Madigan: Daughter Knew He Wasn't Leaving Office

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 8, 2013 1:40PM

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan kind of threw his daughter, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, under the proverbial bus Wednesday when he said she knew full well he had no intentions of stepping down from office when she announced she would run for re-election and not seek the Democratic nomination for governor next year.

Lisa Madigan said last month when she announced her re-election bid, “I feel strongly that the state would not be well served by having a Governor and Speaker of the House from the same family and have never planned to run for Governor if that would be the case. With Speaker Madigan planning to continue in office, I will not run for Governor.” The speaker told media before an appearance at the Union League Club of Chicago, "Lisa and I had spoken about that on several occasions, and she knew very well that I did not plan to retire. She knew what my position was. She knew."

The Tribune writes Michael Madigan’s comments don’t speak well for his daughter, who raised campaign funds by the bushels for months as she remained publicly non-committal on a gubernatorial run. The AG raised $1.5 million in campaign cash through the end of June before announcing her re-election bid, which may leave a bad taste in the mouths of donors hoping she would beat Gov. Pat Quinn in the 2014 Democratic primary. Lisa Madigan, arguably the state’s most popular politician, led Quinn in head-to-head polls and would have been the odds-on favorite to win the general election. But concerns about having her as governor while her father was the Speaker persisted.

The AG’s office announced earlier this week that Madigan would represent Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka’s office in her father’s lawsuit against Quinn’s use of his amendatory veto to block lawmakers’ pay until a deal on pension reform is reached. A spokeswoman for the AG’s office said there was no conflict of interest because Michael Madigan filed the lawsuit in his capacity as a legislator.

This hasn’t been the summer of Madigan. The Speaker has also been dogged by claims from former Metra CEO Alex Clifford that he tried to pressure Clifford into promoting a campaign worker who worked at the rail agency. Clifford detailed the claims in a nine-page memo that resulted in his resignation, a $718,000 buyout of his contract by Metra’s board of directors, and the resignation of four Metra board members including chairman Brad O’Halloran.