New power dynamic looms in state
Gov.-elect’s pockets deep enough to give legislators an alternative
As Democratic Gov.elect J.B. Pritzker began working on his takeover of the Governor's Mansion from defeated Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, questions emerged about how divisions of power will work out between him and veteran House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Pritzker will become the seventh governor Madigan will have served with as speaker since 1983 — four Republicans and three Democrats — and while the two men shared common campaign goals leading up to the Democratic sweep of state government Tuesday, politics and policy can often diverge.
“It's going to be something everybody's going to watch because now, all of a sudden, you have two power centers who have not worked together before in terms of policy and process, which is a whole different ballgame,” said University of Illinois political scientist Chris Mooney. “Everyone wants to know how they'll work together.”
Madigan, 76, who has served in the House since 1971, has consistently been one of the most powerful people, if not the most powerful, in Illinois government — to the point that Rauner once bemoaned that he, the governor, was “not in charge.”
Madigan's power over rank-and-file Democratic legislators increased exponentially after voters in 1980 approved Pat Quinn's populist-inspired Cutback Amendment to the state constitution, trimming the size of the Illinois House by a third, requiring election in single-member districts and giving Democratic and Republican legislative leaders unprecedented ability to enforce discipline. The power stemmed from massive amounts of campaign money the leaders received to dole out, or withhold, from re-election-seeking lawmakers.
But in Pritzker, who with Tuesday's election became the nation's wealthiest politician, according to Forbes, rankand-file Democratic lawmakers now may find an alternative to Madigan's control over campaign purse strings.
One veteran House Democrat, who asked not to be identified to risk alienating Madigan, said the money factor with Pritzker as governor is “certainly something that we're looking at” if there's a need to choose sides.
In addition, Madigan's stature has weakened if only because Rauner has spent millions of dollars over the past four years in an effort to personalize Illinois' ills by making the speaker a villain.
In the aftermath of the election, Madigan's state Democratic Party organization issued a memo saying the “Rauner Republican playbook of attempting to make the entire 2018 election a referendum on Speaker Madigan, to distract from Republicans' record, is a failure.”
“Of the dozens of Illinois Republicans that ran on a platform tying their opponent to Speaker Madigan, nearly every one lost. Some attempts were hateful, others laughable,” the memo said, adding, “but after the votes have been counted, the tactic was a clear failure.”
Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, acknowledged he has had his differences with Madigan on some progressive issues in the past and that he expects disagreements in the future — though he doesn't foresee serious differences arising.
“I think there are things that I disagree with the speaker about that are progressive. I certainly worked hard to pass marriage equality and I'm not sure that was a high priority for him until we were able to get the votes put together. There are other things that I would say the speaker may not have been ahead of the curve on that I will be,” Pritzker told the Tribune.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said he did not “anticipate that scenario” where rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers would be forced to choose allegiance.