Michael Madigan’s Rise To Power
IL House Speaker Michael Madigan Brian Mackey
House Speaker and Democratic Party of Illinois Chairman Michael Madigan was first elected in 1969, when voters sent him to Springfield as a delegate for the 1970 Constitutional Convention. Richard Nixon was president. Madigan won election to the state House of Representatives in 1970, and has been serving ever since. Through the Ford and Carter administrations, and the late Jim Thompson’s election as governor. It didn’t take long for Madigan to begin climbing the power structure in the House, aided by his close ties to then-Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.
The 21st is joined by two journalists and one former statehouse reporter to talk more about Speaker Madigan's past.
Guests:
Rich Miller, Proprietor, Capitol Fax (newsletter and blog)
Ray Long, Investigative reporter, Chicago Tribune
Mike Lawrence, Former Statehouse reporter, former aide to Gov. Jim Edgar, former head of the Simon Institute/SIU
Prepared for web by Zainab Qureshi
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