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Political affiliation: Democrat

City: Chicago, Illinois

Marital status: Married

Occupation/Firm name: Illinois Attorney General

Campaign HQ address: 500 North Dearborn, Suite 510, Chicago, IL 60654

Campaign website: www.lisamadigan.org

What is your campaign budget- TBD

What do you consider to be the most important roles and responsibilities of this office-

As Attorney General, I am the lawyer and an advocate for all of the people of Illinois. In this role, I have worked to protect the people of our state, especially those who are most vulnerable. I believe it is critical to make decisions in the interests of the people, without regard to politics, and to tackle longstanding problems and emerging issues. I have consistently taken this approach and focused on protecting Illinois consumers, fighting for government transparency and accountability, undertaking innovative efforts to enhance nursing home safety and protect crime victims, creating programs to protect children from online dangers, and working to safeguard our environment and natural resources. I believe the Attorney General must focus on these priorities and, if reelected, I will continue to do so.

What are your top priorities for the office- For challengers, would you move in a direction different than the course set by Attorney General Lisa Madigan-

If reelected, I will continue to focus my efforts and the resources of the Attorney General's office, as I have since taking office in 2003, to protect the people of Illinois in several key areas:

Protecting Illinois consumers

As Attorney General, I am the state's chief consumer advocate. Before the Federal government's attention turned to the foreclosure crisis, I drafted new state laws to protect consumers from unfair lending practices and mortgage rescue fraud. I investigated and sued Countrywide for deceptively placing homeowners into loans that they did not understand and could not afford, and led a national settlement that created the first mandatory loan modification program. I also have sued Wells Fargo and Countrywide for fraudulently and unfairly targeting African-American and Latino borrowers. As part of my ongoing efforts to allow Illinois families to keep their homes, I've created a homeowner helpline. I also have stood up for utility customers and against unfair rate hikes, leading negotiations to change the reverse auction system for buying electricity and obtaining $1 billion in rate relief for electricity customers. I also have worked extensively to ensure fair access to quality health care and protect children from dangerous products and lead poisoning.

Increasing accountability and trust in Illinois government.

Every elected official in Illinois should be focused on reforming and rebuilding trust in our government. As Attorney General, I have taken significant steps to instill integrity and accountability in Illinois government. I will continue to make this work my priority in the next term.

First, to increase government transparency and accountability, I created the office of Public Access Counselor to advise the public and government officials on the Illinois Freedom of Information and Open Meetings Acts. I then led the legislative negotiations to strengthen FOIA and create a permanent Public Access Counselor empowered by law to enforce the state's sunshine laws. Implementing this law is and will continue to be one of my highest priorities.

Second, I worked closely with the Executive Ethics Commission to draft, negotiate and pass reforms to strengthen enforcement of the ethics laws and increase transparency in that process. These reforms included provisions to (1) significantly tighten the revolving door prohibition to prevent State employees from going to work for government contractors, (2) add transparency to the ethics enforcement process by requiring public disclosure of Inspector General reports concluding that allegations of misconduct are founded, and (3) add transparency to the State grant-making process and make it easier to recover grant money in the event of fraud.

Third, throughout my tenure as Attorney General, I have taken an active role in fighting corruption and misconduct within government, as well as seeking to recover taxpayer dollars when contractors defraud the government. In 2005, I initiated an investigation of allegations of corruption involving former Governor Rod Blagojevich. In 2006, when it became clear that we were seeking to question the same witnesses as the United States Attorney's Office, I agreed to provide all of the information that my office obtained to the US Attorney. Since then, I have created a Public Integrity Unit within my office to coordinate with criminal and civil attorneys to investigate government misconduct, fraud, waste and abuse. An example of this unit's work is the indictment of Castle Construction and its owner and president for fraudulently obtaining public money reserved for minority businesses from the Chicago Transit Authority and the City of Chicago Public Building Commission.

Along with increasing my office's involvement in the criminal prosecution of public corruption, I have increased our use of the civil false claims statute to recover state funds based on fraud in government contracts. The best example of this work to recover taxpayer dollars lost to fraud is our suit against Amerigroup, an HMO that defrauded the State's Medicaid program. Through this suit, working with the federal government, we obtained a judgment of over $334 million. I also have actively used other available civil laws to ensure that State funds--such as State grant money--are used properly. For example, I have filed a suit against Loop Lab School, a charity that received a $1 million State grant to purchase property for a school, to recover the money.

Finally, I have established a long track record of serving as a watchdog on behalf of the people of Illinois and making sure that government follows the law. For example, I

- successfully pursued the revocation of the Emerald casino license and refused to agree to proposals to locate the 10th casino in Rosemont,

- rejected former Governor Blagojevich's attempts to mortgage the Thompson Center and expand lottery gambling to include keno games,

- advised the General Assembly Retirement System that former Governor Ryan had forfeited his state pension and defended the Retirement System in Ryan's lawsuit to recover his pension, and

- intervened when the former Illinois Tollway Executive Director sought an exemption from the revolving door provisions to go work for a Tollway contractor.

I will continue to act as a watchdog for the people of Illinois and take action whenever necessary to protect the State and the taxpayers.

Safeguarding seniors from financial scams and working to prevent abuse and neglect in nursing homes.

Through my consumer protection work, I have placed an emphasis on protecting seniors who are often the targets of scam artists and financial fraud. In addition to investigating scams against seniors and taking legal action to stop them, I have created a program to educate seniors on how to spot and avoid the latest fraud and protect their pocketbooks. Additionally, through my law enforcement work, I launched Operation Guardian, a coordinated state and local effort to make unannounced checks of nursing homes for compliance with health and safety regulations and to remove individuals with outstanding arrest warrants. To date, Operation Guardian has identified over 100 criminals with outstanding warrants living in Illinois nursing homes. I also have drafted and worked to pass legislation to strengthening the laws to identify sexual predators and violent felons living in Illinois nursing homes.

Protecting communities from sexual predators and reducing domestic violence.

I have also made it a priority to lead law enforcement in statewide efforts to increase protections for children and women against sex offenders, to reduce domestic violence, and to better serve crime victims. In just the last year, I have undertaken three new initiatives:

- Orders of Protection. A key to reducing domestic violence is increasing the effectiveness of orders of protection. I launched the Illinois Order of Protection Enforcement Group to increase the service of orders and protect survivors of domestic violence.

- DNA Accountability. Because of delays in implementing the 2002 All Felons DNA law, significant gaps in Illinois' DNA database exist. I am working with law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to identify uncollected felons and secure their DNA.

- Rape Kit Testing. Around the country, the processing of rape kits has come under scrutiny. Illinois lacked a standard protocol for analyzing rape kits. This year, I drafted and worked with victim advocates to pass a groundbreaking law to make Illinois the first state in the nation to require that every rape kit collected be submitted for DNA processing within ten days. This will provide justice to sexual assault survivors and remove sexual predators from our streets.

Given the state's budget crisis, what would you cut or scale back in the AG's office-

As Attorney General, I have directly faced the challenge of reducing the office's budget while ensuring that we are able to continue to effectively handle our work and, in many cases, expand our efforts to help Illinois residents hit hard by the mortgage foreclosure crisis and the recession.

I have worked with my staff to carefully review the office's budget to reduce costs--taking the approach that no expense is too small to scrutinize. We have reduced travel expenses by using video and telephone conferences; cut expenses for research and expert witnesses; renegotiated contracts with outside vendors to cut costs; and, when necessary, implemented lay-offs and furlough days. I also have worked closely with the unions representing the bargaining units in the office to reduce costs while adhering to our contractual obligations. I continue this work to ensure that we are cutting costs whenever possible.

As a result of this approach, I submitted to the General Assembly a Fiscal Year 2011 budget that requested the lowest General Revenue Fund(GRF) amount for the Office of the Attorney General in over a decade. While reducing the general revenue fund budget of the office, I have continued to increase our efforts to generate revenue for the state. Last year alone, my office brought in over $1 billion in State revenue, which is over 25 times the office's GRF budget. I also have made sure that the office is not only responding to the increased need for consumer protection during this recession, but also acting proactively and aggressively to help Illinois homeowners stay in their homes. Overall, by carefully managing every line of the office's budget, I have ensured that the office is helping the state through the fiscal crisis and effectively serving Illinois residents who need our assistance during this recession.

Do you favor statewide grand jury authority for the AG's office-

Yes. During my tenure as Attorney General, I have worked with local police and prosecutors to investigate cases using the current authority under the Statewide Grand Jury Act. I also generally support expansion of the list of crimes that may be investigated and indicted under the Statewide Grand Jury Act to cover crimes that cross county lines and, thus, present difficult issues for county State's Attorneys. For example, when a murderer commits several murders in different counties--essentially going on a murder spree that crosses county lines--it would greatly assist in the investigation and prosecution of the crimes if the Statewide Grand Jury could be used. I also support expansion of the Act to cover public corruption crimes that demand additional resources and focus. In 2009, I testified before the Illinois Reform Commission to recommend numerous changes in the law to strengthen the ability of law enforcement in Illinois, including my office, to investigate and prosecute public corruption. I also worked with the members of the Reform Commission to develop and enact proposals to expand the Statewide Grand Jury Act.

Should the AG's office have a legislative agenda and take the lead in lobbying in Springfield-

As the lawyer for the people and the State of Illinois, working to protect consumers, coordinating with local law enforcement to address difficult problems, and enforcing many of the State's most important laws, my staff and I are in a unique position to identify emerging legal issues that are impacting the residents of the State and the government. As a result, it is essential that the Attorney General's Office works closely with the General Assembly to pass legislation that addresses emerging problems and supports our work to protect all the people of Illinois.

As Attorney General, I have pursued an aggressive legislative agenda to protect the people of Illinois. For example, I have successfully advanced legislative proposals to strengthen the laws to better protect women and children from sexual offenders and domestic violence, including passage this year of a law that makes Illinois the first state in the nation to require that every rape kit collected from a victim of sexual assault be submitted for DNA testing within ten days.

I have also successfully advocated for new laws to safeguard consumers from unfair and predatory lending practices. In 2007, before the collapse of the mortgage industry due to reckless and predatory lending practices, I successfully worked with legislators to enact the Illinois Homeownership Protection Act, which requires mortgage brokers and lenders to verify a borrower's ability to repay a loan and act with good faith in borrowers' best interests. This year, I drafted and worked with legislators to pass the toughest debt settlement law in the country, which will rein in unscrupulous debt settlement operators who prey on people who face large credit card debt.

I have also drafted and advanced legislation to shield seniors from scams and abuse, particularly nursing home abuse at the hands of violent criminals and sexual predators. After successfully closing the Emerald Park Nursing Home in Evergreen Park because it was housing violent criminals and sexual predators who were preying on vulnerable seniors, I worked with legislators pass a law that requires nursing homes to take steps to protect residents from violent criminals.

In addition, I drafted, and the General Assembly approved, important legislation to make it more difficult to buy key ingredients needed in the manufacture of methamphetamine and to crack down on meth manufacturers.

I plan to continue working with the legislature to make sure we have the tools necessary to keep our communities safe and protect all the people of Illinois.

Should the Legislature make any changes to the campaign finance law passed in 2009- Would you support capping donations from party leaders during general elections-

As a Senator and as Attorney General, I have worked closely with campaign finance reform advocates to strengthen our laws in this area. And I am currently vigorously defending the constitutionality of the disclosure and reporting laws from a challenge filed in federal court. At this point, the new campaign finance law will not be fully implemented until Jan. 1, 2011. While I believe we should allow the law to work and evaluate its effectiveness before significantly amending or changing it, I continue to be very interested in working with reform advocates to address any ongoing problems.

I support capping donations from party leaders during general elections.

What can be done to strengthen implementation of the new FOIA law- New legislation has exempted performance evaluations of public employees and public school teachers and administrators. Do you support these changes or would you push to reverse them-

As you are aware, I worked closely with a coalition of open government advocates, including the Illinois Reform Commission to draft, negotiate and pass transparency reform legislation to strengthen FOIA and empower the Public Access Counselor(PAC) in the Attorney General's office to enforce the sunshine laws with binding opinion authority. The new law empowers the Public Access Counselor to review and determine whether governments must disclose documents under FOIA or conduct business in public under the Open Meetings Act. The new law gives the PAC authority to subpoena needed information, provide advisory opinions to governments, issue binding opinions to resolve disputes and sue to enforce binding opinions. To strengthen the implementation of this law, my office is taking several steps, including (1) continuing to provide training sessions to public bodies to ensure that they understand and can follow the new law, (2) actively mediating disputes over FOIA requests to use those opportunities to make sure public bodies follow the law and to ensure that the FOIA requester obtains the information sought, and (3) issuing decisions that clearly discuss the requirements of the law and how they apply to specific documents. Since November 1, 2009, just prior to the new law's implementation, my office has conducted 89 training sessions around the state for over 5,000 people.

Over the coming year, we will continue our aggressive work to enforce this law and to identify any opportunities to strengthen implementation, including discussing any ongoing issues with reform advocates, public bodies and the media.

During the last legislative session, my office opposed all bills that sought to weaken FOIA or the Open Meetings Act. I also opposed the bill exempting the performance evaluations of all public employees from disclosure. My office worked closely with the Illinois Press Association to oppose that bill and urged Governor Quinn to veto it.

Under what circumstances, if any, should the Attorney General refuse to defend a state official, state employee or the constitutionality of a dubious state statute-

Under the oath of office of the Illinois Attorney General, it is my duty to uphold the laws and constitution of the State of Illinois and the United States. Therefore, unless the law in question is clearly unconstitutional, it is my duty to defend it by making arguments that are supported by the law and the facts. Illinois law dictates when my office is obligated to defend a state official or employee who is sued for conduct in the performance of his or her official duties. Under this law, I have a legal obligation to defend a state official or employee unless he or she (1) has acted outside the scope of his or her official duties, or (2) committed intentional, willful or wanton misconduct.

Would you move to reduce the use of outside legal counsel in the AG's office-

The staff attorneys within the Attorney General's office should represent the people of Illinois except in very limited circumstances when a complex case requires particular expertise not available in the office, when the Attorney General has a conflict of interest or when Illinois law provides for an elected state official to obtain outside counsel. The criteria for hiring outside counsel should be narrow: the expertise and experience the attorneys will bring to the particular case and their cost. As Attorney General, I have sought to limit the hiring of outside counsel unless required by statute or necessitated by the dictates of a particular complex case or ethical rules. In the narrow circumstances when outside counsel is necessary, I have sought to limit the costs for this representation.

List your educational background

Graduate of Georgetown University (B.A., 1988) and Loyola University of Chicago School of Law (J.D., 1994)

Please list civic, professional, fraternal or other organizations to which you belong

The Chicago Network, National Association of Attorneys General and Illinois Women in Leadership (IWIL)

Have you held elective or appointive political office or been employed by any branch of government-

I was elected Illinois state senator from the 17th district on the North side of Chicago in 1998. I served in the Senate until 2003, when I began serving as Illinois Attorney General.

Please list jobs or contracts you, members of your immediate family or business partners have had with government

My father, Michael J. Madigan, is Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.

My mother, Shirley Madigan is Chair of the Illinois Arts Council. (Volunteer position)

Name your five biggest campaign contributors and the amount they contributed

Illinois Laborers' Legislative Committee, $26,000

I.P.A.C.E., $25,000

Friedman Properties, $22,200

Illinois Hospital Association, $20,000

Construction & General Laborers' District Council of Chicago & Vicinity, $20,000

Illinois Pipe Trades, $20,000

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