Tag: Lisa Madigan

Bruce Rauner’s handling of public notifications regarding the Quincy veterans home legionella outbreak. “One of the problems with doing these things in the context of a political fight, a lot of times those factual questions get muddied by the political ones,” Mooney said. “There needs to be an investigation to determine if laws were violated and whether residents of the home, their families, veterans’ home staff, and the public were informed in a timely and appropriate manner.” Fourteen people have died since 2014 at the facility because of the respiratory illness caused from the bacteria. “The team determined the right time [to notify the public and families of the outbreak]. "This is nothing more than the politicization of the devastating deaths of Illinois veterans to distract from J.B. Pritzker’s scheme to defraud Illinois taxpayers hours before a debate,” Illinois Republican Party Executive Director Travis Sterling said. The report on the alleged Pritzker tax fraud by Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard concluded that Pritzker was involved in a scheme that included “obtaining money by means of false representations and, in executing the scheme, the responsible parties caused checks to be issued by the Cook County Treasurer and delivered by U.S. Mail according to the direction thereon.” Pritzker said the leaked memo was politically motivated. “There was nothing new in this report,” Pritzker said. “This was a renovation project that was under way. Rauner said Pritzker defrauded Cook County taxpayers and is the epitome of Illinois corruption and self-dealing. One thing Mooney expects to also be a factor is national politics motivating voters to head to the polls, but midterm elections typically have lower turnout than in a presidential election year anyway, he said.

That might have been her argument, but by that time, Madigan was no longer really making it in court. Each of the eight Democrats and two Republicans running for attorney general have been asked about these issues. He said he didn't have an issue with Madigan sitting out the impasse for nearly a year-and-a-half: "I believe if you're working, you're entitled to be paid." "I think it's important that the legislature work that out, and that the attorney general not be involved in ways that would be political," Harold said. "I think the timing of it was political," Harold said. But she also said Madigan waited too long to renew her attempt to enforce the appropriations clause of the Illinois Constitution: "I think you need to be immediate with questions related to the viability of people who are doing the public's work." • Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti also said it was a mistake for Madigan to wait 18 months to take another run at stopping employee pay as a way to end the impasse. He then said "ideally" state employees wouldn't be paid without a legal appropriation, but also said "they should not be used as pawns." Asked if Madigan waited too long to intervene in the state court matter, he said there were "conflicting issues." As of this week, the Illinois attorney general oversees a staff of 388 lawyers plus another 343 non-lawyers.