Federal prosecutors are seeking a six-year prison term for former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s right hand man from Quincy.
Prosecutors said in federal court filings Thursday that Michael McClain’s “tight connection” with the former speaker led to McClain “making demand after demand of ComEd to fulfill Madigan’s directives,” as a jury concluded in May 2023. The 77-year old McClain is from Quincy and his legal counsel is seeking leniency with a two-year probation sentence due to McClain’s health and age.
McClain was convicted as a part of the “ComEd Four” case that was heavily linked to the political machine that was ran by his former boss and close confidante. Jurors in the case found McClain guilty of a scheme to pay $1.3 million to five Madigan allies to curry favor with the former House Speaker and to influence energy legislation before the Illinois General Assembly. Prosecutors have already recommended prison sentences of 56 months for Hooker and 70 months for Pramaggiore.
Convicted along with McClain in that case were former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime Chicago City Club President Jay Doherty. All four face sentencing before U.S. District Judge Manish Shah in the coming weeks.
McClain went to trial a second time along side his former friend but the jury was hung as to his involvement in that case while Madigan was convicted. McClain’s name was also referenced multiple times in the federal trials of former Madigan chief of staff Tim Mapes and former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza. It’s bound to come up again when La Schiazza is re-tried in January.
The fall from grace for McClain was quick and harsh. Dubbed by his hometown newspaper the Quincy Herald-Whig as having a “long, successful career as a lobbyist” in his retirement announcement in 2016; McClain spent several years in the Illinois legislature. He was first appointed to the Illinois House as a representative of the 15th District in 1972 after the death of his father Elmo. He won re-election four times and then was unexpectedly defeated in 1982 by Jeff Mays, a Quincy Republican. It was the first election after the Cutback Amendment eliminated multi-seat legislative districts. McClain served as assistant minority leader under Madigan from 1981 to 1983 in his final term in office.
At the time of the announcement of his retirement from lobbying, McClain was respected for working across the partisan divide to get legislation passed and for being a champion of West Central Illinois. With an interview at the State Journal Register at the time, McClain criticized the Rauner Administration for deepening the partisan divide in the state, calling the state’s budget impasse at the time “horrific” for its lack of civility.
“I feel like I’m very close to him and I love him like a brother, and I’m loyal to him,” McClain said of Madigan at the time while both State Democrats and Republicans were launching salvos and blame for the budget impasse.
McClain was technically retired, but as an investigative report by the Better Government Association and WBEZ, he was still getting paid for work for ComEd, shelling out $361,000 to McClain for “legal services” in the two years after his retirement in December 2016, even though he was no longer authorized to practice law in Illinois, records show.
In May 2019, the cracks in the foundation began to happen as federal agents raided McClain’s home in Quincy. According to the Chicago Tribune at the time, authorities knocked on McClain’s door around the same time they executed search warrants at the homes of two other close Madigan allies: former Chicago 23rd Ward Alderman Michael Zalewski and former Madigan political lieutenant Kevin Quinn. Quinn’s sexual harassment case that involved Pleasant Plains native and campaign worker Alaina Hampton was the first domino to fall hard on the former House Speaker, causing federal agents to take a deeper look at Madigan’s inner circle.
The relationship between Madigan and McClain took a massive hit during Madigan’s corruption trial. McClain’s defense attorney Patrick Cotter has long argued that McClain did nothing more than legal lobbying. Cotter has said McClain simply passed along job recommendations from Madigan to ComEd and has claimed there’s no evidence proving there was any intent by McClain to exchange jobs for official action from Madigan in a quid pro quo exchange. Madigan testified at trial that his relationship with McClain had survived, “until recently,” according to a Chicago Sun-Times report. Madigan’s attorneys tried to paint McClain as just another Springfield lobbyist. During closing arguments in their trial earlier this year, McClain’s attorney Cotter said McClain was once Madigan’s “good friend.” Madigan’s attorneys downplayed the relationship in efforts to unlink the two of them. Cotter said the loss of the friendship was likely one of the “casualties” of the case. The portrayal of the relationship by Madigan on the witness stand in the case had some calling for perjury charges.
Despite what has and has not been said in the Chicago federal courtroom, the two men will now be forever linked to one of the largest political schemes in Illinois political history.