THE MADIGANS, THE SPEAKER’S OFFICE, AND THE GOVERNOR’S RACE: “YOU SEE, THAT’S WHERE MY ARGUMENT FALLS APART…”

8/9/13

I haven’t commented on the Illinois gubernatorial race since going off on our trip.  (See my already seminal 8/2/13 piece, CLARK GRISWOLD, MR. PEABODY, AND ME.)   I, and doubtless my readers, feel deprived; it is time to address this deprivation.

A few days ago House Speaker Mike Madigan indicated that his daughter, Attorney General and former Governor in Waiting Lisa Madigan, knew all along that he would not resign from his post as Speaker if Lisa were to run for governor.  According to the Speaker, they had discussed this topic and he had made it clear to her that he intended to keep his job.  As I pointed out, to leave what is for Mr. Madigan a lifetime job so his daughter could be governor for a few terms while she prepped for bigger things would have been ludicrous (See my 6/19/13 piece, MIKE AND LISA MADIGAN:   WHAT’S A DAD TO DO?), and Mike Madigan isn’t The Man in this state’s politics because of a propensity to do ludicrous things.  

Mr. Madigan’s statement of the obvious, however, destroys Lisa Madigan’s cover story that

“…the state would not be well served by having a governor and speaker of the House from the same family and have never planned to run for governor if that would be the case. With Speaker Madigan planning to continue in office, I will not run for governor."

See my 7/16/13 piece, LISA MADIGAN WON’T RUN FOR GOVERNOR:  WOULD YOU WANT THE JOB?.

When the Speaker was asked why his daughter considered a race for governor knowing that he would remain as Speaker when she supposedly had such strong objections to such an arrangement, Mr. Madigan replied in his usual pithy manner “Ask her.”  Wow.

Someone is lying here, and it looks like it’s not the mean old ogre Mike Madigan but the Fair Maiden, the darling of the Chicago Press Lisa Madigan.  The very notion that “our Lisa” may be prevaricating is doubtless offensive to those on all points of political spectrum who seemingly adore Ms. Madigan while abhorring her father.

The exposure of the Attorney General’s cover story for the crock that it was also provides further evidence of an argument I made in my 7/16/13 piece concerning the real reasons Lisa Madigan opted to stay out of the governor’s race, to wit,

The good reason is Bill Daley’s wise and either gutsy or artful political move in entering the race and thus making Lisa’s path to a promotion for more problematical.  Lisa wanted a coronation, not an election.  Bill Daley made it a fight.

The better reason is not quite as political but very simple:   Would you want to be governor of Illinois right now?   This state is in a hell of a mess, with bankruptcy looming over the fast approaching horizon.  In all likelihood, nothing will be solved before the next governor takes office.  One does not blame an ambitious pol like Ms. Madigan for not wanting to tie her dinghy to such a sinking ship.  It would be much easier, and conducive to obtaining that big job that every politician ultimately wants, to become a U.S. Senator, and that job may become available, albeit not necessarily for the asking, in 2016.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics.