More scheming from the Madigan family in Illinois
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, relaxing at home in her Snuggie, after a tiring day of plotting and scheming with her father.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, are engaged in the state’s favorite parlor game: plotting and scheming.
Madigan wants to be the next Governor. Madigan’s father wants to completely control the state, by installing his daughter as Governor (and perhaps the family parakeet as Treasurer for all we know. And the scary thing is, the parakeet would be a better and less corrupt Treasurer than the mob-bank-backed one we currently have now). Together, they’re a two generation tag team of nepotism at its finest, wrapped up colorfully in Snuggies, deciding who they’re going to set their sights on next.
Madigan seized every opportunity during the Blagojevich scandal to get herself in front of as many TV cameras as possible, all with an eye towards the 2010 Governor’s race (and because, frankly, everyone in Illinois loves being on TV. It’s true. There’s a good reason Jenny Jones, Jerry Springer, and Oprah were all filmed here).
Now, Madigan claims, in an official opinon released as Attorney General, that the state of Illinois can hold a special election to force Roland Burris to run for his Senate seat, with the winner of the special election holding the Senate seat until 2010, when that person would have to run again.
The cost to taxpayers for this would be in the tens of millions.
But, what would be the result?
Democrats would lose the Senate seat to Republican Mark Kirk in a special election. Kirk would then have to run again in 2010, as a sitting incumbent.
Why would the Madigans want Burris to lose his Senate seat, and force Democrats to run against Kirk in 2010?
It looks to us like the Madigans want to remove all links to Blagojevich from the ballot in 2010…and they’re paiting Burris as a link to Blagojevich. But, how will the Madigans get rid of Pat Quinn, the new Governor of Illinois? How would Lisa defeat him in a primary, when he’s the sitting Governor? Quinn hated Blagojevich, and was elected not as part of a ticket with him, but separately running for Lt. Governor on his own.
Maybe the Madigans are actually gearing up for Lisa to head to the Senate, and losing the seat to Kirk in a special election is the only way to do that. Because black leaders in Chicago (and nationally) are putting continued pressure to keep a black Senator in Obama’s seat (which was Carol Mosley Braun’s old seat from 1992-1998, before it went to Republican Peter Fitzgerald from 1998-2004), Madigan would not politically be able to win the Democratic primary in 2010 to take the seat from Burris (as wails of racism will most surely great any white candidate who tries to “take” the lone black seat in the Senate). The Madigans do not want to have done to them what Obama and his surrogates did to the Clintons in South Carolina, or what the Obama campaign did at every opportunity available to play the race card against McCain/Palin (does “I don’t look like the people on the one dollar bill” ring any bells?).
But, just imagine if Burris loses the seat to Republican Mark Kirk in 2009, after at least one other black candidate is encourage to challenge Burris for a primary fight to keep that seat. Conventional wisdom in Chicago is that either Congressman Danny Davis, Illinois secretary of state Jesse White, or Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. would try to run in the special election, and we believe would ultimately lose to Kirk, if any of them managed to take the nomination away from Burris.
So, it would be KIRK, not Lisa Madigan who “took the Senate seat” away from the black community. And Lisa Madigan would then be free to run in the Democratic primary for the Senate seat in 2010, without having to suffer the same pressure from the black community she’d face if the seat wasn’t already in the hands of a white Republican man.
But, why would Lisa Madigan want to head to Washington to become a United States Senator if the job she wants is really Governor?
Well, as a Senator, she would be empowered to funnel as much federal spending into her family’s chosen projects as she wanted, thereby strengthening her father’s hold on the state, and helping to build a strong foundation for her to take the Governor’s mansion in the future. Governor Quinn could very well keep the Democratic nomination, but lose the Governorship in 2010, especially if Republican Peter Fitzgerald emerges from political retirement and mounts a bid of his own. Fitzgerald is a proven reformer, and was a popular Senator, who decided not to run for a second term in 2004 largely because of the stress being in Washington put on his family. Well, it’s been a few years, his children have grown, and nostalgia for Fitzgerald’s time in the Senate has certainly developed.
So, the Madigans could see a chance to outmaneuver the black community for a Senate seat for Lisa, even if they can’t get their hands on the Governor’s mansion next year. And then, after 4 or 8 years, Lisa could possibly come back for a run against a sitting Republican Governor in her new, much higher profile as Senator Madigan.
Or, maybe Lisa’s ultimate goal is to become Democrats’ Vice Presidential pick in 2016 (believing Hillary Clinton will not make another bid for top of the ticket in 8 years), and some time in the Senate could pave the way for that.
The Madigans sit around strategizing like this the way your family plays Trivial Pursuit or Clue on a Friday evening.
Right now, both Governor Quinn and Senator Burris are impediments to Lisa’s rise to power. One of them will be on the receiving end of Madigan Family machinations…and it sure looks like they are angling against Burris at the moment.
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I always thought those things looked like Cult robes.
The only way lisa gets eleted is with Dick Daley’s approval.He runs our state,but I think he and Madigan are buddies.Very interesting scenarios you pur forth.I am a native Illinoisan and have seen so much corruption and crontism that nothing surprises me anymore.
Gotta learn to use spell check!