House Speaker Michael Madigan would likely be fined if found guilty.
House Speaker Michael Madigan would likely be fined if found guilty.
The Illinois State Board of Elections has set an Oct. 31 hearing to review a complaint that Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan allegedly laundered campaign money to Lance Yednock, who is challenging incumbent Republican Jerry Long (Streator) in the 76th House District.
Attorney Julie Ajster, who filed the complaint, said that the board called her on Oct. 12 to tell her of the hearing date, and that Madigan’s long-time personal attorney, Mike Kasper, is representing Madigan, Yednock, and Marty Durkan, a water commissioner. It was Durkan’s campaign committee that allegedly was used as the conduit for the Madigan money.
In the Oct. 3 complaint, Ajster charges that the “Friends of Michael J. Madigan laundered a $55,400 campaign contribution to Friends of Lance Yednock through Friends of Marty Durkan.”
When Durkan received the Madigan money last February, he was a candidate for a position with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
Ajster says that the alleged money transfer violates the state’s Election Code on two fronts: No one is permitted to make a contribution in the name of another person; the $55,400, plus some additional, smaller donations to Yednock from the Friends of Michael J. Madigan, puts the Madigan committee over the limit for the amount state law allows in contributions to a candidate.
“This is a common ploy he (Madigan) uses both to exceed the legal limit and to keep himself distant from the campaigns,” Ajster said.
Ajster said that Yednock publicly claims he never even met Madigan, as a Madigan association can be political poison for a House candidate . Yet he’s using Madigan’s attorney to defend him before the board.
Ajster also said that she’s considering filing an amendment to the complaint. Durkan’s campaign received the Madigan money “on or about February 22, 2018,” but records show he did not report the contribution until March 19, 2018, a day before the primary.
State law requires him to report the contribution within five days of depositing it. Then, “on or about August 29, 2018,” Durkan donated $55,400 to Yednock’s campaign.
The Oct. 31 hearing will be with an election board officer, who will then file a report to the full board. Ajster said that the report could be filed within a week, prior to the Nov. 6 elections, but that the full board might take another month to consider the complaint.
Madigan, Yednock and Durkan would likely be fined if found guilty of violating the election code.
“There’s not a lot of teeth to the law,” Ajster said. “But the ones who make the law like it that way.”
“It’s a sham,” she added. “In many cases you don’t know who actually contributed money to a candidate. They are perpetuating a fraud on the taxpayers.”
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