'Madigoons' Investigated: Where Does State Work End, Politics Begin?

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.

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ADDITIONAL COVERAGE:

* Part One: 'Madigoons' Investigated
* Part Two: Line Between Politics and Gov't Blurred

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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