01 Feb 2021

Speaker Welch’s New Chair List Has "A Lot of Consistency”

By Rich Miller

Just a couple of weeks into a job that most people couldn’t imagine being held by anyone other than the guy who had it for decades, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch is putting together a House that looks both familiar and different at the same time. Speaker Welch’s first week included a rollout of his new leadership team, with a Black woman as Speaker Pro Tempore and fresh faces throughout. By the third week, we’ll see committee membership rosters and vice chairs. The following week will be the new rules.

25 Jan 2021

Highlights from Speaker Welch’s To-Do List

By Rich Miller

House Speaker Michael Madigan avoided calling the General Assembly back into session during the pandemic for several reasons, many of them having to do with himself. But Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch told me earlier this month that “The legislature is back in business. We're going to work in 2021.”

18 Jan 2021

Welch’s Historic Ascendance May Leave Pritzker with Historic Agita

By Rich Miller

“The legislature is going to be a check on the executive branch,” newly-elected House Speaker Chris Welch flatly declared to me during an interview the other day. Speaker Welch was responding to a question I posed to him about his January 13 inaugural address, when he asked not-so-rhetorically, “Why is it difficult to ensure that families' unemployment checks continue unabated and arrive on time so struggling families can feed their children? Why is that hard to grasp?”

11 Jan 2021

Can Adam Kinzinger Tack Moderate and Survive in the Divided State of Illinois?

By Rich Miller

“This isn’t their Republican Party anymore!” Donald Trump Jr declared on January 6 during a fiery speech near the U.S. Capitol. “This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” the President’s son insisted. “Today, Republicans, you get to pick a side for the future of this party. I suggest you choose wisely.” And then, later in the day, all heck broke loose

28 Dec 2020

The January Madigan Vote Looms Over State Democrats Like a Raptor

By Rich Miller

I reached out to several House Democrats who could be considered politically vulnerable in 2022 to ask them how they plan to vote on Speaker Michael Madigan’s re-election in January. With one exception, I didn’t make much headway.

21 Dec 2020

Pritzker Took the Road Less Traveled — and It Amounted to Bubkes

By Rich Miller

“What if” games are never quite accurate, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Governor JB Pritzker had the opportunity, and most probably the votes, to balance the state budget with an income-tax hike during 2019, his “honeymoon” year with the General Assembly. Instead, the governor came into office and proposed what was essentially a pension payment holiday and other magic budgetary solutions.

14 Dec 2020

A Political and Legal Victory for Madigan May Prove Pyrrhic for State Democrats

By Rich Miller

Outsiders may not get it, but it makes some sense that the majority of House Democrats still back House Speaker Michael Madigan’s re-election. He’s been a genius at getting things done for his caucus. He is loyal to his people and has infinitely more institutional memory and can pull more strings and push more buttons than anyone alive.

07 Dec 2020

House Democrats Going Cold Turkey on Speaker Madigan

By Rich Miller

Illinois House Democratic Caucus Chair Kathleen Willis (D-Addison) told me last week that her decision to oppose Speaker Michael Madigan’s reelection was a process that she’s been struggling with since the summer. Willis became the 19th House Democrat to declare opposition to Madigan, putting him six votes shy of the 60 he needs to win.

23 Nov 2020

Michael Madigan and the Culture of Political Favors

By Rich Miller

On page nine of last week’s federal indictment of four people accused of conspiring to bribe House Speaker Michael Madigan with favors from ComEd is this heading: “Defendants and Relevant Individuals. ”But the first person listed is not one of the defendants. “Public Official A was the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” the list begins.

16 Nov 2020

Does Chuy Garcia Have the Brass to Grab Mike Madigan’s Mantle?

By Rich Miller

With the announcement by Representative Bob Morgan (D-Deerfield) earlier this month that he will not vote to reelect Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in January, the opposition numbered eight House Democrats, with at least a few more privately leaning their way. They’ll need 13 or 14 Democrats, depending on final general-election results, to deprive Madigan of the speaker’s gavel. So, they may need some help to get over the hump. And there’s one person outside the House who may have enough votes to tip the balance either way.

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