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.

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.

For generations now, Chicago has had its own separate set of state laws for just about every topic under the sun. The city's mayor is allowed to appoint the school board, Chicago has its own "working cash fund" law, the state's mayoral-veto law does not apply to the city, and the city has a unique exemption allowing it to deduct money from worker paychecks. From big to archaic, the list is almost endless. So, when you've grown accustomed to doing it your own way for a century or so, you may start thinking you're a special case in literally everything. And that seems to be what happened last week.

After Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan appeared in all but actual name in ComEd's deferred federal-prosecution agreement, Representative Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) was one of the first Democratic state Representatives to call on him to resign without the qualifying “if he did it” language. And the freshman Democratic legislator has been breaking pretty much all precedent the past month or so by putting significant campaign money where her mouth is.