Gov. J.B. Pritzker spent $152 million in defeating state Sen. Darren Bailey for re-election, down from the $171 million for his first Illinois gubernatorial campaign.

A state audit found the Illinois Department of Employment Security lost to fraud more than half of the $3.6 billion in federal COVID-19 dollars earmarked for out-of-work Illinoisans. The full scope of the unemployment fraud remains unknown.

Four of the past 10 former Illinois governors are among the public officials who have been convicted of offenses in Illinois. The state needs stricter ethics reforms to change its culture of corruption.

Rod Blagojevich is out of federal prison, and now wants to be back on the ballot. Illinois’ former governor sued Aug. 2 for the right to run for public office again despite his conviction for public corruption.

Mike Madigan again controlled the choice of his replacement as state representative after his first pick resigned over ‘questionable conduct.’ This pick is a community activist who manages COVID-19 contact tracing.

Two days after he picked his replacement as state representative, Mike Madigan asked that replacement to resign over ‘questionable conduct.’ Edward Guerra Kodatt then quit after serving two days, entitling him to $5,789 in salary.

Former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and Chicago Ald. Ed Burke are among the politicians curbed by Chicago’s current U.S. Attorney. A bipartisan group is trying to keep him in place to continue public corruption prosecutions.

America’s longest-serving politician is at the center of a federal corruption investigation into lobbying, bribery and using ComEd for political patronage jobs.