Madigan support gets even shakier
19 rank-and-file Dems now oppose embattled speaker
House Speaker Michael Madigan’s chances of remaining in power were dealt another serious blow Tuesday when a member of his Democratic leadership team said she will not support him for another term leading the chamber.
State Rep. Kathleen Willis of Addison, the majority conference chairperson, joins 18 rankand-file Democrats in publicly opposing another term for the nation’s longest-serving state House speaker. Madigan, who’s been tied to a federal bribery investigation, is now facing opposition from more than one-quarter of his members.
Even before Willis’ announcement, Madigan was short of the 60 votes he needs to win another two years as speaker. Despite the opposition, Madigan has showed no sign of giving up his 36-year hold on the speaker’s gavel, vowing last month to remain a candidate and claiming “significant support.”
But Willis said Madigan has become too much of a “distraction” to maintain her support.
“I feel strongly that our caucus has a lot of hardwork to accomplish in the upcoming legislative session and we need to put the distraction that has been created by Representative Madigan behind us and move forward in mending the state of Illinois,” Willis wrote to the other members of the House Democratic caucus.
Willis was elected to the House in 2012 as part of an early wave of Democrats who made inroads in the longtime Republican stronghold of DuPage County. With significant help from Madigan’s campaign apparatus, she unseated Rep. Angelo “Skip” Saviano, a veteran Republican lawmaker. Willis was elected to a fifth term last month, defeating her Republican opponent, Anthony Air do, by more than 30 percentage points.
Opposition to Madigan began building publicly after Commonwealth Edison admitted in an agreement with federal prosecutors in July that it had engaged in yearslong bribery scheme aimed at currying favor with the speaker. Madigan has not been charged and denies anywrongdoing.
What began with a handful of members over the summer accelerated in recent weeks after a disappointing Nov. 3 election. House Democrats lost one seat, and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed graduated-rate income tax was resoundingly rejected by voters, who also went against retaining Madigan- backed Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride. Republicans and well-funded opposition groups made Madigan a central issue in all of those campaigns.
The tipping point for several House Democrats was a Nov. 18 indictment of longtime Madigan confidant and ComEd lobbyist Michael McClain on federal bribery charges. Also indicted were former ComEd and Exelon CEOA nne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and Jay Doherty, a former ComEd consultant and the former head of the City Club of Chicago. All four are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
In the two days after the indictments were issued by a federal grand jury in Chicago, 10 House Democrats joined eight others who had previously publicly stated their opposition to Madigan.
The first order of business when the newHouse convenes Jan. 13 will be the election of a speaker, which requires 60 votes. Democrats are expected to have 73 seats to the Republicans’ 45 when the Nov. 3 election results are certified Friday.
Only one other Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Stephanie Kifowit of Oswego, has publicly declared her candidacy for the speakership, but she hasn’t received any significant support fromthe opposition.
In spite of his weakened position, tThere remains a group of House Democrats who are committed to Madigan, including some members of the Black Caucus.