Chicago - In the world of political warfare, Shaw Decremer
is a lieutenant. His troops: an army of state workers
commanded by house speaker Michael Madigan. Their enemies
respectfully call them "the Madigoons."
A FOX Chicago News investigation found scores of supposedly
full-time state employees, like Decremer, jumping on and off
the state payroll to practice politics for their boss.
We caught up with Decremer and asked him, "… are you a
political worker who happens to have a state job, or a state
worker just doing politics on the side?"
Decremer didn’t comment.
Election attorney Rich Means said both parties are using
their legislative staffs to build what is essentially a
shadow army of political workers parked on the state
payroll.
"What they really are, are political workers with side jobs
in the off season," Means said. "They keep them employed so
they'll be around for the next political season. And that
really does seem to me to be the tail wagging the dog."
FOX Chicago News examined three years of legislative payroll
records, and then compared them with political campaign
expenditures. We found 34 Democratic House employees under
the control of Speaker Madigan taking off from their jobs
for weeks, sometimes months at a time.
Graphic Artist Sarah Berkley took off five months to work
for the Democratic party -- controlled by Madigan.
Program Specialist Andrew Chusid earned $16,000 from
taxpayers before he skipped out for half the year to run
campaigns for his boss.
And Decremer, he's a research analyst for the state earning
$40,000 when he's working in Springfield.
But Decremer took off seven months in 2007, four months in
2008 and another four months in 2009. He has made more than
$40,000 from political campaigns.
His specialty? Challenging the petitions of candidates
Madigan wants off the ballot.
And with Illinois facing a $13 billion deficit, with all
these people bouncing on and off the payroll, it begs the
question--
"Is that a job we need in state government?”
Former Federal Prosecutor Patrick Collins chaired the
Illinois Reform Commission, which lost its battle to curb
the clout of the legislative leaders.
"Is that a job we need in state government? Because if it
can go unfilled for four or five or six months at a crack, I
can guarantee you there's a cheaper way to provide that
service to the people of the State of Illinois," Collins
said.
We wanted to ask the Speaker about how he uses the so-called
“Madigoons” to do both state and political work. He passed
us off to his spokesman.
"The major part of the Speaker's policy is to insure we
don't use taxpayer's money to do political campaigns," Steve
Brown, spokesman for Madigan, said.
Brown said Madigan works hard to dot all the Is and cross
all the Ts to avoid the scandal that happened to the
Republicans five years ago. The chief of staff for
Republican leader Lee Daniels went to prison after a federal
investigation found he was ordering staffers to do political
work on state time.
So to adhere to the law, Madigan grants his employees
virtually unlimited leaves of absence to do political work.
Only in Springfield could you find an employer so generous.
When asked why the state needs those jobs anyway, Brown
said, “Well because during the legislative session… it's a
busy time, there're long days."
Brown said the staffers work hard for taxpayers when the
legislature is in session. But aren't as needed at other
times
"Generally, in campaign season is the time the legislature
isn't in session, so the workload would be smaller to begin
with," he said.
But that's not what our investigation found. When the
legislature was battling Gov. Rod Blagojevich over a budget
stalemate in 2008, with plenty of work to do, nearly half of
Madigan’s staff was off the state payroll doing political
work.
Analysts, program specialists, legal assistants and even the
house photographer bounced on and off the state payroll. His
specialty is campaign mailings.
While on leave, those state workers collect paychecks from
political campaigns. We counted a total of $728,000 in
political pay the past three years.
"We've had so much in Illinois where politics drives our
government. I think it would be a good time for government
to essentially take the priority role,” said former
prosecutor Collins.
For now, the mixing and mingling of politics and policy on
Madigan’s staff makes it hard to figure out where one starts
and the other ends.
Our investigation found several Madigan staffers getting
salaries from political funds at the same time they were
collecting a paycheck from the taxpayer.
In 2008, Madigan’s Chief of Staff Timothy Mapes never left
the state payroll, earning $177,000. On the side, he picked
up an extra $14,000 in campaign money.
"Everyone worries about, 'Oh, are you forcing folks to do
political work?' That used to be a concern in the past more
than it is today. We've got people who love politics. They
may love politics sometimes more than they enjoy the
government side
