* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
If you ask anyone at the Statehouse about House Speaker Michael Madigan’s former chief of staff Tim Mapes, they’ll all say he “made the trains run on time.”
Mapes made sure everything got done exactly the way he (and his boss) wanted. He mastered the complexities and dominated the workings of Illinois House operations as well as Speaker Madigan’s massive political network. He worked practically non-stop and he appeared completely loyal to Madigan.
Mapes wasn’t always this powerful. After the 1998 election, several of Madigan’s top people left for the private sector. Mapes had been considered an equal to those folks, but when they left he made it clear that he was above their replacements. He eventually consolidated his power until it was absolutely unquestionable. The only person he reported to was Madigan, and it was tough to get to Madigan unless you went through Mapes.
The problem has always been with how Mapes made those trains run on time. He did not generally tackle his endless daily tasks by being a friendly, kind and understanding fellow. By all accounts, Mapes is a good family man and can be an excellent friend. But business was entirely another matter. He was Madigan’s trusted enforcer and he took the job seriously.
As with every human organization, people take their management cues from the top, and that’s repeated all the way down the food chain. If the top person is an arrogantly snarky, sometimes personally cruel, hard-nosed workaholic and persnickety authoritarian, then that’s what everyone else in the organization will shoot for — or else.
This approach worked spectacularly well for many years. The one thing Speaker Madigan prizes as much as loyalty is success and Mapes was fabulously successful at his job. The trains always ran on time.
But this outwardly successful culture became too toxic for our current era. As we’ve seen over the months, times changed, it didn’t. And, worse yet, the toxicity spread to behavior that had nothing whatsoever to do with efficiency and order.
Sherri Garrett is a $41,800 a year career employee of the House Clerk’s office. Mapes took over as House Clerk when the last one left, so he was her boss.
During a press conference last Wednesday, Garrett detailed numerous allegations of harassment and bullying over the years by Mapes.
Like many people, I’ve always shrugged off Mapes’ awkward attempts at biting humor. And, perhaps like many people, I didn’t imagine he was behaving that way with people like Ms. Garrett, who would be known in Statehouse parlance as a “civilian.” She’s just a regular person who does her job every day so she can go home to her family.
One of the most eye-opening aspects of Garrett’s allegations against Mapes was that he said some sexist and demeaning things either directly to her or in her presence months after the first #MeToo revelations rocked the Illinois Statehouse last October. To me, that was a clear indication that despite all of Speaker Madigan’s vows to “change the culture,” the man at the very top of Madigan’s management pyramid had no intention of doing so.
“Are you going to sex training today?”, Garrett heard him joke to her colleague, referring to sexual harassment training required of all employees and legislators after revelations of Statehouse harassment emerged. That “joke” was allegedly made on the House floor.
If there’s one thing many of us have learned in the past year (with varying levels of success), it’s to leave tasteless jokes to professional comedians. Those jokes, combined with Mapes’ other alleged actions, appeared to have created an unacceptable working environment for Ms. Garrett and, as she claimed at her press conference, several others.
Garrett is right out of central casting — a decent, middle aged woman who was tired of being humiliated by a person with unlimited and unquestioned authority. Her Chicago press conference was the first time she’d been to the city in more than a decade.
Madigan was likely furious that the same nice woman who regularly brought his gavel back to his office at the end of session days was subjected to this treatment by his right-hand man. And it was the height of disloyalty by Mapes to behave this way while Madigan had #MeToo problems exploding all around him. He had to go.
Remaking the culture is not a done deal just because Mapes was ordered to resign. These attitudes and behaviors have been thoroughly ingrained into Madigan’s entire system for 20 years, after all.
I’m not even sure if it can be done.
* Comptroller Mendoza talked about Mapes and Garrett on Mike Flannery’s show…
The most alarming thing to me is that she had gone to him with allegations of sexual harassment from members… As the chief of staff, it’s his responsibility to take care of any allegations that need to be addressed and do it swiftly and decisively. And she went to him with allegations supposedly about legislators who were sexually harassing members of staff and that was seen as no big deal. One of his comments to her was ‘Are you upset that he wasn’t paying attention to you?’
Like, oh my God, on what planet is that appropriate? On no planet. So these things, now that we’ve heard about it, they’re so outrageous there was no option other than firing Tim Mapes or demanding his resignation, which thankfully is what happened.
* Sweeny on Mapes…
Mapes even made sexually insulting comments to her, Garrett said. Once he talked about her bra. In another incident, Garrett spoke to Mapes on behalf of another female being who was sexually harassed by a male state representative.
Mapes’ response, according to Garrett, was, “Are you reporting this situation because you are upset the representative isn’t paying attention to you?”
* Pearson on Madigan…
“He’s proven to be deft at campaigns,” said one former Madigan House and campaign staffer who asked not to be named to avoid retaliation. “But does he get swept up in a national sea beyond his ability to navigate? That’s got to be a concern — not only as head of the state party but the symbol of Springfield that Rauner’s running against.” […]
In recent years, few lawmakers outside his inner circle are involved with Madigan’s daily operations and major decisions, one former female Democratic House lawmaker said.
“I think (Madigan) has become more staff dependent over the years,” she said. “That has insulated him from these kinds of things. He was much more involved in the past.”
But the recent allegations have hit his inner circle hard. Mapes’ forced departure came only a week after Madigan’s deputy majority leader in the House, Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie, resigned his leadership post and positions on two oversight panels pending an investigation by the inspector general into allegations of harassment by a female lobbyist. Lang called the allegations “absurd.”
- Colin O'Scopy - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:27 am:
Maybe I am naive, but I do recall a time when Madigan’s revered staff were encouraged to think of innovative ideas for their members to champion.
But at some point between 1983 and 2018, Madigan’s staff focus became a singular mission: win and maintain the Democrat majority at all costs. Fresh ideas fell to the wayside.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:36 am:
I’ve never been a believer that Madigan is some political genius who runs the state from the House floor. No speaker can do that. He’s very influential, not all-powerful.
And no political genius has a 21% approval rating.
But Madigan certainly runs his political and governmental staffs and is responsible and accountable for them.
It was a big mistake for Durbin and Duckworth to endorse him for re-election as DPI chair. They don’t know what they don’t know. It was a perfect time to try to ease him out of that position and put in a fresh face.
Another revelation or two from Democratic women like Hampton, Cassidy and Garrett, and they’ll have to step up to call on him to resign to try to save Pritzker’s candidacy, which the Madigan crew has put in serious peril.
- Rocky Rosi - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:39 am:
NO
- Chris Widger - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:47 am:
==In another incident, Garrett spoke to Mapes on behalf of another female being who was sexually harassed by a male state representative.==
I am sure that’s just a typo (the word “being” probably was meant to go after “was”), but it currently reads as a pretty weird and almost offensive way to call a woman a non-person.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:48 am:
The trains always ran on time in the General assembly since 1998?
Except for passing constitutionally required balanced budgets and fixing Illinois debt crisis.
Take look at approval rating of the Illinois General Assembly train wreck. It is the worst in the nation.
- Texas Red - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:52 am:
Good overview of Mapes - and Rich is right in this assessment..”But business was entirely another matter. He was Madigan’s trusted enforcer and he took the job seriously.As with every human organization, people take their management cues from the top, and that’s repeated all the way down the food chain. If the top person is an arrogantly snarky, sometimes personally cruel, hard-nosed workaholic and persnickety authoritarian, then that’s what everyone else in the organization will shoot for — or else…
My problem is that lots of folks can act in a authoritarian and hard-noised manner and not be harassing or abusive to staff. Mapes’s problem is not his work ethics, it is his character and his actions, he is accused of being a harassing presence and using inappropriate sexually charged comments in the workplace which is wrong. It ain’t the culture that is wrong, it is the actions of Mapes.
- OneMan - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:54 am:
How much risk to his position and his majority is he willing to take to try and change things?
My guess is it isn’t much.
To a degree, he ‘owns’ this culture it came to be or continued to be under his leadership and in his name.
There is going to be some happy talk, but at the end of the day, his control of the purse strings and the process is going to prevent real change.
- Perrid - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:57 am:
Will he be given a chance, at this point, to change? A whole lot of people are screaming for his head. Okay, a lot of the same people were screaming for his head before, but it’s a lot worse now. Losing Lang and Mapes in a week has got to leave a mark, he’s got to know he at least needs to appear to make substantial changes, and might even know that it needs to go deeper than that.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 10:07 am:
“…..does he get swept up in a national sea beyond his ability to navigate? ” I think you mean that misogyny and sexual harassment discovered in his organization means his organization has harbored such behavior and people are standing for it.
- Motambe - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 10:33 am:
While the Speaker was holding press conferences vowing that change would happen and inappropriate behavior would not be tolerated, Mapes continued actions said (wink wink), “hey boys, it’s all ok, have fun.” He damaged the Speaker’s credibility and he had to go.
- my thoughts - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 10:42 am:
Madigan should look back and take it to heart upon his own words when asked 30 years ago about the longevity of Thompson. “It’s an issue to the extent that maybe Thompson has become stale; maybe the people around him have lost the level of interest that’s really important for efficient government”.
- morningstar - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 10:43 am:
I am so weary of this aspect of politics. How many good people - men or women - are dissuaded from serving because of arrogant, power-tripping chauvinists? We can do so much better.
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 10:45 am:
Madigan and his minions did what they do best, maintain power. Certainly not run this state effectively. I don’t care how they are run out of town. Just as long as it happens it will be better for this state.
- Langhorne - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 10:45 am:
I worked w Mapes for 25 years. It was an arm’s length relationship. On a couple occasions i did something that displeased him, bec it was disadvantageous to his caucus, which he made painfully clear. Yet, on a couple other occasions, he did things that were helpful to me, that he didnt have to do. Definitely a mercurial personality.
- Arsenal - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 10:57 am:
==Will he be given a chance, at this point, to change?==
Yes. Or rather, change will be forced upon him. In some ways, it already has- as you said, losing Lang and Mapes is a big deal.
- Shelby Thomas Weems - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 11:07 am:
Excellent column Rich, one of the best I’ve read of yours and I like almost everything you write.
I will say this: across the country there is instances of elected officials who have stepped down from their positions because the staff culture fostered harassment and, in the more serious cases, sexual assault. At some point there will be no more tribe members to blame and the chief will have to admit he can no longer effectively lead.
- Responsa - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 11:10 am:
Staff and loyalists have made careers out of making “problems” go away for Madigan. Perhaps they did their jobs so effectively that he really was unaware of both some of the problems and the methods often used to contain them. In any event that ship has sailed. I don’t think Mike recovers from this.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 11:20 am:
Rich explains what needs to be clear to understand the impact of Mapes before and now after. Great work.
To the Post,
For me, I start with the requirements: a vote for Madigan as Speaker, and a vote for the Democratic rules of the chamber.
The rest, well, the rest is the second part of what makes the first part possible; continuing to see things thru keeping the Democratic majority(ies) and working thru governing to ensure positive outcomes to help keep a Democratic majority(ies).
That’s the thinking, twenty years of it.
The political simplicity of the four things every seated GA must consider, first before they begin, and what are the rules going forward… the glossing over or steamrolling that occurs, be it something as unequivocally serious as this movement, or the petty politics of clocks and seats and office assignments… the question is valid… can twenty plus years be changed quickly to the changing times? Depends on how important the four rules to politics and governing the House chamber are followed going forward too.
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 11:41 am:
I voted for Chris Kennedy when he flipped to a yes on marijuana legalization, because his anti-Madigan/anti-establishment message resonated with me. I want to see a DPI that is focused on making people’s lives better, including ending the “old boy” culture in which abuse happens.
- dbk - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 12:53 pm:
To the question of whether MJM will be able to change in light of the changing times and the #metoo movement here and nationwide:
This seems like a stretch, frankly. I was reminded of the IL GA situation when I listened to a couple of interviews with Bill Clinton re: his new political thriller late last week. Clinton is 71; his responses to persistent questioning showed that, well, he just can’t get with the times - no genuine acknowledgement of what he’d done (both in the WH and back in Arkansas), or even of why it was wrong.
This is understandable in a way, but it won’t be allowed to continue like this much longer.
Not making any predictions, but it would be better for DPI/GA/Dems overall in the state if Madigan resigned in early 2019, assuming JB wins. (Note: It would also be better for Pritzker himself in the mid- and long term.)
- NoGifts - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 12:55 pm:
Dinosaurs will eventually go extinct, but there are too many at the top of the food chain right now.
- Rabid - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 1:17 pm:
Tim’s locker room mentality made him the bobby knight of Springfield
- Korn Fed - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 1:42 pm:
Clearly we’re down on and would like to be done with misogyny and sexual harassment. Those issues are American cultural problems, deeply rooted. Pinning a cultural problem on one organization (MJM’s) or the IL General Assembly misses and diminishes the problem - just can’t buy into the top down, follow the leader’s pattern and this alleged culture, organizational bias.
- Befuddled - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 3:13 pm:
My only quarrel with Rich’s commentary is the thought that all Madigan staff or supervisors have the same attitude as Mapes. Many former employees speak highly of their supervisors. I don’t think you can lump them all together as bullies.
- low level - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 6:01 pm:
Notwithstanding the comments he made, I think anyone who knew both will agree Tim was much better than Tristano.
The fact he was around for so long spoke to his diligence and ability as well.
- Just Me - Monday, Jun 11, 18 @ 9:47 pm:
If Madigan were to go, who would replace him? That should be what we really talk about. Madigan has purposefully recruited light-weights over the years, and there isn’t a lot of talent on that bench.
- Rabid - Tuesday, Jun 12, 18 @ 5:30 am:
Tim took one for the team, don’t fall for Rauners fire madigan