* The best thing about Lisa Madigan’s decision to run for reelection is the death of ridiculous comments like this one…
Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (D-Daddy will make her governor)
The assumption that Lisa Madigan is just a little girl following her daddy’s orders was always goofy, but it persisted, perhaps because she is a female, but also because of her father’s awesome power…
…some Democrats speculated that the lack of a state budget had much to do with her father’s influence and an attempt to make the governor look bad in the eyes of voters.
It was a lot more than just “some Democrats” and the Tribsters know that.
…Adding… I didn’t see this one earlier. Hilarious…
Conventional wisdom at the Capitol was that Mike Madigan was motivated to do whatever was needed to resolve state budget problems so that his daughter would not inherit a financial mess if she became governor.
Oh, yeah? Really? That’s why the budget mess was resolved long before May 31st, right?
* The Tribune editorial board looks back this morning and realizes that, in fact, Lisa Madigan has been leaning against moving up the ladder for a year or more…
The conversation over lunch salads occurred more than a year ago. Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan was mulling a run for governor — or, if Barack Obama ascended to the presidency, for his seat in the U.S. Senate. But try as she did to sound captivated by the politics, Madigan kept circling back uncomfortably to the costs her family would pay if she succumbed to the ceaseless grind of campaigning for, and holding, higher office.
On Wednesday morning the mother of two young children echoed what she had said back then: “Both the governorship and the Senate seat are great opportunities,” she mused in a phone call, “but once you have kids it’s not just about you. It’s about these little people. I have a great family and a great job I’m committed to. How greedy do I want to be?” One influence on her decision to run again for attorney general: a neighbor woman who gave Madigan the warning every parent hears but not every parent heeds: “Your children will grow up in the blink of an eye. Don’t miss it.”
Lisa Madigan, of course, was until Wednesday the el-primo domino whose pick of either a gubernatorial or Senate race would tip lots of other pols — and not just her fellow Democrats — into or out of races for various Illinois offices. Her declaration that she wants to stay put liberates not just her, but all those other potential candidates.
* But the alleged conspiracy to elect Lisa governor so she could “share Illinois with her daddy” seemed so “obvious” to some that it refused to die, until now. Wally Haas is a must-read…
The biggest conspiracy theory in Illinois has been that Speaker of the House Mike Madigan was making life difficult for Gov. Pat Quinn because Madigan wanted his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to have a clear shot at becoming the state’s top executive.
“You guys are going to have to come up with a new conspiracy theory,” Lisa Madigan told me Wednesday in a telephone interview.
Madigan announced Wednesday she will run for re-election in 2010 and not seek higher office. Lisa Madigan was called “governor-in-waiting” before she was elected attorney general in 2002, so it’s always been assumed she would seek that office and get it with the help of her influential father.
“I had it from a pretty good source as recently as Friday that she was going to run (for governor),” state Sen Brad Burzynski, R-Clare, said. “It makes me wonder: What’s (Mike) Madigan’s end game?”
Sheesh.
* I’m sure it won’t be long before some of those same folks switch gears and say that daddy ordered “Little Lisa” to stay put.
But, for now, at least, the tinfoil hat types have been discredited…
“Politics is something that breeds conspiracy theories and there are going to be all sorts of armchair quarterback questions,” said House Republican leader Tom Cross, who opposes Madigan’s father at the Statehouse. “But I have every reason to believe her. I guess maybe that is because I struggled myself with those questions.” […]
Former Gov. Jim Edgar said he understands. “Politicians are people and personal considerations often trump political considerations,” Edgar said.
“She has a young family,” he added. “It is a very legitimate reason.” […]
Paul Green, political professor at Roosevelt University, agrees. “I know a lot of political families,” he said. “It is hard.”
* Related…
* Kadner: Madigan makes the right call for Illinois
* Madigan explains her reasons . . . a bit
* Word of the day: Neither
* Lisa Madigan won’t run for higher office
* Why Lisa Madigan isn’t running
- Will County Woman - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 9:49 am:
Re: Sen Brad Burzynski
Assuming that the senator had correct info, I think Lynn Sweet had it right the other night when she was on Chicago Tonight, and said that the budget stalemate would force lisa’s hand. it did. as a result of blago’s removal her father has become too exposed and is deeply entangled in this budget crisis and the public has a better picture of who is and what he is about now.
- Kamp Krusty - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 9:51 am:
I’m not totally convinced that she won’t be pressured to change her mind once the Democratic field takes shape.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 9:55 am:
–One influence on her decision to run again for attorney general: a neighbor woman who gave Madigan the warning every parent hears but not every parent heeds: “Your children will grow up in the blink of an eye. Don’t miss it.”–
Amen to that. When my first child was born, I had a job that had me on the road about 40% of the time.
I took a couple of weeks off, went back to work — then quit three months later and went out on my own.
It was insane to do financially, but I couldn’t stand being away. Now, with three kids, I haven’t spent more than a handful of nights a year away from home (to their chagrin, as they get older).
I really don’t know how these incredibly ambitious people with kids do it. I know for a fact I could not.
- Shore - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 9:55 am:
Off message, are commenters allowed to suggest topics?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 9:56 am:
===Assuming that the senator had correct info===
He didn’t.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:02 am:
Rich — you truly believe a progressive like Lisa Madigan truly sides with Dad and the GOP on, in general, the state income tax issue that she interjected her comments on? Or that she came up with that ludicrous “incompetency” argument to have the courts, not the legislature, remove Blago, solely of her own motivation? That unlike pretty much any 30something who won attorney general with the strong support of an Illinois pol kingpin, she owed nothing?
- CircularFiringSquad - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:04 am:
“…. Michael Madigan disregarded such complaints, though Quinn sought a provision in campaign-finance legislation that prevented Madigan from using his power as state Democratic chairman to endorse and finance candidates in a primary…”
While a great deal of the reporting is nonsense and great examples who so few are willing to pay for it…hilited by Rockford quoting Sen. Burzinski (sp) as an “expert”,…. the Trib’s recollection of SubGuv “demand” for the campaign reform bill was good…Will SubGuv AV now?
Let’s give to Rockford guy the “top dope” award for this week. Where’s Aaron Chambers when we need him?
- jim - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:05 am:
How do ambitious people stand being away from their kids. That’s easy.
They’re flaming narcissists who care more about themselves than anything else.
As for Rich’s comment about D-Daddy, come on.
Sure Lisa M is a talented politician. But what’s the biggest weapon in her arsenal. He cleared the way for to get elected to the state Senate and moved heaven and earth to get her elected AG when she had no business even running. No one wants to take on Lisa because it means taking on her dad, and that is obvious to anyone paying even the slightest attention.
To pretend otherwise is simply not credible.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:06 am:
PS Dare I say let’s take some time here and see what develops? I don’t think it’s crazy to think that 1) Madigan didn’t want to move to DC and 2) didn’t think this was the best time to go to the Guv’s office. Beyond the “Madigan cabal” issue, she’d inherit a mess and in 4 years a GOP governor could be in office and a more appealing opponent. And I don’t think you have to be ultra-consipratorial to think that Mike Madigan might want to be keeping a lower profile right now, having honked off the former right hand man of Patrick Collins and in a poisonous atmosphere. Or it could be just what Lisa M. says, but with everyone waiting for the other shoe to drop on Palin, I think we can suspsend final judgment here.
- jim - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:06 am:
How do ambitious people stand being away from their kids. That’s easy.
They’re flaming narcissists who care more about themselves than anything else.
As for Rich’s comment about D-Daddy, come on.
Sure Lisa M is a talented politician. But the speaker is the biggest weapon in her arsenal. He cleared the way for her to get elected to the state Senate and moved heaven and earth to get her elected AG when she had no business even running. No one wants to take on Lisa because it means taking on her dad, and that is obvious to anyone paying even the slightest attention.
To pretend otherwise is simply not credible.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:09 am:
i never said that people weren’t afraid of Lisa Madigan’s ambition. What I meant above was that too many had assumed that almost everything MJM did was about electing his daughter. Perhaps you need to read it again.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:10 am:
And, LCD, I see your tinfoil hat is permanently attached. I feel sorry for you.
- Will County Woman - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:15 am:
@rich
ok…but her dad’s exposure post blago hurt her 2010 political ambitions. i don’t even think the u.s. senate would have been such a cakewalk for her either.
- ZC - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:16 am:
I think Lisa so far has earned the right to be taken on her own words. That’s not to say that extra-political considerations didn’t factor in, as well - when do they not, for a professional pol - but her core consideration about her family makes sense.
To flog a dead horse from yesterday’s blog posts, this makes her very different from former Gov. Sarah Palin, whose record for mendacity and truth-stretching on the campaign stump made her a very fair target for micro-analyzing everything about her recent resignation speech.
Same, too, goes for Roland Burris. If we’d been thinking about it harder, in his case one action he performed - the mere fact that he’d accepted Blago’s offer - should have made us hyper-critical and suspicious of everything he said, after that point.
It wouldn’t hurt, in other words, for both us media-followers, and the media itself, to have some rough rules-of-thumb for when to be inclined to take a public official’s statement at face value, and when to take out the knives to it. (Do we have such rules, anymore?) At what point, precisely, should the media have started openly acknowledging, and “objectively” so, that Blagojevich was a serial liar? I’m not sure exactly what the rules are. But it seems to me at this point Lisa has earned the right for us to take her statement seriously and at face value.
- dupage dan - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:17 am:
Rich,
You have this all wrong. It really is a feint on the part of the IL/GA/GOV/MADIGAN combine. Think of it as the ILLuminati. Once the field is set after the primaries LMadigan will announce as an independent from the newly formed MACE party (Madigans Always in Charge Everywhere). Their slate will wipe the landscape clean of anyone who dares to challenge the man behind the curtain.
You heard it here first.
- Fan of the Game - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:20 am:
Conspiracies never die, even when they are proved wrong. And truthfully, would she want to be elected governor in the next election? There will still be huge issues in Illinois even then.
- GA Watcher - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:20 am:
WCW: But we’ll never know now, will we.
- Shore - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:26 am:
The democrats are already after Kirk. In my opinion George W. Kirk will be the best known senate candidate in the state if democrats have their way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJXdrJAzGCo
- Captain Flume - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:32 am:
I have commented here several times in past couople years that I thought AG Madigan would not run for Governor (or for Senate more recently), at least in this election cycle. Some of my rationale for that was was her own young family situation and her comfort level as AG, as well as the poisonous atmosphere created by the previous Governor. I have also commented that Speaker Madigan’s prime directive is maintaining the House majority, a situation that suits his own comfort zone.
But, since so many have beeen waiting to commit to, or begin waffling on, their own political aspirations, the perceived influence of the Speaker on the AG’s political clout cannot be dismissed. In Illinois politics, perception is reality (witness the “blame game” bantering over the budget), and Michael J. Madigan and Lisa Madigan nurture that perception very well.
- zatoichi - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:36 am:
Give Lisa Madigan some credit for having a brain and making some reasonable choices. Did she talk to her father about her possible choices? I cannot figure why she would not. Probably talked with other people she trusts too. In the end she is making a choice that she feels is good for her and her family. Let the tin foils go nuts. You cannot stop them anyhow. She seems to be doing a decent job. If you don’t like her decisions, don’t vote for her next time around.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:43 am:
–ok…but her dad’s exposure post blago hurt her 2010 political ambitions. i don’t even think the u.s. senate would have been such a cakewalk for her either.–
That’s why nobody made a move until she did.
- Jake from Elwood - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:45 am:
The Attorney General often gets to come out looking like a hero, right? The Governor’s office often bears the brunt of criticism for all Illinois politics, whether deserved or not. Maybe Lisa likes wearing the cape instead of the black hat.
- Ramsin - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:57 am:
I always thought those theories were a little silly; it seems more likely that someone with AG Madigan’s ambition and intelligence would want to wait until her dad was out of the picture before moving up, rather than vice versa. The idea that everything was orchestrated by MJM–despite his awesome power–is more paranoia than fact.
- Hank - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:59 am:
A good conspiracy dies hard. I read only this morning that she is staying on as AG on orders from MJM and Daley to cover their flank from inquiring feds!Must be true as it was on the internet!
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 11:00 am:
I would expect LM to work with her dad when it comes to making political decisions such as this one. That said, it’s a terrible time to run for Governor. The Speaker is unable, perhaps unwilling, to push his members to vote for a needed tax increase, and those needed (Rs and Ds) to push one through want to wait until at least November before they decide how to vote. With so much uncertainty, an no resolution in sight, why be Governor? A tax increase or dramatic budget cuts will need to be made, and now it looks like nothing serious will happen until after the 2010 election. If she ran, it would be a long, nasty primary, followed by a long, nasty general, followed by an income tax increase, followed by redistricting. Better to stay as AG and look to run in 2012.
Lisa is smart and this was a smart decision.
- JonShibleyFan - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 11:08 am:
” * I’m sure it won’t be long before some of those same folks switch gears and say that daddy ordered “Little Lisa” to stay put. ”
That is so on the money. We ought to put an over/under on when Kass will print it. Sunday?
Or when commenters here will run with it. I’ll say no later than tomorrow.
- Ill_will - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 11:08 am:
Try this on for size: As we all know here on this blog; MJM thinks 50 moves ahead. Lisa runs for Gov in 2014 and then President in 2016.
How’s that for thinking ahead?
- Rob_N - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 11:59 am:
That daddy issue ain’t dead yet…
Word to the wise: any “power” she had was power that others had given her willingly. Kirk could’ve announced for Senate (as others have done for other races) if he really wanted to pursue it. Instead, he clearly wanted to pursue it only if she didn’t — he gave her power over his decisions.
- ZC - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:00 pm:
I think this “Lisa for President” (or “Lisa for Supreme Court”) meme is way overblown.
If Lisa really wanted to be President someday, she should have run for Governor or Senate this year - period, no questions. You don’t get to the White House by stalling. And if Lisa wanted Obama to nominate her to the Supreme Court, it wasn’t a smart move to decline his request to run for Senate.
More reasons why we ought to take her claim seriously that, what she actually wants is to have some semblance of a normal life, on top of doing some good for the people of IL.
- Yellow Dog - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:01 pm:
Ill_will:
I posted your Conspiracy Theory 2 1/2 hours before you did.
LOL
Ya’ll remind me of the Mike Madigan knock-knock joke.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:20 pm:
Rich — I did read it again, the line “The assumption that Lisa Madigan is just a little girl following her daddy’s orders” is qualitatively different from “everything Mike Madigan does is to elect his daughter.” As for tin hats, a pundit for a major newsweekly made a similar comment to me in 1994 when I wrote him I suspected Bill Clinton knew what was happening in Rwanda all along and intentionally worked against U.N. intervention. I know most people don’t give a damn about Black African lives, but in your spare time check out Presidential Directive #25 to (then U.N. Ambassador) Madeline Albright. Anyway, I just said let’s wait a few months before drinking the kool-aid, but if you want to guzzle now, go right ahead.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:23 pm:
LCD, your comment speaks for itself. Sheesh.
- Sadistic - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:32 pm:
I’ve noticed that alot of political insiders seem very happy about Lisa Madigan’s decission not to run for higher office. Seems to me that these folks are almost elated that someone that was gaureenteed a win opted out and this has sort of created a saditic pleasure thinking she may have bllown her one and only chance for the big one.
- Rob_N - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:40 pm:
LCD, the point is not everything MJM does is to elect his daughter.
Does he help her where he can? Sure.
But the notion that what he was doing these past few months was some sort of an attempt to help her made little sense at the time and even less sense now that the facts are out.
However, the idea that what he’s been doing these past few months helps his majority in the House makes much more sense, both then and now. He’s protecting his role as Speaker and that has nothing to do with Lisa or the Attorney General’s office. (Indeed, his own family and friends have taken it on the chin more than once under Blago’s vengeful reign with cuts to the AG’s office, the Illinois Arts Council, etc.)
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:46 pm:
I think more appropriate line of non-engagement is “your comment is its own response” — in general, I’ve never understood the “res ipsa loquitor” thing (it’s like, “uh, yee-eah!”).
- JonShibleyFan - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:49 pm:
Darn, Rob_N, I totally forgot about IR!
- Rambler - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:50 pm:
–The biggest conspiracy theory in Illinois has been that Speaker of the House Mike Madigan was making life difficult for Gov. Pat Quinn because Madigan wanted his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to have a clear shot at becoming the state’s top executive.
“You guys are going to have to come up with a new conspiracy theory,” Lisa Madigan told me Wednesday in a telephone interview.–
Is it so outrageous to speculate that some of MJM’s comments about Quinn and his reluctance to support a tax hike were intended to help his daughter should she decide to run for guv? Seems more like common sense to me.
I expect more cooperation among Dems henceforth on the budget.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:52 pm:
Rob — I agree, I think there’s two different things going on regarding the Mike-Lisa “conspiracy theorists” (which I’m one of) — Rich’s original post hits both, but then he later only points to one. My focus is on Lisa’s actions, as she’s the one making the most recent moves and I was just saying there did indeed seem to be times where Lisa and Mike seemed to be tag-teaming. I think in her heart Lisa Madigan really is on Quinn’s side in the budget battle. My honest belief is that had Lisa Madigan run for governor, no, she would not have been daddy’s puppet but nor would she have been completely her own person, and indeed less so than someone who doesn’t owe so much of her position to a single kingpin.
- Ill_will - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:52 pm:
Yellow dog, dang and I thought I was the first,lol. You said it first.
- Abe's Ghost - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 12:58 pm:
I need heavy duty tinfoil to protect me from all the conspiracy theories bouncing around on everything from Lisa to Obama to you name it. I see no reason not to take Lisa’s decision at face value as a human w/ 4 and 1 year old daughters who has a great job that allows her to raise them. I can’t help but see the difference between her and Sarah Palin in terms of rational decision-making.
- Ill_will - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 1:04 pm:
- Abe’s Ghost:
I’d like to agree with you–but she’s a politican. doesn’t make her bad or good. And she is a Chicago politican ( a plus in my book btw). There are no ” face values”. Nada, never.
- steve schnorf - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 1:35 pm:
As you can see, Rich, the “Daddy Conspiracy” never dies.
- Ghost - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 1:36 pm:
=== If Lisa really wanted to be President someday, she should have run for Governor or Senate this year - period, no questions.===
She is only something like 42! We have had canidates for president in their 70’s.
MJM tried to lak LMad out of running for AG as I recall. I do not doubt that he has helped her, but thepush behind her carreer has always been her. We are lucky to have her in our State in which ever office she decides to hold.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 1:37 pm:
schnorf, the people who continue to insist on their little conspiracies about this matter have no idea how foolish their comments make them look today. whatever. free country.
- Rich - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 2:11 pm:
Conspiracy or no conspiracy, I long for the day when you are no longer a Mike Madigan apologist. Great Web site here .. but a not so great take on things at times due to this fact. Come on man! I have faith in you
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 2:19 pm:
Rich (M) — Yes, years from now historians will look back on Lisa Madigan’s devotion to family and wonder how anyone could have doubted that politics, let alone politcs connected to her father who happened to be the most powerful politician in a state that excels in political nepotism, might have played a role. Those foolish enough not to keep their paranoid cynicism hidden were forced to change their monikers, their previous personas no longer taken seriously outside of the lunatic fringe.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 2:27 pm:
Bite me, clown.
- steve schnorf - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 2:31 pm:
You apologist you!!
- Rambler - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 2:36 pm:
Here’s a conspiracy theory — Rich tends to post issues on this blog in black-and-white terms that he doesn’t really believe in order to keep his little band of crack addicts riled up and coming back for more.
Dance, puppets, dance!
- Ann O'Namus - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 2:36 pm:
Who here does everything his mommy or daddy tells him to do? Especially someone over 40 and wildly successful. From the sound of it, a lot of you are. Lisa has proven time and again that she is no wimp. And her poll numbers are so much higher than MJM’s. Her name recognition is so much higher than his that most folks don’t even understand this conspiracy theory.
The tin hats all sound like they’re still living in their mothers’ basements.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 4:18 pm:
Ann-on (p.s., kudos on the handle!): and had Lisa Madigan made a serious lobbying effort on behalf of the reform commission proposal to empower state attorneys to go after corruption and denounced how daddy had killed it behind closed doors, I might even had agreed with you. But yes, when she attempted to make a mockery of the state constitution to get rid of Blago without an impeachment on “competency” grounds she showed a serious lack of independence from her father. Now if you can show me where she’s denounced his gerrymandering, incumbancy protection act disguised as “yearly campaign contribution cap reform,” etc. etc. I’ll reconsider.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 4:21 pm:
LCD, how, exactly, was that court filing on RRB’s competency doing daddy’s wishes?
- steve schnorf - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 4:57 pm:
Rich, you’re trying to have rational discussions with believers. Doesn’t happen.
- Me - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 7:34 pm:
I would be the first to say that I was one of the people who made the comment about the Speaker and his daughter. On the other hand, although Rich you never bought into any of this, I do believe since January, 2003 you have made at least once, some of this thinking. If in 6 1/2 years never once have you made mention of this either in posts or in these comments, I will say sorry and will eat my words.
- Cranky Old Man - Thursday, Jul 9, 09 @ 10:02 pm:
===And, LCD, I see your tinfoil hat is permanently attached. I feel sorry for you.=== Rich, you really should save these and write a book.
From what I have seen, I’d like to see LM run, but after watching MM since he was Minority Leader back in ‘80 or ‘81, I just can’t get on the bandwagon. I really see him as a career politician that will play whatever game he can to secure his future. It’s a shame, because with his pull, things could be done in a hurry if he got behind them. Just my opinion.
- John Doe - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 6:49 am:
I am a registered Republican. I call it like I see it. Lisa exhibited the most common sense decision that I have seen come out of elected Illinois officials down in Springfield lately. When she chose to run for re-election based on personal and family considerations it told me that here is a very smart and attractive lady who thinks of others before herself. I liked her before and I certainly like her even more now. She is not driven by self-enrichment and personal gratification and ego like so many of our other elected officials. Way to go, Lisa!Finally, an elected official in Illinois who has common sense and who is not driven by ego and furtherance of their political career. How refreshing!