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 Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan earned the title of
longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history in 2017. He’s led the House
of Representatives for 33 of the last 35 years.
Now he’s setting another record: longest-serving state Democratic Party chairman
in Illinois history, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Party officials
re-elected Madigan to his sixth term as chairman April 23. He’s held that post
since 1998.
Madigan is the only legislative leader in the country to also serve as a party
chairman, according to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. In September
2017, state Rep. Margo McDermed, R-Mokena, filed a bill that would prohibit this
practice, barring any member of the General Assembly from “concurrently
[serving] as the chairperson for a statewide political party.”
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McDermed’s bill did not make it out of the House Rules Committee, a
major source of Madigan’s legislative power. When a state
representative introduces a bill, it goes to the Rules Committee.
Lawmakers are then supposed to assign the bill to a relevant
committee for further discussion. In practice, Madigan is able to
muzzle debate on any given bill by hoarding it in the Rules
Committee, which is chaired by his longtime ally, state Rep. Barbara
Flynn Currie, D-Chicago.
Under the House rules, Madigan doles out committee chair positions
and the stipends that come with them, controls who votes in
committees, dictates when a bill will be called for a vote, and
decides what bills make it to a vote in the first place.
Taken together, the powers of a single politician in Illinois’
legislative process are unparalleled when compared with other
states.
And as long as Madigan continues to head a political party while
wielding the legislative powers that come with a Democratic majority
in the House, those rules aren’t likely to change.
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