There has been much talk these days of how Governor Rauner has caused a political realignment in state and local politics.
Michael Madigan, who even my 40-something children grew up thinking his first name was powerful Democratic Party boss, has morphed into the best friend of labor.
And every politician within walking distance of the Blue Line has become a progressive. Even Deb Mell was spotted at the teachers’ Day of Action downtown on Friday.
There seems to be two reasons for this. Everybody to the left of Mark Kirk fears and hates the governor’s turnaround agenda. And then there is the political collapse of the Mayor who now gets approval ratings that would make Blago smile.
Rahm has become so powerless that he lost the elected representative school board vote in the Illinois House by a vote of 100-4.
Democratic Senate President John Cullerton has long worked hard to brand himself as the anti-Madigan, although I always thought it was more of a good cop/bad cop game.
Cullerton was willing to sit down with public employee unions and work out a deal to steal our pensions. Madigan was John Dillinger. Cullerton was pension theft with a smile.
There are now two pieces of legislation stalled in the Illinois Senate by the President. One is the opt out bill and the other is the elected representative school board for Chicago.
Both passed in Madigan’s House, but are waiting for action in the Senate.
. @AldermanMunoz22 says meeting with Cullerton about Chicago elected school board bill “productive” #twill #ChicagoTonight
— Paris Schutz (@paschutz) April 7, 2016
Let’s hope so.
Wonder how many Illinois 1percenters and corporations will show up in the Panama Papers 11 million pages of off shore tax avoidance. And this is just one law firm….so when we ask….where has all the pension money gone….there is a trail !
Haven’t you heard? There are no more millionaires in Illinois. They have all moved out.
That was a qestionable study. It could be and I am not kidding we have fewer millionaire because the billionaire steal it all …see pension story below….On Madigan. He may believe in nothing but he can sure sense a shift in political winds and those winds are a gale from the left…….
David,
Typical that those who write about the exodus of millionaires from Chicago don’t mention the loss of hundreds of thousands of industrial jobs and African Americans over the past two decades. Plus. There are no “Chicago” millionaires. That’s why it is called globalization.
Did you see about Haegar Pottery in Dundee closing. 70 Jobs gone. No middle class left to buy nice things. It all must go to the Billionaires.