* This was treated as new news by most outlets yesterday and today…
Pressure continues to mount on House Speaker Mike Madigan after his chief of staff is accused of sexual harassment. Now former Governor Pat Quinn is calling for Madigan to step aside as Democratic Party Chairman.
* Tribune…
Former Gov. Quinn said Thursday that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan should step down as Illinois Democratic Party chairman.
While Quinn said he doesn’t think Madigan has done enough in response to recent reports of harassment that have rocked Springfield, his reasoning is unrelated, he said. Quinn said he believes nobody should head a political party while also holding elected office.
* WLS Radio…
Former Governor Pat Quinn says House Speaker Mike Madigan should step down as state party chairman and Mayor Emanuel shouldn’t be allowed to run for a third term.
Pat Quinn says it’s a conflict of interest for an elected official to be party chairman and in the case of Madigan he says he’s also not doing enough to control pervasive sexual harassment in Springfield, “I think there must be an even more vigorous effort to root out all vestiges, all examples, all behavior that involves bullying, harassment, assault or anything else.”
* But this isn’t new news. Quinn called on Madigan to step down as party chairman more than three months ago. From March 3rd…
Former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn says he does not think that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan should continue as State Democratic Party chairman. Madigan has been under fire for his response to harassment complaints in his political organization. This morning Quinn, a Democrat who wants to succeed Madigan’s daughter Lisa as Illinois Attorney General, told “The Big John and Ramblin’ Ray Show” that Madigan should step down as party chairman.
“Well, I don’t think he should be the chairman of the Democratic Party”, said Quinn. ” As a matter of fact I think the voters in the primary ought to have a chance to vote for the chairman of the Democratic Party. I believe it term limits. I’ve been passing petitions for that over the years. I think reasonable term limits are needed for everybody and that includes running for Governor and Attorney General.”
* Related…
* Emanuel camp questions legality of Quinn’s term-limit drive: The Emanuel camp noted that “many election lawyers” believe Quinn’s latest populist campaign would “not pass constitutional muster since its wording suggests that it’s directed at the current incumbent — not the office.”
- Soccermom - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:10 am:
Actually, I think Quinn also said this last year at an AG candidate forum sponsored by Northside DFA.
- Bruce (no not him) - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:16 am:
What once was old, is new(s) again.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:17 am:
Institutional memory ain’t what it used to be.
- Downstate - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:21 am:
I bet Pat Quinn will be surprised by how high his property taxes will be increased this year.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:36 am:
What do you want the news media do? Give us fresh news free? This is recycled news, people. This is what happens when any business begins to collapse.
Go to a dying grocery store, and you find old food.
Go to a dying department store, and you see last year’s fashions.
Car companies pull unsold stock, add the new model’s touches, re-years them, and sell them as new.
Restaurants chop dated food stuffs into the Soup du jour.
We’re seeing recycled news from dying media. They save a buck doing this.
Get ready for more, folks.
- Anon - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:38 am:
A perfect way to get Ken Dunkin to resign the MWRD post would be to appoint him to Mapes’s old role with DPI. Wait…that actually doesn’t work. Never mind.
- Rod - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:47 am:
It was actually a way for members of the media who are Democrats and must appear politically neutral to express their opinion indirectly on the need to dump Madigan. So the old news served a purpose. Then there are some liberal left elected Democrats cheering on Quinn who are still terrified of the idea of directly taking on Madigan based on a very legitimate fear of political retribution once Madigan arises from the grave.
So if the issue at hand is a culture change, on top of the legitimate concerns over institutional sexism, isn’t there an issue of fear of the political boss to be dealt with by Democrats? Really even Rep Cassidy avoids that because even Tom Dart who provided her with a $73,000 a year jobs who has ties deep in the Democrat Party regular 19th Ward organization—his late father William was Mayor Richard J Daley’s main lobbyist in Springfield. His brother Tim Dart with Nicolay & Dart LLC has to deal with the Speaker on legislation regularly. Its a spiders web really and the Speaker is in the center of that web of power.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:52 am:
===members of the media who are Democrats===
And you know this… how?
- VanillaMan - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 9:56 am:
Wow Rod
You have really taken this and turned it into some kind of netherworld didn’t you? Conspire much?
- Arsenal - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 10:26 am:
BTW, for the people who might actually be able to dump Madigan, Pat Quinn recommending it will probably have the opposite effect from what was intended.
- Glenn - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 10:29 am:
I am against term limits as being anti-democratic. People should be able to vote their interests without the heavy hand of the state on the scales limiting choices.
There are many ways to increase the possibility of having more desirable candidates on the ballot, but term limits are not among them.
Quinn was also opposed to cumulative voting likely, in my opinion, because because the voters were given more choices than Quinn judged they were capable and qualified to use, by his standards.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 10:53 am:
Gov Quinn, please, please, please, just go away
- Rod - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 2:53 pm:
Rich we know that by ethical rules reporters and journalists unless acting as commentators do not reveal their party preference individually so it is really impossible to prove that many in the state media are Democrats with some level of opposition to Madigan.
But we do know some things, we know nationally the percentage of full-time U.S. journalists who claim to be Republican dropped from 18 percent in 2002 to 7.1 percent in 2013, according to a study by Indiana University professors Lars Willnat and David H. Weaver. We know that most of the Chicago media is to say the least very critical of the historic Chicago Democrat political machine of which Speaker Madigan is the poster boy.
So this is what I know Rich. I suspect you actually might know more about how the media covering state government feels about Speaker Madigan and the remains of the Chicago Democrat machine. Repeating Pat Quinn’s call for the Speaker to resign, yet again is not surprising.
- Rod - Friday, Jun 8, 18 @ 3:06 pm:
VanillaMan it is not a conspiracy theory to indicate many in the Democratic Party are fearful of crossing the Speaker. I suspect calling for him to retire might let us say constitute crossing the Speaker. There is without a question a web out there and Speaker Madigan has ties with children of Chicago political families that go back in time. That is not a conspiracy theory, its a reality. I grew up in Chicago and my own mother was an office worker for George Dunn when his office was near Rush street, my first job was a summer patronage park district job arranged for me by the party. It is what it is.