GUEST POST: Ask your local Democratic candidates if they’ll fire Michael Madigan

We’re posting a guest column from the We Are Illinois.org.

Ask your local Democratic candidates if they’ll FIRE MADIGAN

A recent survey of voters showed that Illinois House Speaker/Illinois Democratic Party Chairman/Father of the Illinois Attorney General, Mike Madigan has a public approval rating of only 16%.

Capitol Fax Columnist Rich Miller called Madigan “a walking conflict of interest.”

Crain’s Chicago Business columnist Greg Hinz says, “Madigan has also been in a position of leadership for every single action that led to the financial collapse of state government. The (67%) income tax hike, and huge list of IOUs. The $83 billion to $200 billion gap in the state’s pension funds. A state credit rating that is the second-lowest of the 50 states.”

The Chicago Tribune proclaims: “The confluence of Madigan’s roles does not allow for clean lines. To suggest otherwise is pure fantasy. Watch the lobbyists, lawyers and consultants swing through the House speaker’s office door on any session day, many of whom hire his law firm to fight their property tax assessments or to provide ‘legal guidance.’ You don’t need an ethics expert to deduce that something is very wrong in Illinois.”

Chicago Sun-Times Columnist & NBC5 Reporter Carol Marin wrote an entire column about “Madigan’s Machiavellian machinations.”

While Mike Madigan’s name is never on the ballot in most of Illinois, the names of Madigan’s enablers – his fellow Illinois Democrats – are.

Madigan is elected Speaker by members of the Illinois State House of Representatives so it’s time to ask each and every Democratic candidate for State House if they’ll vote for Mike Madigan again as Speaker, if they win their election. It’s the very first vote they cast in their new term and it sets the tone for the rest of it.

Since Mr. Madigan also serves as the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, which pays for most campaign mailings of Democratic candidates, it’s fair to ask each and every Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress and State Senate and any other office, if they’ll publicly call on Mr. Madigan to step aside as well.

Here is a link to a list of Democratic state and federal candidates on the ballot in Illinois. Call them, e-mail them, post on their Facebook page, Tweet them, find them at a public event and ask them a simple question: “Will you Fire Mike Madigan?”

Unless they publicly and unequivocally say yes, then it’s time to fire them …

Photo by Chicago Tribune.