Generations of city and state politicians have embraced the Chicago mechanized approach, now the focus of the impeachment trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, as a “civic tradition,” but it threatens to burn the legacy of one of its most famous practitioners.
So says longtime Democratic political consultant David Axelrod.
The popular CNN analyst and chief strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, like others, has been following the lead-up to Madigan's landmark racketeering, bribery and conspiracy trial that began this week.
Axelrod isn't sure how a jury will decide the case once it's selected.
But after observing Chicago politics for nearly half a century, Axelrod says there is a long precedent for the kind of behavior the former speaker was accused of: officeholders doling out jobs or contracts to political supporters or trading favors with companies that need something. At City Hall or State House.
“In the context of Chicago, there was a time when this was considered normal practice,” Axelrod said in an interview with WBEZ. “So, among the old-timers, it's like, 'Wait a minute.' This is a crime? I didn't realize this was a crime.”
Axelrod first encountered Madigan when he was a political reporter for the Chicago Tribune during the 1970s. That was when Southwest Side Democrats were consolidating power in Springfield, before they seized control of the House Speaker's gavel in 1983 and didn't relinquish it for nearly 40 years.
With Madigan's unparalleled longevity, Axelrod said the former Speaker embodies the definition of raw political power, and it's astonishing now to see Madigan humbled and sitting in a federal courtroom, no longer in control of his own destiny.
“It is difficult to consider that this man, who for more than a generation has been a giant distancing himself from the politics of Illinois government, is now this diminished figure standing before the bars of justice,” Axelrod said.
Madigan's sometimes outspoken political power has left its mark on the state's law books, on a series of Illinois governors and even Obama. The two-term former president and longtime Speaker of the House were not politically close.
Axelrod remembers when, during his first year in the White House, Obama was in Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. When Axelrod asked Obama how the meeting went, the then-president recounted how he felt seeing a familiar political face in Putin.
“It was fine,” he said. “It was like talking to Mike Madigan,” Axelrod said. “He said the man was all business, the same cold blue eyes, the same trolling habits.”
Several years later, Axelrod said, former Senate President John Cullerton, Democrat of Chicago, called him and asked him if that story was true.
“I said, 'Yes, that's right,'” Axelrod said. “Madigan loves that story,” Cullerton laughed.
Madigan's unparalleled power has put him at the center of every major action taken by the Legislature for all or part of five decades.
Madigan signed on to abolish the state's death penalty, legalize same-sex marriage and recreational marijuana, tighten gun control laws, expand abortion rights, and build two major sports stadiums in Chicago.
But his power was put to the test during Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's fierce race.
The then-Speaker's first face-to-face meeting with Rauner after the 2014 gubernatorial election and shortly before Rauner took office was Mark Madigan, Axelrod said.
During a breakfast meeting with the then-governor-elect, Madigan reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Rauner. On it were the names of all the governors Madigan had left in Springfield.
“The message was very clear,” Axelrod said. “Conservatives can come and go, but Madigan persists. He has done so for a very long time.
But Madigan may have met his match against federal prosecutors in Chicago.
Axelrod said he did not fully recognize the evidence now collected against Madigan.
But he said the raft of allegations that Madigan embedded his political supporters into well-paying and largely do-nothing positions in state facilities is not a new finding in politics.
“He is certainly not the first and, unfortunately, probably will not be the last powerful political figure in this state accused of exploiting his position for personal gain. This has been part of civic tradition forever.”
Axelrod said the former speaker appeared to have miscalculated by failing to realize that the old way of doing business was no longer in favor of the law — and that prosecutors were becoming tougher.
“He was operating under an old set of rules, and the rules were getting stricter. He didn't make the adjustments,” Axelrod said.
Madigan's trial is expected to last ten weeks.
“It's in the first sentence of his obituary,” Axelrod said of the conviction.
“You can't deny the kind of sweeping power that he wielded over government and politics in the state of Illinois for four decades. I mean, you can't take that away from him,” he continued. “But the way it ended would be the end of his career.”
Dave McKinney covers Illinois government and politics for WBEZ and was the longtime Springfield bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times.
