From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Lisa Madigan again returns tainted money

September 5, 2002

BY DAVE MCKINNEY AND ABDON M. PALLASCH STAFF REPORTERS

SPRINGFIELD--For the second time in four days, Democratic attorney general nominee Lisa Madigan purged her political fund of tainted campaign donations, returning $5,000 Wednesday to a lawyer accused of trying to buy a Cook County judgeship.

Her decision on personal-injury lawyer Thomas Fazioli's contributions brings her total amount of divested political funds since Sunday to $30,000. All of the donations involve men seeking seats on Cook County's Democratic-run judiciary--a process in which her father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, wields clout.

On three occasions, Fazioli contributed to Lisa Madigan's political fund, including $1,000 in March. That's one year after the state Supreme Court's Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Committee charged him with trying to purchase an associate judgeship.

Supreme Court Justice Thomas Fitzgerald, whose vote Fazioli allegedly was trying to buy, immediately returned $10,000 when informed of the scheme in 2000.

Fazioli's case has drawn the attention of a federal grand jury in Chicago. When reminded Wednesday of the federal probe--first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times in August 2001--Madigan's campaign opted to return Fazioli's donations.

"We found out about Mr. Fazioli [Wednesday], and we'll send a check back," campaign chairman Mike Noonan said.

Actually, the Sun-Times first asked Madigan's campaign about Fazioli's contribution the first week of August.

On Sunday, her campaign returned $25,000 to the singer-songwriting son of a Cook County judge after anti-bigotry groups linked the young man's obscenity-laced music with hatred against nonwhites and organized religion.

The son's donation came in last year near the time his father, Judge Sheldon Harris, won the coveted endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee, where the speaker holds sway.

Lisa Madigan's GOP rival, DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett, said the decisions to return contributions Sunday and again Wednesday underscore a potentially troubling trend in her political operation.

"Voters surely have to question now how widespread of a problem this is in Lisa Madigan's campaign," Birkett spokesman Steve Binder said.

Besides the March 2002 donation to Madigan, Fazioli also gave her campaign fund $1,000 on July 27, 2000, which was two weeks after Fazioli's two attorney friends tried to funnel donations to Fitzgerald.

Fazioli, who did not return a phone message at his Chicago office, also gave her $3,000 in November 1997, state elections records show.

The ARDC is recommending discipline as severe as disbarment for Fazioli and his two friends, alleged co-conspirators.