Pritzker mf s Madigan...he hasn't done anything for him real lately

Pritzker now has simple answer on whether Madigan needs to go: ‘Yes.’ How dumb can he be?

Speaker Michael Madigan defiantly responded a few hours later, saying he’s not going anywhere and looks “forward to continuing our fight for working families as chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois.”

By Rachel Hinton Updated Nov 5, 2020, 4:33pm CST


Gov. J.B. Pritzker, left; Speaker Mike Madigan, right. Sun-Times file


Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for new leadership at the state’s Democratic Party on Thursday, conceding that Republicans successfully used a politically damaged Speaker Michael Madigan in this week’s election to “hurt our ability to get things done.”

The governor said he agreed with Sen. Dick Durbin’s comments a day earlier that Democrats “paid a heavy price” for the Southwest Side Democrat’s position at the top of the state’s party.

Asked to clarify if he agreed with Durbin that the party needed new leadership, the governor gave a terse, but emphatic, response.

“Yes,” he said.

“The Republicans and the billionaires that sided with them, were effectively able to use the speaker as their foil and that hurt our ability, our state’s ability, to get things done,” Pritzker said moments earlier in response to a reporter’s question at the daily COVID-19 briefing.

Madigan defiantly responded a few hours later, saying he’s not going anywhere and looks “forward to continuing our fight for working families as chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois.”

Durbin was the first statewide Democrat to call for Madigan to go as head of the party in an interview on “Chicago Tonight” Wednesday.

“All across our state — and the advertising told the story — we paid a heavy price for the speaker’s chairmanship of the Democratic Party,” Durbin said. “Let’s wait and see what happens in the near term here.”

He expressed certainty that the “this conversation” around Madigan’s role would go on to a “new level now that the election’s behind us.”

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin speaks to reporters in 2018. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file

Tuesday night was tough for Madigan.

Four of his House Democrats —Diane Pappas of Itasca, Mary Edly-Allen of Libertyville, Monica Bristow of downstate Alton and Nathan Reitz of Steeleville — all appeared to lose their re-election bids — a blow to Madigan, who saw more losses than wins on election night.

He also lost his effort to oust Republican state Rep. Bradley Stephens, who doubles as mayor of Rosemont. The speaker spent more than $900,000 in campaign funds on behalf of unsuccessful Democratic challenger Michelle Darbro.Republican state Rep. Bradley Stephens, left; Democratic challenger in Michelle Darbro, right. Sun-Times file

The powerful Southwest Side Democrat was dealt double blows in state Supreme Court races. State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride, a 20-year incumbent who received $550,000 from the Madigan’s Democratic Party of Illinois political fund, apparently failed in his bid to be retained.

Republicans labeled Kilbride Madigan’s “favorite judge.”

In a downstate race, Democrat Judy Cates, who Republicans tied to Madigan, also lost her bid to move up to the state’s highest court by replacing retiring Justice Lloyd Karmeier.

Madigan spokesman Steve Brown brushed off a question Wednesday about whether the losses signified his boss is politically wounded.

“It’s a story that’s been written every two years,” Brown said. “I don’t know that that’s what that means.”

Madigan is the guy that's keeping the state running. Not Pritzker not Durbin.