The oddest political couple in all of Illinois did pretty well in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Two years ago, progressive firebrand Cook County Commissioner Chuy Garcia helped lead Bernie Sanders’ Democratic campaign in the Chicagoland area and was eventually named a national Sanders media surrogate.
At the same time, Garcia also endorsed House Speaker Michael Madigan against a well-funded Democratic primary opponent.
“Now more than ever,” Garcia said in a statement back then, “local families need Michael Madigan in the State Capitol fighting for them.”
It was mainly a marriage of convenience. Madigan needed help with his ward’s Latino voters, and Garcia had some plans of his own that Madigan could help him with. Madigan also likely wanted to make sure that Garcia’s future plans didn’t include trying to knock him off his perch.
Garcia, along with his allies in the Bernie Sanders Our Revolution organization, ran the table in Cook County last week.
They helped trounce Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios by almost 12 points. They soundly defeated Rep. Dan Burke, the younger brother of one of the most powerful Democrats in Chicago (Ald. Ed Burke, who they are going after next). They cruised through a hotly contested four-way primary to replace retiring Rep. Cynthia Soto, D-Chicago, with Delia Ramirez by 27 points. They buried machine-linked Sen. Martin Sandoval’s (D-Chicago) daughter Angel by 15 points in the race to replace Garcia on the county board despite massive spending by. They won a judicial race. And, of course, Garcia walked away with his own congressional nomination by 45 points.
Speaker Madigan carried Mayor Rahm Emanuel to victory in the 13th Ward in Emanuel’s 2015 race against Garcia, but after Garcia endorsed Madigan in 2016, Madigan allied with Garcia on some of this year’s races, including the defeat of Sandoval.
There was admittedly nothing that Madigan could do to help Berrios outside of the 13th Ward (which Berrios won with 56 percent). Berrios had become so toxic that even several politicians who’d endorsed him wouldn’t put his name on their election-day palm cards for fear of alienating voters they needed for other races.
And Rep. Burke was beyond saving as well. Progressive Latinos are demanding their own representation. But because of Madigan’s relationship with Garcia, it’s a fairly safe bet that Aaron Ortiz, who beat Burke, won’t be a thorn in Madigan’s side when he takes office next year.
Without Madigan and the hundreds of precinct captains he controls, U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski would be polishing up his thin resume this week. The conservative Democrat Lipinski narrowly defeated a progressive challenger.
And with Assessor Berrios defeated, that’s one less issue that Gov. Bruce Rauner will have against Madigan’s favored gubernatorial candidate JB Pritzker, who won last week by 18 points over two public Madigan haters, Chris Kennedy and Sen. Daniel Biss.
Madigan also won some House races against Democratic candidates who talked openly about opposing him.
Madigan’s 17th House District candidate Jennifer Gong Gershowitz won by almost 600 votes over Candance Chow, who had vowed to vote against Madigan for House Speaker. Madigan’s candidate Lamont Robinson won a four-way primary to replace Lt. Governor nominee Juliana Stratton by 14 points. Madigan’s bitter foe Ken Dunkin came in third in that primary, scoring just 18 percent.
Jill Bernal had pledged to vote against Madigan, but she lost to the pro-Madigan Lance Yednock by 15 points to take on freshman Rep. Jerry Long,R-Streator.
Madigan’s ally Rep. Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero) fended off her primary opponent by 15 points. The House Speaker’s favored candidate to replace retiring Rep. Carol Sente, D-Vernon Hills, Daniel Didech, prevailed by 21 points. His candidate to take on Rep. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, Marsha Griffin, sailed through by 26 points.
Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, triumphed by over 65 points. Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, dominated with a 29-point victory. Madigan lieutenant Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island, thrashed his opponent by a whopping 53 points despite countless negative news stories about his past.
The one candidate Madigan reportedly didn’t want to win in the crowded primary race to replace retiring House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, was Flynn Rush, the son of US Rep. Bobby Rush. The younger Rush lost to Curtis Tarver by 9 points.
As far as I can tell, not a single anti-Madigan candidate won a House Democratic primary last week.
As I write this, nobody has yet compiled Democratic state central committee race results, so we don’t yet know how Madigan fared there. So, stay tuned on that, because Madigan is the state party chairman and several folks were running to topple him.
Peter Janko, a former Bernie Sanders delegate who said he spent just $600 on his campaign, is the only progressive candidate to win a seat on the state central committee from a slate of 13 endorsed by Our Revolution Illinois, the grassroots political organization that grew out of Sanders’ run for president.
Unofficial primary election results suggest Madigan has held the state central committee spots he needs to keep his grip on control of the party — but he’s not leaving anything to chance.
Madigan called Janko Tuesday morning.
“I knocked on 100 doors myself and generally when you’re getting out to the McHenry area it’s almost universal that they want Mike Madigan out. I got elected by telling people that I will vote against him, and I plan to do that,” Janko told the Sun-Times on Tuesday. “I made it clear to Michael Madigan. So I’m supposed to have lunch with him next Tuesday because he wants to convince me to change my mind.”
The northwest suburban Marengo resident said he spoke with Madigan for about 30 minutes: “I told him I want to be a bridge between the Bernie side of the Democratic Party and the old establishment. I’m not here to turn anything upside down. I live in a very red district, 14th, and I’m not going into this as a protest candidate, but I want to rebuild the party.”
- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 9:52 am:
Interesting marriage of convenience, that of Madigan and Garcia. I wonder if Berrios and Burke saw it coming.
- Arsenal - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 9:58 am:
==At the same time, Garcia also endorsed House Speaker Michael Madigan against a well-funded Democratic primary opponent.==
This is why the takes about Chuy beating the machine are overstated. They weren’t in direct conflict this time.
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 10:05 am:
Madigan has a rare blessing in politics, someone who savagely attacks him but is worse than him. That’s the governor. You never attack someone mercilessly and them turn out to perform worse than that person.
That’s a grave error, but Madigan refuses to exploit it. Madigan should come out publicly and attack Rauner on this. But he won’t because that’s not who he is. He just stays in the shadows, brokering power instead of doing his political duty and fighting.
Madigan was great at a workers’ rally not long ago, one of the best speakers. I wish I’d see this Madigan more often. Stop worrying about who will and won’t like you and start fighting back.
- PublicServant - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 10:39 am:
Madigan is effective. That’s why people vote him in year-after-year as speaker…followed closely by their knowledge of what happens when you oppose him.
He, however, is better off silently remaining in the background and more than countering Rauner at every turn. GoM, I do agree that someone has to be the voice of Democratic policy, and push back early and often against Rauner’s baloney…just not Madigan.
- Ole General - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 10:43 am:
Propublica is the only reason Berrios is out. That organization has done more shoe leather reporting in the last year than the entire city has done in a decade.
- Regular democrat - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 11:08 am:
Lipinski was a huge beneficiary of the well oiled machine in the 13th. I saw it up close and it is impressive. Madigan is the last of the best. Madigan owed chuy one from 2 years ago and he paid it back.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 12:28 pm:
While most of the Our Revolution candidates did not win, some of them did quite well, and I suspect that was because Madigan put their names in front of people. It will be interesting to see if any of them leverage their newfound name recognition into something more or if they just fade away.
- James - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 2:00 pm:
Delia Ramirez won the State House 4th District with 48% of the vote in a 4-way race for Soto’s open seat. Chuy, Gutierrez, SEIU, CTU and Tronc all endorsed her. Fundraising was relatively equal among the four candidates. Delia had an effective ground game with mainly neighborhood supporters. Speaker Madigan called to congratulate her first thing Wednesday morning.
- Ron - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 5:50 pm:
And Illinois lost
- Adam Smith - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 7:34 pm:
Rich,
It may seem minor but I can’t let it slide.
Calling Dan Lipinski’s resume “thin” is ridiculous and you should know better.
A BA from Northwestern, a Masters from Stanford and a PhD from Duke and professorships at Notre Dame and University of Tennessee is head and shoulders above 99% of the so-called Congresscritters Illinois has produced and certainly the most academically accomplished pol ever produced by the Chicago machine.
There is plenty to pick on Little Lip for, but a “thin” resume isn’t one of them. He took a real drop in class when he left academia and sunk into the pit of elective politics.
- Pundent - Monday, Apr 2, 18 @ 8:01 pm:
==He took a real drop in class when he left academia and sunk into the pit of elective politics==
Didn’t he leave academia and join the “family business”?
- Peter Janko - Wednesday, Apr 4, 18 @ 5:06 am:
I have already started to “leverage my newfound name recognition into something more.”
Peter Janko, newly elected State Central Committeeman endorsed by Our Revolution Illinois.