North Cook News

A Northfield Republican committeeman says the magnitude of former House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) resigning is huge.

“I have lived in Illinois almost my whole life, and Michael Madigan has been a giant figure since before I was born,” T.J. Brown said in an interview with North Cook News. “At 45, I'm middle-aged. Simple mortality tells you every era comes to an end, but I was surprised how it happened with a whimper. The dominoes that fell the last few years were part of it: Ed Burke's indictment, the two sexual misconduct scandals at his political and statehouse offices, the multiple indictments of lawmakers in the General Assembly, the ComEd investigation with indictments of close associates of Madigan and the revelations of other wrongdoing. What caused this to happen, however, was Illinois Republican statehouse candidates outperformed Republicans in most corners of Illinois. The Illinois Republican Party is not a juggernaut, and I feel we as a party need to be more aggressive in capturing voters.”

Brown said enough Illinoisans voted for Republican lawmakers in big enough numbers that Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other state lawmakers got nervous.

“Governor Pritzker got nervous, too, as his tax amendment failed at the polls magnificently,” Brown said. “It was a referendum on Pritzker, mostly, but Madigan's presence in the statehouse didn't help. Pritzker has the dollars to neutralize Madigan's hold over Democratic campaign money, so lawmakers like Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz wouldn't have to worry about coming up with the $700K from Madigan-controlled funds that she received in 2018. The four state representatives in Northfield Township were hardly profiles in courage railing against Mike Madigan.”

Brown said Madigan was very skilled at consolidating power.

“But it's important that we no longer have Speaker Madigan, nor Rep. Madigan, nor party chairman Madigan,” Brown said. “He was very skilled at consolidating power, and the Democrats are going to have challenges unifying their party statewide. Speaker Welch isn't an improvement from a policy perspective. I think we have to see over time how Welch operates as Speaker to determine if he allows more voices to bring forward more solutions to what ails Illinois.”

Brown said Madigan has led the political machine for 42 of the last 46 years.

“Speaker Madigan helped write the 1970 Illinois Constitution and he has pursued policies that endanger the future viability of residing in Illinois,” Brown said. “Our state and municipal pension systems are so precariously underfunded that we cannot adequately fund our services now, businesses and residents live under the constant threat of tax hikes that will bankrupt them, many residents and businesses are moving out or are preparing to move out, further diminishing any chance of economic growth mitigating this pending disaster, and the retired state workers who have been led to believe their ‘Constitutionally-guaranteed’ pension will always be there will have to reckon with the specter of their pension funds running out of money.”

Brown said Illinois has many geographic advantages and natural resources, but the state has bled private-sector jobs across industries and the state’s standing as a global financial center, a manufacturing hub, and a tech leader has slipped.

“That will be Madigan's legacy: a half-century of consolidating power at the expense of entrepreneurial Illinois, at the expense of industrious Illinois, at the expense of an innovative Illinois,” Brown said.

Madigan resigned from his position as chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party earlier this week. He resigned from his position as a state representative last week and lost his bid for House Speaker in January.

Madigan has been making headlines since over the summer when he was connected with the Commonwealth Edison scandal. Though he has never been charged with any wrongdoing, there have been allegations of bribery.

ComEd agreed over the summer to pay $200 million in a settlement after it admitted it had provided Madigan’s associates with jobs and contracts in exchange for influencing Madigan.