Illinois lawmakers want voters to have recall power over Madigan

Two state lawmakers want to amend the Illinois Constitution so voters can recall elected leaders. There is a simpler path to fix the state’s corruption.

Mike Madigan’s approval rating was only 20% before the ComEd bribery scandal exploded, yet the vast majority of Illinoisans have no power to remove him as the powerful leader of the Illinois House.

Two members of the Illinois General Assembly want to change that.

State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, and Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, during 2021 plan to introduce three amendments to the Illinois Constitution that would allow the House speaker and other elected leaders at all levels of government to be recalled by voters.

“It is a failure of our state that we don’t allow our people and our public and our citizens to have more say on the corruption that exists in the state,” Barickman said.

As it stands, Illinoisans only have the power to recall the governor. That constitutional amendment was approved by voters in 2010 following the corruption indictment and conviction of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and it is a complicated process that only starts after bipartisan permission from lawmakers.

With Madigan facing his own federal corruption investigation and the recent indictment of his closest confidant, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for an end to Madigan’s 35-year reign as House speaker.

To date, 19 House Democrats of the 73 expected to vote Jan. 13 have stated they will not vote to reelect Madigan as speaker. That leaves Madigan six votes shy of the 60 votes needed to again lead the House.

Additionally, top Democrats upset with the Nov. 3 election results – Gov. J.B. Pritzker and U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin – have called for Madigan to step down as chair of the Illinois Democratic Party. The party chairmanship lets him control millions of dollars of campaign funds, which in turn help him maintain lawmaker loyalty and his position as speaker.

In theory, Madigan could be voted down by House members, however his colossal influence on political careers and funding has historically left representatives little choice but to continue to fall in line and support his leadership. He has been lobbying members, telling the House Black Caucus Dec. 5 he can provide the strong leadership needed to deliver the new legislative maps as well as an income tax hike if Pritzker asks for one.

Madigan was just reelected to his House seat by fewer than 30,000 constituents. Yet, with over 6 million votes cast Nov. 3 and such poor approval ratings, putting the power to end his speakership in the hands of voters would make the House speaker and other elected positions more responsive.

“When you have somebody like the speaker who literally is not accountable to the people of the state, the people that he has a lot of control over, I think that’s a problem,” Batinick said.

Regardless of whether Madigan is removed by a federal indictment, the votes of his peers or an eventual public vote, removing him only wins a battle. The war against corruption in Illinois remains.

A new speaker will still be subject to the old rules which allowed Madigan’s consolidation of power in the first place. Other reforms, including term limits and legislative redistricting, can give the public even more say and the ability to stand up to and protection against corruption.

Madigan at 35 years is the longest-serving Statehouse speaker in U.S. history, yet that long a term could never happen in the Illinois Senate. In 2017, the Illinois Senate set term limits on leadership positions, including a 10-year limit on the Senate speakership. The House would do well to follow that example.

Illinois lawmakers in 2021 will also have their decennial opportunity to redraw legislative districts. In 2020, half of the Illinois Senate races, and almost half of the Illinois House races went uncontested, a testimony to Madigan’s skill at protecting his party’s incumbents. State lawmakers should not have the power to restrict competition for their seats. Illinois should consider independent redistricting, as 14 other states have done.

To stop another Madigan, state lawmakers must rewrite the House Rules, which currently allow the speaker to solely decide which bills make it to the floor, strengthen ethics rules to mandate transparency and hold lawmakers accountable for their conflicts of interest, and free the legislative inspector general to investigate and publicize wrongdoing without hindrance from lawmakers.

Those reforms could change the state’s culture of corruption, and in less time than will be required to amend the Illinois Constitution and then recall corrupt leaders.