The Chicago Tribune reports that Gov. J.B. Pritzker has appointed an ally of indicted former House Speaker Michael Madigan to a state board that oversees billions of dollars in lending.
Former Democratic state Sen. Steven Landek was appointed by Pritzker to the Illinois Finance Authority on Monday.
Landek is the mayor of Bridgeview, which awarded insurance business to the firm that employed Madigan’s son, Andrew. According to the Tribune, Bridgeview hired the insurance broker about a month before Michael Madigan presided over a meeting of local Democratic Party leaders who appointed Landek tohis Senate seat.
Rich Miller of Capitol Fax observes that “Bridgeview is eye-deep in debt because the town financed a gigantic soccer stadium which doesn’t currently have an MLS team. It’s still in junk bond territory, according to Standard and Poors. And now he’s on a board that, by its own account, is ‘one of the largest issuers of private activity bonds in the nation.’”
