•October 10, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Illinois Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan is not the evil Darth Vader trumpeted by opponents’ ads—but he has shut down democracy in Illinois, and must go.
Mike Madigan is simply an old-fashioned Chicago pol who has had half a century in office to hone his skills and thus accrue unprecedented power.
In the Illinois legislature, absolutely no bill—not one—introduced by representatives of the people will ever be heard and voted upon without the express approval of Mike Madigan. Every bill, indeed every amendment to every bill, must first be approved by the small Madigan-controlled House Rules Committee.
Even if a back-bench lawmaker wanted to overrule the Rules Committee so as to afford a bill a hearing, such is impossible, as it takes unanimous consent(!) to break a bill loose from the Rules Committee.
Democracies also offer opportunities for voter participation through referendums on issues of major importance, such as on wildly popular matters such as term limits and independent redistricting of legislative boundaries.
Yet Madigan has blocked repeated efforts to give the people a vote on these issues.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.