House Speaker Michael Madigan likes to send "messages." He doesn't often explain what those messages are, but last week's surprising defeat of a bill to give the Chicago Public Schools a 40-day extension on its $634-million pension payment due June 30 was most surely a message to somebody.
Despite his spokesperson saying the day before that Madigan was "prepared to be supportive," it's clear that Madigan did not work to pass the bill, which was being pushed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. His staff did not urge members to vote for it before or during the roll call.
Madigan himself said he did not ask Republicans for a specific number of votes for a structured roll call, which is another indication that he wasn't ready to move the ball forward.
Madigan's deputy majority leader, Lou Lang, presided over the proceeding. A newspaper reported that Lang voted "no" so he could file a motion to reconsider that would keep it alive. Okay, but if you watch the roll call, Lang pushed his red button right after the voting opened, which probably sent a strong signal to the rank and file.
House Democrats don't have to be told what to do at moments such as these. As we've seen time and again, when Madigan doesn't actively push a bill, his members automatically assume that things aren't soup yet and they can vote however they want.
So when Governor Bruce Rauner's office sent out a statement saying that "the only reason the speaker's Chicago caucus would vote against the mayor's bill is because Madigan wanted to kill it," Madigan could deny to reporters with a straight face that he said that to anybody.
But whether the governor's office is right or if Madigan simply stepped aside and allowed the bill to go down on its own, the end result is still the same: The bill failed.
"This complicates things," cryptically said a high-level Rauner administration official. That's all he said, refusing to elaborate.
The Rauner folks were in no mood for the usual Springfield parlor game of guessing what Madigan was trying to say without actually saying it. They thought they had a deal, they trusted Madigan to hold up his end, and instead the bill went down in flames. Their anger was palpable.
They also didn't appear to have the patience to wait until the House returned to Springfield for another crack at the legislation (which, because of the looming deadline, would make the bill's passage much more likely).
But what the heck was Madigan up to?
Most likely, he was sending a message to Emanuel that if he wanted to cut deals with Rauner and Senate President John Cullerton, he'd have to work his caucus to find the votes - or come to him and ask that he do it. And he also likely wants Rauner to "own" this steaming pile of kick the can.
Insiders have long said that Madigan has believed that those three men would attempt to cut him out. Emanuel lives in Cullerton's district and has a longstanding professional, political, and personal friendship with Rauner. It's always been the obvious play: Line up the mayor, the governor, the Senate Democrats, and the two House GOP caucuses against the House speaker.
But it's also a dangerous game because trapping that old bull in a corner will have serious long-term consequences, which is why Cullerton has gone far out of his way to not make it appear that this was happening.
The Rauner administration, however, sent a clear signal before the House vote that, as far as they were concerned, the triangulation play had begun.
Quoting a letter to Representative John Bradley from the governor's chief legislative liaison about a Bradley committee request for some internal payroll information: "While we understand your desire to hold sham hearings to distract the taxpayers from your vote for an unbalanced budget and your desire to raise taxes without reform, we will continue to negotiate in good faith with Senate Democrats, Mayor Emanuel, and Republican leaders toward a comprehensive bipartisan agreement to turn around Illinois."
You can't get much more clear than that.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax (a daily political newsletter) and CapitolFax.com.
