by Stacey Selleck
The state of Illinois has suffered under the 36-year regime of the longest serving speaker of the house in the history of our nation, Michael Madigan. It’s no small coincidence that the rise of his reign has an inverse correlation to the state’s bond trajectory. Thanks to his leadership, it plummetted into junk status. Illinois faces the largest public pension debt crisis in the history of our nation.
Almost nothing could get accomplished in the state legislature without a kiss of Madigan’s ring.
Having started his career in the Illinois State House in 1973, Madigan rose to power as speaker of the house in 1983. He was finally defeated as head of the house of representatives in 2020 and left office shortly thereafter, making him the longest serving state legislator and longest speaker ever. He spent 47 years as a member of the state house and 36 years as its speaker. During that time, public corruption, ethics complaints, taxes and public debt skyrocketed.
A federal probe into the state’s pay-to-play operations, led to the indictment of several of Madigan’s closest allies and a former VP of energy behemoth Commonwealth Edison pleading guilty to providing millions of dollars in “no-show” contracts to the state. While Madigan has not been charged, it is widely speculated that he is the kingpin of massive corruption and a target of federal investigation.
A political liability, Madigan lost the confidence of his own caucus and suffered a mutiny by his party that ultimately lost him the speakership. A crushing blow, Madigan resigned from the Illinois General Assembly earlier this year.
The newly anointed Democratic Party speaker and the first person of color to hold the position, Emmanual “Chris” Welch is keeping true to his campaign promise of limiting the terms of leadership positions in the house. He supports a bill to term limit himself to 10 consecutive years as well as the senate president and the two minority leaders in each chamber. While both the state house and senate passed their own term limits rules in January, House Bill 642 (HB0642) seeks to officially codify the legislative reform.
The measure, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Anthony DeLuca, has 59 cosponsors including Republican Minority Leader Jim Durkin and current Democratic House Speaker Welch in a Democratic Party controlled legislature. If passed, it would reset the clock for those currently in leadership and would take effect in January 2023.
HB0642 advanced out of the house executive committee yesterday receiving unanimous and bipartisan support.