The next two years in Illinois

Neither Illinois Senate President John Cullerton nor House Speaker Mike Madigan will have a Republican boogeyman to point to when they speak to interest groups or members of their own caucuses.

Scott Reeder
Journalist in Residence

Neither Illinois Senate President John Cullerton nor House Speaker Mike Madigan will have a Republican boogeyman to point to when they speak to interest groups or members of their own caucuses.

Blaming anything on a lack of Republican bipartisanship will be nearly impossible.

But here is the flipside to that: Republicans need no longer worry now about whether they will be invited to the table by the majority.

For the next two years at least, they will be sitting alone at the legislative equivalent of a battered card table in the basement.

They can either sit at that table and sulk or use their time in the legislative wilderness to develop alternatives.