* Kristen McQueary talked to former Gov. Jim Edgar about what would happen if AG Lisa Madigan was elected governor and Mike Madigan stayed on as House Speaker…
“There certainly are no legal problems. From a governor’s point of view, it would be nice to have the speaker always on your side,” former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar said Wednesday from his home in Colorado. “It could be a huge advantage. If they disagreed with each other, they could work it out privately, and it might work well. You wouldn’t have a standoff between the speaker and the governor”. […]
Unless the speaker got favorable treatment - such as a state building erected in his district and named for him - the two roles don’t create an inherent conflict, Edgar said. And how would the Madigans’ relationship differ from the pact between Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones, whose pet projects have gotten every green light?
That was a question Edgar asked. I didn’t have an answer.
The public may or may not go for it. We had pretty much the same debate in 2002 and none of those horror stories ever materialized. Still, the governor is a much higher office than attorney general, so one family controlling the executive and half the legislative branch will certainly cause consternation.
Even so, if I was speaker and my kid wanted to be governor, I’d never step aside unless I knew for sure that it would cause her to lose the election. Why leave her to the wolves?
* While part of this column is off the mark, the section on a possible Bill Daley gubernatorial bid accurately reflects what the Daley people are saying behind the scenes right now…
At a time when Blagojevich is beset by almost-daily revelations of mendacity, incompetence, and corruption, Bill Daley is the perfect anti-Blagojevich: He doesn’t need the job, as he is making millions in the private sector; he’ll work with his brother, Chicago Mayor Rich Daley, to make sure that city problems get solved; he won’t pick fights with Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan; and he won’t govern by “triangulation,” like Blagojevich, grandstanding and finding a Clintonesque “third way,” so as to differentiate himself from Madigan.
He’s positioning himself as a talented manager with no higher ambitions. It’s not a bad argument.
* And, finally, the death was months ago, but the funeral was this week…
Once the most powerful and feared patronage army in Mayor Richard Daley’s political organization, the scandal-plagued Hispanic Democratic Organization is now officially extinct.
The group, known in political circles as HDO, filed paperwork Tuesday closing its campaign committee, state records show.