn those indictments into convictions.</p><p>And I don’t imagine for a minute it was easy for <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/1/23/18369359/solis-secretly-recorded-fellow-ald-burke-to-help-feds-in-criminal-investigation" target="_blank" >Solis to wear a wire </a>on his political colleagues, which violates their unwritten code of conduct. That’s a very stressful existence. It also can be dangerous. </p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>It’s been almost six years since Solis began cooperating. It will be at least another three before he completes his obligations under the agreement. Nine years is a long time to place your life on hold while under the thumb of the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office, though it’s a lot easier when you’re allowed to hide out in Puerto Rico.</p><p>On top of all that, if either Burke or Madigan end up going to trial, Solis probably would have to testify, and the defense lawyers would be merciless in rubbing his nose in all the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/1/29/18378397/viagra-sex-acts-use-of-a-luxury-farm-feds-detail-investigation-of-ald-solis" target="_blank" >unpleasant matters in his background</a> that prosecutors are choosing to overlook. Before it’s over, he’d think he’s the one on trial.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>So I’m not saying Solis took the easy way out. But, until he tells us different, it beats going to prison or living only on Social Security.</p><p></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/4/15/23026062/danny-solis-plea-bargain-edward-burke-michael-madiganMark Brown