Eye On Illinois: After Madigan, power players wise to keep heads down and fly straight

It would be wonderful to have a representative government without politicians, yet elections not only have consequences but are themselves – along with the entrenched establishment – flashpoints for partisanship and tribalism.

Hannah Meisel’s excellent, in-depth Capitol News Illinois piece setting the stage for this week’s federal corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, available at tinyurl.com/MadiganTrialPreview, illustrates how political power, amassed by and wielded for campaign success, both defined and dismantled Madigan’s legacy.

Take time to read the entire piece, but notice especially the short span between House Republicans breaking with former Gov. Bruce Rauner to end a two-year budget impasse and the way the speaker’s toxic reputation likely doomed both Gov. JB Pritzker’s attempt to rewrite the state’s income tax structure and an Illinois Supreme Court retention campaign for Thomas Kilbride.

In late August 2012, at the Republican National Convention in Florida, the state party rolled out a website and merchandise line with the memorable slogan “Save Illinois: Fire Madigan.” It was such an effective message he won five more 22nd House District elections and four more terms as House Speaker.

It wasn’t until the early days of 2021 that Democrats made it clear they wouldn’t grant Madigan another two years as speaker. With little drama, at least as compared to what happens on Capitol Hill as regards the speaker of the U.S. House, the majority coalesced around a replacement: Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, who has since steered the ship without becoming an object of scorn and derision.

Republicans quickly swapped Madigan’s name out for Pritzker, though they quietly dropped the “Fire” branding and the governor cruised to a second term in 2022. He’s got plenty of detractors and some campaign weaknesses, but having Pritzker’s name attached to a down-ballot candidate or issue isn’t as toxic as Madigan’s was in the brief time before he left office.

It took almost six months from the announcement of Madigan’s implication in the ComEd bribery investigation for his party to force him off the stage. That window included the November 2020 rejection of Kilbride and the income tax amendment. Republicans deserve political credit for formally and directly agitating against Madigan, but his tale is ultimately one of self sabotage.

That Illinois Democrats emerged from shedding Madigan as politically stronger could indicate they might’ve been wiser to cast him aside earlier. But another takeaway – regardless of whether a jury decides Madigan was corrupt – is the political importance of leading without becoming poisonous.

Ideally, voters would only ever face choices between candidates of equal virtue and elected officials would follow rules out of sincere probity and not self preservation. But absent the former, the latter is a decent substitute. We’ve sufficiently experienced the alternative.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.