“He seems so done with it all,” a top Republican said early last week about House Republican Leader Jim Durkin.
“He hates this,” a close Durkin pal said.
The overtime legislative session’s constant battles with the House Democrats and the super-strict marching orders from Gov. Bruce Rauner were wearing down Durkin, of Western Springs, said some folks who know him.
“This summer was pretty nasty,” he admitted to reporters last week.
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But that changed by Tuesday of last week. Asked to describe the progress of the previous few days on a scale of 1 to 10, a cheery Durkin replied “eight, nine, ten.” He seemed back on his game.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, had a very bad week.
Madigan, who long has been considered the most successful Democratic politician in Illinois history, had hoped to finally knock down Rauner’s solid GOP legislative wall on Nov.10 and force the House Republicans to defy their governor by voting to rescind Rauner’s slashing of the state’s child care program and social services for the elderly and disabled.
But the rug was pulled out from under Madigan. With the approval of Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, some Democratic legislators cut a deal with Rauner to restore funding to those programs in exchange for killing the legislation. Madigan’s bills went nowhere.
So instead of a defeated Durkin, we saw an angry Madigan. The speaker was obviously upset at one of his members, Rep. Ken Dunkin, of Chicago, for working with Rauner and killing the bills in the House by refusing to vote, but Madigan was also said to be steamed about a possible conspiracy involving Rauner, Cullerton and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
A top Madigan ally pointed to the personal relationship between Rauner and Emanuel, the number of contributors to Emanuel’s campaign fund who also gave to Rauner’s fund and to the supposedly Democratic IllinoisGO PAC, which was founded this year to promote “pro growth” Democratic policies but which looks to many like a Rauner front group.
The source also highlighted Emanuel’s ties to IllinoisGO’s top consultant, Greg Goldner, of Resolute Consulting, (whom Madigan called out by name during a news conference this year for using the same rhetoric as Rauner in the PAC’s mailers targeting Madigan’s members).
The Madigan people say the PAC is backing 15 candidates against House Democrats, although people who know better than I can find no actual evidence of this. And it’s no secret that Emanuel lives in Cullerton’s district and the two men are close.
That’s a lot of paranoia, but, man, were the Madigan folks ever upset.
The mayor’s people flatly denied that they had anything to do with Madigan being triangulated by Rauner and Cullerton.
Yes, Emanuel canceled a City Council hearing on the funding crisis at the child care program, which was designed to put more pressure on Rauner. But they said that was done because Rauner had asked that they show a little good faith after Emanuel spent a solid week attacking the governor in the media.
As for Goldner, they said he’s a Richard Daley guy and not an Emanuel guy.
“Greg has been out of favor with the mayor and his team for a long time,” insisted a longtime Emanuel insider.
And no way on God’s Green Earth is the Emanuel camp involved with running anyone in the March Democratic primary election against any of Madigan’s members, they insisted. They know that Madigan would declare all-out war on them. They ain’t suicidal.
And Cullerton was probably just doing what Cullerton always does. The man truly loves making deals.
Rauner had threatened to sit on the bill to fix the child care program for two months if it were sent to his desk and then veto it in January, which would’ve undoubtedly put hundreds of smaller child care providers out of business.
A deal with Cullerton’s blessing made sure that those providers stayed afloat, and it was backed by the provider community.
The legislative bottom line is that Madigan has been thwarted at about every turn by Rauner. The overtime session has succeeded in collapsing the governor’s poll numbers, but Madigan hasn’t been able to take advantage of that in the House, even with his supermajority.
The one thing that Madigan hates above anything is showing weakness. He definitely didn’t look strong last week. He’s simply not accustomed to that. His next move should be fascinating.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com