Madigan is latest as Illinois averages 1 corruption conviction a week – for 40 years

Corruption in Illinois is on a weekly basis. The state averaged more than one corruption conviction per week from 1983-2023, which marked the start of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s leadership.

We all have weekly tasks, maybe doing laundry or taking out the garbage. For Illinois, convicting a public leader of corruption has been a task every week for 40 years. This week former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan helped Illinois hit the conviction quota.

There were 2,168 corruption convictions during the 2,087 weeks between 1983 and 2023, according to data from the U.S. Justice Department. Overachieving Illinois beat the weekly conviction rate some weeks.

That period covered the first year of leadership under former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who served until 2021 with only a two-year gap when Republicans controlled the House. The data included two years after Madigan was gone, but Illinois managed a 10-year high of 59 federal corruption convictions in 2023 even without him.

Conviction data includes politicians at the federal, state and local levels as well as others involved. The latest data is for 2023.

Illinois is split into three judicial districts. While Springfield in the central district is ripe for corruption with high-profile state lawmakers, Chicago politics is the root of Illinois’ corruption. For that reason, the Northern District produces over half of the state’s corruption convictions.

Madigan’s first job in politics wasn’t in the Statehouse. It was as Chicago’s 13th Ward committeeman. At 27, he was the youngest person to hold the role at the time.

Even though the Illinois General Assembly is gaining distance from the Madigan dynasty, the power structure he built remains. Here are five simple ethics fixes that would help Illinois start repairing its corruption problem.

1. End the revolving door of lawmaker to lobbyist. Prohibit lawmakers from acting as lobbyists while they’re in office and establish a two-year limit between retiring as lawmaker and becoming a lobbyist.
2. Require better financial disclosure and voting recusal for conflicts of interest. Mandate lawmakers to provide detailed statements of economic interests and to recuse themselves from voting in the case of a conflict of interest, with real penalties for violating this rule.
3. Empower the legislative inspector general. Allow the office to serve as a watchdog able to issue subpoenas on its own initiative and publish findings of wrongdoing.
4. Enact true, fair political district maps. Adopt a redistricting process that places map-making power with an independent redistricting commission and removes it from the hands of state lawmakers who stand to benefit from drawing their own districts in their favor.
5. Reform the House Rules. Right-size the speaker’s legislative power so one political office does not have the power in the General Assembly to determine when or even whether a bill is called for a vote.

While these five changes will not fix Illinois corruption, they might slow the pace. That’s a worthy goal in a state where public corruption is estimated to cost taxpayers over $550 million a year.