Indicted State Senator Again Promises To Step Down As Party Chair

WAUKEGAN, IL — A week after federal prosecutors charged him with tax fraud, Sen. Terry Link, the chief of the Lake County Democratic Party, appears to be maneuvering to put himself in a position to pick his own successor in the Illinois Senate and deprive the voters in his north suburban district in having a say in who represents them for the next two years.

Link, 73, of Indian Creek, has chaired Lake County Democrats since 1992 and has represented the 30th District in the state senate since narrowly winning the seat in the 1996 election. He has not responded to requests for comment about the charges he faces or his plans to step down.

On Thursday morning, Link sent a letter to fellow Democratic Party officials indicating that he planned to step down on Sept. 15. That could offer him a path to picking his own successor in the state senate — the party chair has the deciding vote. But it is not clear he will last that long in charge.

More than half of all Democratic precinct committeepersons in Lake County came together to call for a special meeting to confirm new party leadership, more than twice the amount required by party rules.

If Link resigns from the state senate on Sept. 11 or prior — 28 months before his term is due to end in January 2023 — it would trigger a special election on Nov. 3. Local Democratic and Republican party chairs would slate a pair of candidates and voters would have a say in who served out the remainder of the indicted senator's term.

But if Link resigns from the seat on or after Sept. 12 and is still party chair, he would be able to pick the person who would hold the seat until after the 2022 election.

"For quite a while I have contemplated resigning as Chairman," Link said in his letter of resignation. "While some of you might assume my resignation is related to what you may have read in the news, those who truly know me and know my character and loyalty to the Democratic Party know there has to be more to the story. I can assure you that there is a lot more to the story. Unfortunately, at this time I am unable to comment on any of this."

RELATED: Illinois State Sen. Terry Link Charged With Tax Fraud

Link has not responded to written questions regarding whether he believes voters deserve the opportunity to vote on his successor in November, whether he plans on handpicking his successor, or why he selected Sept. 15 as the effective date of his resignation. Any response received will be added here.

Shortly after shepherding through a major gambling expansion that earmarked the casino he has long-sought for his hometown of Waukegan last year, Link was identified by multiple sources as the state senator described by the FBI as "Cooperating Witness 1" in its bribery case against former State Rep. Luis Arroyo.

The FBI said the senator wore a wire while soliciting bribes from Arroyo at restaurants in Skokie and Highland Park in the hopes of a reduced sentence for tax evasion charges. The charging document filed by prosecutors suggests that Link is set to plead guilty to a single count of tax fraud. Unlike Link and his fellow indicted Democratic state senator, Tom Cullerton of Villa Park, Arroyo resigned his seat within a few days of prosecutors charging him.

RELATED: State Rep Accused Of Bribing State Senator To Benefit Lobbyist

Ahead of the April 15 Lake County Democratic Party convention, Lake County Democrats Vice-Chair Lauren Beth Gash, a former state representative and head of the Moraine Township Democratic Organization, had positioned herself to succeed Link as party chair. She announced in February she had collected endorsements from a majority of the elected precinct committeepeople ahead of the county party gathering, but the coronavirus led to the cancellation of the in-person event.

Lake County Democrats allowed Link to continue to serve as party chair, despite the fact he was implicated in the Arroyo corruption case — a case where the FBI said the cooperating state senator expected to be criminally charged with tax fraud.

Link and Gash issued a joint statement at the time, announcing that Link would temporarily continue on as chair in an agreement that granted Gash day-to-day managing authority until a leadership vote could be held safely.

“Because of the coronavirus pandemic, I am happy to continue to serve as Chair for the time being, with Lauren as Managing Vice Chair," Link said in the release. "And I will be proud to pass the torch to her once we can safely call an in-person convention to facilitate a leadership change.”

In the months that followed, after rules changed to allow for a remote voters for party leaders, Link repeatedly told Lake County Democratic committeepeople he would be resigning on specific dates in the near future, which passed without him doing so.

Gash now says it is time for Link to resign immediately.

"Lake County Democrats feel strongly that in our effort to elect Democrats in November at the local, state and federal level, it is critical that we do so without this type of distraction," Gash told Patch Friday.

The party vice-chair said she would prefer Link step down from both his party and legislative posts before Sept. 11 so that a special election can be held for his state senate seat.

"Elected officials and committeemen are calling for his immediate resignation from both the senate and the county chairman position. Democrats in Lake County are not afraid to put our candidates up against Republican candidates. Voters in Lake County share our values, they'll be voting for Democrats," she said. "We're not concerned about putting our policies in front of voters."

RELATED: Resign Party Chairmanship, State Senator Tells Indicted Colleague

Link was most recently re-elected to the state senate with 68 percent of the vote in 2018 after running unopposed in the Democratic Party primary.

During that period — when he was apparently cooperating with the FBI and expecting to be charged with federal tax fraud — Link did not disclose his entanglement with criminal corruption investigations to voters or fellow party officials, and he continues to deny his involvement despite evidence to the contrary.