* Politico…

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch shared some insight about how he came to be elected speaker in January 2021. It started about six months earlier in the summer of 2020.

Welch got a call one day from Rep. Robyn Gabel. “She said, ‘I’m working on something, and I’ll give you a call about it later. ‘Just behave, OK?’ And I thought, `What the hell is she talking about?’”

Welch told the story at a small fundraising event on his behalf last night sponsored by Illinois Environmental Council, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups.

Gabel did call back, he continued. “And she said, ‘I think you’re going to be the next speaker.’ I told her she was nuts.” Though he acknowledged later that Rep. Will Guzzardi had suggested the idea, too.

Then January came, and Michael Madigan didn’t have the votes to hold the reins to the speakership. “And it happened,” Welch told the group. “Robyn saw something in me before I saw it. And how often does that happen in your life?” […]

“It’s something that we had been thinking about for a few years,” Gabel said, referring to her and other Democratic allies thinking about who the next speaker would be. “We knew Madigan wouldn’t be around forever one way or another. So I looked around at who I thought would be a good speaker. To me it was important for the speaker to come from the Black Caucus. I watched [Chris] as he got up to speed in Springfield. I liked that he supported women’s issues, which was important to me. So I thought it’s Chris.”

Pretty good story. I’ve known “Able Gabel” forever, even before she was in the House. She’s good at her job and has served Welch well in leadership.

Also, Rep. Guzzardi is a pretty strong head-counter. He knew, for instance, that his minimum wage increase bill was going to pass in 2017 even though Speaker Madigan thought it would fail. He was also the first to tell me that he believed the votes were there to override a Bruce Rauner veto of an income tax hike.

Hmm. I must be in a good mood because of the upcoming holiday.