Kankakee Times

The University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Political Science has recently released its “Anti-Corruption Report,” declaring Illinois in the top spot of federal public corruption convictions by judicial district from 1976-2019, with a total of 1,770 convictions.

The state ranked third when federal public corruption convictions are measured per capita in which there were 1.69 convictions per 10,000 population.

“It is no secret that Illinois state government has a long-standing corruption problem, with recent indictments and convictions of everyone from Governors and legislators to local officials and political power-brokers,” State Rep. Tom Bennett (R-106th) said in a statement.

Though the report covers cases up through 2019, it touches on the Madigan-ComEd cases which would unfold more fully in 2020. In fact, photos of former House Speaker Mike Madigan, Alderman Edward Burke, Alderman Danny Solis are on the cover of the report.

“Almost all of 2019's explosive corruption activity was not captured in the annual statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section because DOJ only reports federal public corruption convictions for the year the convictions occur,” the report stated.

“Most of the headline-grabbing political corruption events of 2019 were reports on investigations, subpoenas, FBI raids, indictments, or other beginning steps in criminal prosecutions. Actual convictions take place at the end of the process, usually a year or more later.”

Notably, the report also discussed the settlement for the sexual harassment allegations against Madigan’s aide Kevin Quinn.