Judge nixes Madigan organization bid to toss ex-campaign aide’s retaliation suit

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected efforts by Mike Madigan’s Democratic Party of Illinois to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former campaign aide who accused one of the powerful speaker’s longtime political operatives of unwanted attention and harassment.

The decision means the case will move forward in U.S. District Court against the state party, Friends of Michael J. Madigan, Democratic Majority and the 13th Ward Democratic Organization.

Lawyers for the Democratic Party of Illinois — which Madigan chairs — had tried to argue the plaintiff, Alaina Hampton, wasn’t really employed by the party. But U.S. District Court Judge Sara L. Ellis in an opinion wrote that, “At this early stage, Hampton has done enough to put DPI [the Democratic Party of Illinois] on notice of the basis for her claim and plausibly alleged that DPI exerted control over her employment with Defendants to establish an employment relationship.”

Ellis, too, wrote that Madigan serves as chairman of the state party and the other organizations named in the suit, and that the chairman “took an active role in assigning Hampton.”

“All Defendants share a common purpose: electing Democratic candidates in Illinois. As the Chairman of all four Defendants, Madigan controls their bank accounts, has the ability to transfer money between the accounts, and controls the employment decisions for each Defendant,” the court filing says. “Madigan took an active role in assigning Hampton to various positions working for the Defendants and he made these decisions in his capacity as Chairman of DPI.”

Hampton in February outlined accusations against Kevin Quinn — a younger brother of Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) — claiming Kevin Quinn sent her barrages of unwanted messages and phone calls in pursuit of a romantic and sexual relationship.

At the time, Madigan called Hampton “a courageous woman” for bringing the allegations to his attentio. In February, Hampton filed the federal suit seeking damages for alleged retaliation, claiming her career suffered after she came forward with the harassment allegations.

Madigan fired Kevin Quinn a day before Hampton went public on Feb. 13, a move Hampton quickly criticized as a way to cover up that no action had been taken for nearly a year.

Madigan’s spokesman in March denied that the Democratic Party or Madigan’s campaign organization retaliated against Hampton: “The pleading is being reviewed by counsel. However, I can assure you that the Democratic Party of Illinois and the Friends of MJM have not retaliated against Ms. Hampton in any way,” spokesman Steve Brown said in a statement.

For his part, Kevin Quinn claims he was never Hampton’s supervisor and never had control of her assignments; that Hampton “exaggerated” her roles for Madigan’s political committees; and that she was not retaliated against but wasn’t “welcomed back” after working on state Rep. Juliana Stratton’s legislative race.

A spokeswoman for Hampton declined to comment on the latest decision. Madigan’s spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment on Tuesday evening.