Madigan Aide Denies Newspaper Account of Speaker’s UI Clout

A spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan calls a newspaper's report on alleged improper admissions at the University of Illinois a 'tortured effort' to smear the House Speaker.

The Chicago Tribune says 28 applicants to the University of Illinois' Urbana and Chicago campuses -- including relatives of donors, public officials, and political allies -- were helped by Madigan. The newspaper says relatives made campaign contributions totaling $50,000 to Madigan and $65,200 to the Democratic Party of Illinois.

The Tribune says it connected the applicants to Madigan through multiple sources and university documents provided through the Freedom of Information Act. The Speaker's spokesman, Steve Brown, says Madigan did get his share of requests for help to several universities. But Brown says his office has no way of confirming the 28 names were connected to the House Speaker.

Brown says there's simply no correlation between those applicants and those who helped Madigan's campaign: "They bring campaign contributions, but had to go back in the 90's to reach the dollar totals they report," Brown said. "That encompasses the state party, the local party, the Attorney General, which is why the Tribune would bring up the Attorney General I have no idea. It's a struggle to determine why anyone would make this into news."

Brown also notes some of those U of I applicants in the Tribune were denied, while others deemed unqualified but were admitted. He says that begs the questions of what the 'bureaucrats' at the university are up to.

In a statement provided to the newspaper, Madigan says he's intervened in admissions cases but he does so without considering political relationships. Interim U of I President Stanley Ikenberry says the university doesn't know of any instance in which Madigan "exerted inappropriate pressure.