Prairie State Wire

Welcome to Swamp Tours, a new weekly column written by a veteran Springfield observer and insider. Send feedback to staffreports@lgis.co.

To understand the Springfield Swamp, you have to understand the relationships between the players.

These ties bind the base instincts of the men and women who work and live in the grey area, where ends always justify means, and the only question worth asking is – what's in it for me?   

Family relationships, business relationships, alumni relationships, and, most notably, ethnic and racial relationships.  

One family has controlled the Combine for more than forty years, using it to create wealth and power for those willing to forsake ethical and moral guidelines in service to it. 

That family is Madigan, or the House that Mike built. 

All Springfield interests flow through Mike, or they do not move. That's how it is; you don't like it, tough. Want to change it? Good luck to you, pal.  

Joining Team Madigan does not require a shared blood lineage. It does require years of loyal service, an apprenticeship testing a person's willingness to give their time, intellect, and moral compass, their loyalty to the family and willingness to follow directions and orders without ever questioning. 

There’s one more prerequisite for those hoping to rise to become a top lieutenant for Team Madigan. You have to be white. 

The unofficial motto for Team Madigan is, "if it ain't white, it ain't right." In 38 years controlling the Illinois House Democratic Caucus, Mike Madigan has never had a non white top lieutenant. Not a Chief of Staff. Not a Chief Legal Counsel. Not a Political Director, a Budget Director nor a Clerk of the Illinois House. 

It follows that Madigan has used his powerful political organization to promote white candidates for key state and county-wide offices, and to oppose black ones.

That includes U.S. Congressman-turned-Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and State Senator-turned Cook County Recorder of Deeds-turned U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, who prevailed in Democrat primaries over Madigan opposition. 

Madigan even opposed black Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White in his first primary run for the office, siding instead with barely-known but white Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy.

More recently, Madigan’s Organization opposed Barack Obama in his bids to become the Democrat nominee for U.S. Congress and later, in a contested 2004 primary for U.S. Senate. He backed Anita Alvarez over Kim Foxx in the 2016 Cook County State’s Attorney primary, and refused to lift a finger for State Senator Kwame Raoul in his 2018 bid for Illinois Attorney General.

Leading a majority minority state political party whose election victories rely upon black and hispanic voters, Madigan’s preferences are both remarkable and unmistakable. So are his hiring patterns.

He simply does not consider minorities for top positions. 

Of course, it is these jobs that enable one to become what infamous state representative-turned-lobbyist and Madigan confidant Michael McClain calls “the most trusted of trusted," or a well-paid Combine cog, someone allowed to leave a government payroll to then earn real Springfield money with the Speaker’s blessing and assistance.

For years, Madigan has entrusted McClain to approve and dole out lucrative Springfield lobbying contracts for companies like ComEd and a legion of special interests to the “most trusted.” 

The process aligns Madigan, the lobbyists and said interests in their willingness to perpetuate a corrupt system-- so long as they are protected. That's the Combine, in a nutshell, classic Mafia.

The “most trusted” are all white, including Madigan political directors Tom Cullen, Bill Filan, Mike Thompson, and Will Cousineau as well as former Madigan top lawyers Mike Kasper, Rob Uhe, Jim Morphew, and the insatiable Heather Weir Vaught. 

Former Madigan budget directors Tony Rossi and John Lowder are also “most trusted,” and more. Lowder currently lives with Madigan’s chief of staff.

Mafia is a type of organized crime syndicate whose primary activities are protection of racketeering, arbitrating disputes between criminals, brokering, and enforcing illegal agreements and transactions. 

Here at Swamp Tours, the term “Combine” has materially the same definition as Mafia, serving as the enforcement mechanism for the protection offered to all who make their living under the Capitol dome.  

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass originally coined the term “Combine” to describe Illinois’ corrupt political system in its entirety-- encompassing Democrats and Republicans. Kass meant to debunk the myth that Springfield’s depravity is merely the result of “a few isolated bad actors.”

It’s not. In Springfield, corruption is both perceived and a glaring, universal reality. And it is anything but isolated.

To understand Springfield, you must understand the relationships. The web expands. Like all Mafias, more than one family operates under the dome. However, there is only one Capo di Tutti Capi. That's Mike Madigan. 

He is the Boss of Springfield, and he likes his staff to be white, loyal and unquestioning.  All the other crooks who want to earn under the dome understand those facts, keep their mouths shut and pay their tributes.