Head of IL Dem Party, Michael Madigan, cuts loose long-time aide after sexual harassment allegations emerge

A top Democrat’s office rocked by sexual misconduct allegations? Is anyone surprised?

A leading staffer on the team of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D), who has served as Speaker for all but two years since 1983, made unwanted advances and sent inappropriate text messages to a female campaign worker, which eventually prompted Madigan to fire him, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh).

Madigan, who is also chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, said that 28-year-old Alaina Hampton is a “courageous woman” for coming forward.

Hampton said the Democrat boss’s action came too late.

The young political worker showed the Tribune a series of texts documenting former Madigan aide Kevin Quinn’s recurring entreaties, including a message in which he called her “smoking hot.”

“Kevin should have been fired a year ago,” Hampton said on Monday.

“I think about you all the time,” Quinn wrote in one text. On other occasions, he referred to Hampton as “beautiful,” “smart,” and “smoking hot.”

“I need you to stop,” she replied in a text. “I have dedicated a lot of time to this election cycle and I will continue to do so, but I need to be able to do my work without you contacting me like this. I’m not interested. I just want to do my work.”

(Photo: Screen Capture).
(Photo: Screen Capture).
(Photo: Screen Capture).

Quinn is the brother of Marty Quin, an Alderman for Chicago’s 13th Ward. According to Hampton, she told Marty Quinn about the harassment in February 2017 and left the Democratic organization shortly after.

She said that she wrote to Madigan in November, describing the harassment from Kevin Quinn.

On Monday, Hampton filed a complaint against the longtime Madigan staffer at the Chicago office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Her filing claims she was the victim of retaliation from Medigan operatives for making her problems with Quinn known.

She alleged the harassment issue kept her from moving up in the political organization. The Quinn accuser now runs her own political consulting firm.

(AP Photo/Seth Perlman).

In November, Hampton sent a departure letter to Madigan’s home, in which she said:

“I do not want to hurt any of you — I care very deeply about people involved. I only needed to tell you because it has been very painful to experience alone.”

The Illinois House Speaker assigned his former chief legal counsel Heather Wier Vaught to investigate the matter. The probe ultimately determined that Quinn “failed to exercise the professional judgment I expect of those affiliated with my political organizations and the office of the speaker.”

“As a result, long-time aide Kevin Quinn is no longer an employee of any of my political committees,” Madigan said. “Mr. Quinn has worked with my political offices for nearly 20 years.”

Madigan is the longest-serving leader of any state or federal legislative body in the history of the United States.

(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson).

Leave it to Democrats to champion women’s rights in public but create a toxic work environment for women in private.

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