By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – One day before the Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session is scheduled to begin, one of the most powerful lawmakers in state history is headed to prison.

Michael J. Madigan, D-Chicago, served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021 and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years and led Chicago’s 13th Ward Democratic Organization.

A federal judge sentenced Madigan to 7.5 years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $2.5 million earlier this year, after a jury convicted the former speaker on 10 counts of bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and use of a facility to promote unlawful activity.

Judge John Robert Blakey presided over the trial of Madigan and codefendant Michael McClain. Blakey also sentenced Madigan and ordered the former speaker to report to prison at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13.

Brian Gaines, Honorable W. Russell Arrington professor in State Politics at the University of Illinois, said he did not think Madigan would end up behind bars.

“I always thought he was a master of control and someone who had figured out just how to tiptoe along the lines of legality but stay on the right side,” Gaines told The Center Square.

Gaines said it was not unprecedented for Illinois to have a legislative leader sentenced to prison, adding that there was a period when Illinois had two powerful House leaders.

“If you referred to the speaker, you had to be clear about whether you meant the speaker of the Illinois House, Michael Madigan, the most powerful man in Illinois, or the speaker of the U.S. House, Dennis Hastert, who at the time was a prominent Illinois politician in a position of great power and who himself landed in prison,” Gaines said.

In 2016, Hastert, R-Plano, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to illegally structuring cash withdrawals in order to evade financial reporting requirements. The plea deal followed accusations that Hastert sexually abused students at a school where he worked years before.

Gaines said the broader public has a short memory for political names.

So if you’re not someone who follows politics closely, I think the news that a former speaker is going to prison might make people shake their heads, but they’ll have forgotten most of the details. They’ll think it’s some sort of financial crime, just bribery of some kind. It fades fast, I think, for people who don’t care very much about politics,” Gaines said.

Blakey described the case as “really sad” when he handed down Madigan’s sentence.

“Being great is hard, but being honest is not,” Blakey said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker suggested at the sentencing hearing that Madigan’s damage to the fabric of Illinois was even greater than the damage done by convicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Chicago.

In 2020, President Donald Trump commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence for public corruption in 2020 and then granted the former governor a full pardon earlier this year.

“Governors, they came and went over the years, but Madigan stayed. His power and his presence remained constant,” Streicker said. “The primary harm is the erosion of trust in government.”