* WTTW’s Paris Schutz asked US Sen. Dick Durbin tonight about the not so great night the Democratic Party had here Tuesday…

PS: You have the graduated tax amendment that failed, a lot of opponents sought to tie that to Mike Madigan. State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride, a Democrat, lost retention. Opponents tied him to Speaker Madigan. It looks like the Democrats are going to lose a few seats in the Statehouse. You kind of punted on this question before, but is Speaker Mike Madigan still the right person who should be leading your party, the Democratic Party in Illinois?

DD: Well, I can tell you all across our state, the advertising told the story. We paid a heavy price for the speaker’s chairmanship of the Democratic Party. Candidates who had little or no connection with him whatsoever were being tarred as Madigan allies who are behind corruption and so forth and so on. It was really disconcerting to see the price that we paid on that. I hope he takes that to heart and understands that his presence as chairman of our party is not helping.

PS: Does that mean you might get behind someone else who might run for chairman?

DD: Let’s wait and see what happens in the near-term here. The House is about to reconvene in Springfield, the Illinois House. And I’m sure this conversation is going to move to a new level now that the election’s behind us.