October 6, 2021 • 24 mins
To understand Michael J. Madigan, you have to understand where he came from. In the first episode host Justin Kaufmann explores the 13th Ward and the Chicago Machine with local journalists and politicos. They also discuss the self-styled rules Madigan followed in his climb from Chicago’s Southwest Side to the pinnacle of power in Springfield, Illinois.
With special guests State Representative Kelly Cassidy (14th) and Former State Representative Ken Dunkin (5th), Alaina Hampton, Mick Dumke, David Kidwell, John Chase, Dave McKinney and Ray Long.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the last 50 years, Illinois has given us some of
the most powerful figures inAmerican politics, t wo
presidents, Obama, and Reagan,two Daleys, Richard J and
Richard M plus Rahm and R osti.
But no one has been morepowerful in the state of
Illinois than Michael J Madigan.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I think it's a story more about Chicago than it is
about Mike Mike Madigan.
When you're able to harness thecash to reward your allies and
punish your foes.
That just becomes another stepin that, in that power or that
Madigan held.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
He failed the black community big time.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
There was no HR set up in this organization.
So the only two options I had toreport it to was the brother of
my harasser or the most powerfulpolitician in the state.
Mike Madigan,
Speaker 5 (00:54):
I saw a very different side of the speaker, a
different side of him than I hadexperienced a side of him that
was funny and welcoming andfriendly and engaging.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
Alot of the interest.
There was about maintainingpersonal power, as opposed to
what's the best policy outcomeinterest for the state of
Illinois.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
He said, Bruce, I do two things.
I manage power and I make moneyfrom managing power.
Speaker 7 (01:19):
No matter what I mean that you're not going to see
anything like that.
He is, is he the last legacy ofthe machine?
Speaker 8 (01:26):
A lot of people stay too long and he might've stayed
too long.
But if I was the governor and Iwas going to have to do
something tough, I sure want himas speaker, try to help him get
it done.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Um, with fewer than 10,000 votes from the 22nd
district in most elections,Madigan dominated the entire
state for five decades, amasspower and reach unrivaled.
And unsurpassed his 50 yearsspan, 10 presidents from Nixon
to Biden and eight governors.
And then in early 2021, hisdynasty came to an abrupt end,
(01:58):
amid a growing investigationinto corruption by close
associates and staff members.
He was pushed out as the chairof the democratic party and
removed as speaker of the house,a position he held for the 36 of
the last 38 years for all of hisprominence and power.
Michael Madigan remains largelya man of mystery.
He rarely gave interviews.
(02:19):
Didn't seek the spotlight, neversought higher national office.
So who is Mike Madigan?
This is a story of how he cameto power, how he wielded that
power and how that poweraffected the lives of the
citizens of Illinois.
Welcome to the first episode ofthe Madigan Rule.
(02:40):
I'm Justin Kaufman.
This podcast is a production ofthe Better Government
Association.
The story of the longest servingstate house speaker in American
history.
This is episode one up from thegarbage truck.
In this podcast we look back andtalk with people who are
witnessed firsthand colleagues,rivals reporters, people who
(03:03):
battled him and collaboratedwith him, people who feared him
and revered him.
Speaker 9 (03:08):
He started off as an individual who worked on the
back of a garbage truck.
And he rose to become anattorney and ended up
representing the majority ofcommercial developments or
properties in the city ofChicago.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Former state representative, Ken Duncan,
Speaker 9 (03:27):
You're talking about an individual who created laws
to insulate himself from anyadditional pursuits that
followed into his legalprofession, those of his
friends, those of his politicalminions.
So he created an institutionthat goes back several
(03:47):
generations, at least three tofour, and all of those
individuals in some way, shapeor form, be indebted to him
Speaker 1 (03:56):
To understand Madigan, you must begin by
understanding the structure ofdemocratic party politics in
Chicago, a system of wards,precinct, captains, ethnic and
tribal, the democratic partyrose to power in the mid 20th
century because it was a familybusiness for many Daley, Burke,
Heinz and Madigan.
That's where he comes from hisdad, a precinct captain in the
(04:18):
13th ward.
Young Mike Madigan started onthe back of a garbage truck,
moved his way up the politicalladder in the Chicago machine.
What's the machine ProPublica'sMick Dunke
Speaker 10 (04:30):
The machine system- you stay in power by exchanging
favors and the patronage systemis what it sounds like.
Essentially jobs are dispensedto loyal members of your
political organization, who inreturn for their continued
employment, mostly in governmentpositions, although as we've
found out now, not necessarilythere were private companies,
(04:54):
the utilities namely, that werealso participating in this
system, but in return for theircontinued employment, you went
out and essentially had a secondjob.
Sometimes it was your primaryjob to do political work for the
organization, ranging fromknocking on doors at election
time to, I guess, knocking ondoors in between elections to
(05:16):
make sure people were satisfiedwith the representation that
they got, the garbage cans theyneed, they got the services they
needed.
And there was that communicationwith elected officials, but the
whole thing rested on thisexchange of favors.
Essentially,
Speaker 1 (05:32):
If you want to truly understand Mike Madigan, the one
place to start is the 13th ward.
Speaker 10 (05:37):
The 13th ward is an area of, uh, Chicago Southwest
side, near midway airport.
Um, long time home of a lot ofpublic sector workers also for a
long time considered one of theethnic wards, uh, meaning, uh,
these were mostly white people,of course, but they had a strong
ethnic identity.
Some of them immigrants orsecond or third generation
(06:00):
immigrants, Mike Madigan, ofcourse, Irish, but a lot of
Polish families out that way,Lithuanian other Eastern
European groups over the years,it is the demographics have
shifted considerably.
So that now I believe the 13thward, like most of the Southwest
side is predominantly Hispanic,but Mike Madigan, uh, worked
(06:22):
with that too.
While he a white Irish guystayed on top of the
organization all these years, hehad a lot of, uh, lieutenants
and, uh, people up and down theladder of the chain of command
in his organization who werethemselves Hispanic.
So, uh, he managed to figure outhow to, how to keep in
connection with the communityand make sure that he had that
(06:44):
kind of base of support.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Another part of the recipe, hard work here's David
Kidwell from the BGA.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I think he had his eye on the prize from very
early.
And it's really, I think it'sdifficult for, especially now,
because most of it's illegal interms of patronage, but I think
it's really difficult for mostpoliticians to get their mind
around the fact of how much heworked on keeping his people
(07:11):
happy and employed and promotedand able to take care of their
families.
And we're talking aboutliterally hundreds of people,
probably even more than that, hespent a great deal of his days
just making phone calls to makesure this guy was taken care of.
And that guy was taken care ofand that garbage hauler and that
(07:35):
right at every level.
And I don't think anybody cancomprehend the amount of effort
that his life was behind takingcare of that, that, that support
base.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So one secret to the Madigan recipe is to work your
ass off.
Another key work the voters.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Mike Madigan, won his power by manipulating the
voters.
In other words, he had guys outat their front door, driving
them to the precinct.
I don't think politicians todaythink that way.
They think about politics asmore of a romance and wooing
people and, and manipulating themindset and getting people out
(08:16):
to the polls through socialmedia or, or, you know, uh,
charisma or whatever.
Mike Madigan was the, is theanti that he, he and his
contemporaries like RichardDaley and Ed Burke just thought
of politics as a different way.
And that is, you know, it's notabout charisma.
It's about just hard work anddeveloping this flanks of people
(08:37):
who are going to work for you.
So it's like stuffing the ballotbox almost, uh, you know, in an
illegal way, uh, at the time,
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Elena Hampton worked for the 22nd district in the
famed Madigan organization,
Speaker 4 (08:50):
It comes down to discipline.
It was about people that workthe hardest.
I mean, when they ask you to dosomething, you'd never say no,
and truly it was a verydisciplined experience.
A lot of times I was workingwhen I was really young, you
know, maybe eight years ago Iwas knocking on doors 40 hours a
week.
(09:10):
And then I would do mygovernment job during the day go
knock doors.
After work.
When I was in campaign season, Iwas walking, knocking on doors
70 hours a week.
I mean, it was really, reallyintense, but it was a good
experience.
I learned a lot from them.
I grew up downstate in aRepublican family, Republican
(09:31):
area.
All I knew about Chicagopolitics really was corruption.
And somehow I had startedworking out of the 13th ward.
It was so bizarre to see howeveryone treated him and
alderman Marty Quinn.
Like they were these likemystical creatures that everyone
had to look up to all the timeand we should be afraid of all
(09:53):
the time.
But as someone that actuallyworked around Madigan, like in
his district office, it wasreally a special experience,
honestly, because I had a, adifferent type of connection
with him and the wardorganization, the precinct
captains that most staffers thatwork in Springfield don't get.
And he is actually like a verykind person, very quiet.
(10:17):
When I would come into theoffice, he would make me coffee.
We both had the same favoritecoffee.
So when he would make a cup forhimself, he would make a cup.
For me.
It was interesting to have thatdifferent experience and see him
in a way that other people nevergot to
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Madigan's playbook wasn't just about taking care of
his community.
It was about mastering the rulesof the game, knowing the rules
better than anyone and usingthem to your advantage, whether
it's parliamentary procedure,ethics, laws, or election laws,
again, Mick Dunke.
Speaker 10 (10:51):
You don't just win by outpolling your opponent.
You win by making sure you don'thave an opponent and using the
machinery of the, the ballotprocess to get people kicked off
before the election evenstarted, you know, the most
famous, uh, nationally famouspolitician from Chicago, Barack
Obama, first got his start thisway, won his first seat in the,
(11:15):
uh, state Senate by getting hisopponents booted off the ballot.
So Mike Madigan, even when theydidn't get people booted, the
threat of, you know, just takingon Mike Madigan and his whole
machine, I think was enough todissuade a lot of people from
even going there.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
There are all kinds of stories going back to the
beginning of time about when,when anybody even remotely
dangerous, uh, uh, file to runagainst him, there would
suddenly be this flood ofcandidates, many of which
propped up by Madigan himselfagainst himself to split the
vote against himself, um, todilute the vote so you literally
(11:54):
had no chance, no chancewhatsoever of challenging Mike
Madigan and in his own district.
Speaker 10 (12:07):
A couple of years ago, I went down on primary
election day, March, 2018 andjust walked around because at
that point in time, there werestarting to be a few dents in
the armor of Mike Madigan.
Certainly of his public image.
I traveled down there.
I wanted to just talk to votersand Mike Madigan's ward.
And the first place I chose, Isaw the address and I was like,
(12:28):
well, you know, there's no placeof business or anything
referenced on the, on the listof polling places for this
particular place.
So I walked up to it and like,am I in the wrong spot?
It's like a bungalow.
It's like this brick house onthe corner of a street.
There's nothing else on thestreet, except other bungalows.
It's quiet except for theoccasional side of an airplane
(12:52):
going into midway or somebodycutting the grass down the
street, but you walk up and Irealized, no, I'm in the right
place.
There was a, a polling placesign, like on the side door to
this house.
I walk up, I opened the door.
The first person I see is awoman sitting half a flight up
at her kitchen table, likehaving breakfast or something.
(13:15):
And I'm just like, oh my God,I've walked into somebody's
house.
I'm so embarrassed.
You know, she just pointsdownstairs.
So she's basically telling meyou're in the right place.
The place to go is downstairs.
So there's a whole polling placeset up in this woman's basement.
You know what I saw there wasjust sort of a snapshot of how
(13:38):
the whole machine worked becausethe first person I spoke to in
the basement was a woman whosaid she was a poll watcher.
Each party can send someone tobe a quote unquote poll watcher
to make sure things appear to beproceeding, uh, without any
Hocus Pocus going on, uh, youknow, any, any kind of
shenanigans going on.
(13:58):
But then as I hung around alittle longer, I saw her leave
her job as a poll watcher and gostand outside and hand out
literature for the wardorganization to people coming in
to vote.
And it was clear.
She knew who most of thesepeople were because they greeted
each other by first name.
You know, somebody came up tome, they're like, Hey, do you
(14:19):
know where Jenny is?
And it turns out, you know,Jenny knew this guy who she
called Manny, and that's justhow it worked.
What I saw there is sort of amicrocosm.
It's sort of an example of howthe whole system works.
Here's former Tribune,investigative reporter, John
Chase.
Now with the BGA.
Speaker 11 (14:38):
It has changed quite a bit throughout, uh, Mike
Madigan's career.
But where it started was thepatronage army Chicago machine
under Richard J Daley, whichreally started previously under
Mayor Cermak.
And so that's how he grew up.
Those were his formativepolitical, uh, years.
And so he kept that going, evenas the machine died or, you
(15:02):
know, in pieces over the years,he kept a lot of it alive
because that's how he grew up.
He didn't need to put oncommercials.
He didn't need to sell himselfto anybody.
He needed to win 10,000 votes inthe 22nd district on the
Southwest side of Chicago.
And that's it.
He didn't need a communicationstyle.
He didn't need to convince him,uh, the voters of Illinois, that
(15:26):
he was a good guy.
He didn't care.
And he didn't need to becausethe power came from this very
small world
Speaker 1 (15:32):
After winning a state representative seat in the
Illinois 22nd Madigan rose upthe ranks of leadership within
the democratic house caucus,ultimately becoming speaker of
the house, a position he heldfor 36 years in 1998.
He also ran for and won theposition of the chairman for the
Illinois democratic party.
That combination of housespeaker and party chair gave him
(15:55):
enormous influence overcandidate selection, campaign
contributions, the legislativeprocess and political loyalty.
Here's Representative KellyCassidy.
Speaker 12 (16:05):
You know, I'd been working in and around politics
and advocacy for many yearsbefore I came into office and I
was married into a family thathad a personal friendship with
him.
So I saw that side of him aswell.
But yeah, I was always very muchaware that he ran the show.
I remember when I first cameinto office, I was originally
appointed to fill a vacancy.
(16:25):
And I met with him in hisdowntown office and he was
describing what what's referredto as the program.
They would put someone in yourdistrict office.
So you got an extra staff personwithout coming out of your
district office allotment thatwould help you sort of get up
and running and get your, youroperation going.
And he explained this person wasgoing to be in my office and
(16:48):
there was a formula to follow.
You were going to knock thedoor, this many doors a week and
make this many calls a week andmake, you know, this, write this
many letters a week.
And, and that your in, indistrict person would report
back.
And he said, a lot of peoplequit the program because they
think I put a spy in, in theiroffice because I did.
And I just laughed and was like,all right, I'm in, I got nothing
(17:09):
to hide.
So I did do the program.
My first, my first term, histheory, and he's not wrong is
that solid constituent servicedrives political success.
Period.
You set up your district officein the right way.
You serve your constituents withan obsession and they're going
to reelect you and he's notwrong.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
For all of his power and influence Madigan was also
remarkably discreet anddisciplined David Kidwell.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
That's the one thing that amazes me most about Mike
Madigan is the amount of powerhe's been able to accumulate
without essentially courting thevoter at all.
There are no quotes from Mike,you search for quotes, and he is
just as happy, never with nopublic face whatsoever.
And, and I think that, againgoes back to this army of power
(18:00):
that he has, that has reallynothing to do with the voters,
but it is incredible.
He doesn't have email.
He talks on the phone.
Uh, there is some technologythere, but he governed by
holding court in his officeevery day.
And it's just really, really,really hard to pin him down
anything because he doesn'treally say much
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Here's WBEZ, Dave McKinney.
Speaker 13 (18:20):
He wound up using the chairmanship of the state
democratic party to, to reallykind of cement the majorities in
the house over the years,because there was, you know,
one, one big advantagestrategically of him running
that was, you know, gettingthese great discounts on postage
for mail pieces that the houseDemocrats were sending out.
(18:41):
And I mean, you think of a stateparty chairman, and you think
that, that this is going to besomebody who will go out in
front of cameras and be, youknow, either be a cheerleader
and, and help kind of sellwhatever the parties selling
that day, or be a bulldog andattack the, the Republicans for,
for doing what they're doing.
And Madigan never really had anykeen interest in doing any of
(19:02):
that part of this job.
He was, he was instead justusing it more or less to ensure
that he never lost the gavel inthe Illinois house,
Speaker 1 (19:10):
In his private life.
Madigan was a lawyer, the firmof Madigan& Getzendanner, a firm
specialized in property taxappeals.
If you wanted to hire a firmthat would help you navigate the
political appeals process, youhired Madigan.
Over time, he mastered the artof blending, the political, the
personal and the professional.
Again, the BGA's David Kidwell.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
He's an incredibly smart guy who built enough power
and enough name recognition sothat when he is sitting in front
of the CEO oin a skyscraper, thefact that he's there is enough,
Hey, I hear you need a propertytax lawyer.
(19:51):
It's really, really hard to sayno to that guy, because, you
know, if you're the CEO, at somepoint, you're going to need
something out of the statelegislature.
And it doesn't have to be said,and Mike Madigan never said it.
It frankly was shocking to mewhen I heard the tape of Ed
Burke saying it, I mean, edBurke has the same sort of
property tax business.
And he got caught on tape makingthe deal.
(20:13):
And Mike Madigan just never hasthe, not that we can find.
And I'm not sure that he everwould, but he didn't have to.
And what's amazing about hispartnership with Vincent
Getzendanner is that he's, he'sthe name partner in a property
tax appeal, law firm, uh, in astate, in a county, in an area
(20:36):
that forces you to appeal yourproperty taxes almost every
single year, especially,especially if you're a major
business.
What's amazing about it, eventhough he's a lawyer and he's a
named partner in, in that, inthat firm, he has very rarely if
ever done any actual law.
(20:56):
His only job there is to go fromskyscraper to skyscraper from
business to business saying,Hey, I hear you need a property
tax attorney, but Getzendannerdoes all the actual law there.
That's what amazes me and thefact that the state ethics laws
allow that is even more amazingconsidering who's in charge
those.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So another secret to Madigan's power was to master
the rules of the game.
And when you can go one better,write the rules yourself.
Here's Chicago Tribune, reporterRay Long.
Speaker 14 (21:28):
Well, he definitely drew some of the tightest rules
that you'd find throughout thenation.
And, uh, that was really hissecond vote that he wanted from
lawmakers.
First vote for him for speakersecond, vote for his rules.
He was able to kill many, manyproposals in that rules
(21:49):
committee.
And as a result, uh, there werea lot of people who were, uh,
who bristled about it.
And that is one of the reasonsthat he was viewed as so, uh,
powerful, because he could stopthings or he could let them go.
And when the Republicans hadcontrol of the Senate and
control of the governorship, hewas viewed by labor, by trial
(22:13):
lawyers, by Democrats, as thestopper of bad legislation for
things like the city of Chicagoor for Democrats in general, he
was powerful by the way, he setthings up and he tried to keep
things under control.
At all times, he knew where thelines were.
(22:35):
He made the rules, he made thelaws, he knew how far he could
go on each one of those.
And of course the question iswhether or not he ever went past
them.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
That's Ray Long before him, Dave McKinney and
others we'll hear more from allof them.
As the series continues comingup in episode two.
Speaker 14 (22:59):
The entire,
Speaker 15 (23:00):
House stood up.
Democratic and Republican andbooed me for three minutes.
Standing boovation led byMadigan.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Madigan rule is produced by me, Justin Kaufmann
in association with the BGA, theexecutive producer, David
Greising, special thanks toSteve Edwards for story
consulting and Alex Sugihara forthe music.
Shout out to the Tribune'saward-winning series.
The Madigan Rules written by theBGA's John Chase and David
Kidwell back in 2014.
It detailed Madigan'sself-styled rules for exercising
(23:31):
power, both as the housespeaker, and as one of the
state's most powerful realestate lawyers, you could check
it out in Trib archives.
To find out more about the BGA'sinvestigative reporting and
watchdog efforts go towww.bettergov.org.
In the last 50 years, Illinois has given us some of
the most powerful figures inAmerican politics, t wo
presidents, Obama, and Reagan,two Daleys, Richard J and
Richard M plus Rahm and R osti.
But no one has been morepowerful in the state of
Illinois than Michael J Madigan.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I think it's a story more about Chicago than it is
about Mike Mike Madigan.
When you're able to harness thecash to reward your allies and
punish your foes.
That just becomes another stepin that, in that power or that
Madigan held.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
He failed the black community big time.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
There was no HR set up in this organization.
So the only two options I had toreport it to was the brother of
my harasser or the most powerfulpolitician in the state.
Mike Madigan,
Speaker 5 (00:54):
I saw a very different side of the speaker, a
different side of him than I hadexperienced a side of him that
was funny and welcoming andfriendly and engaging.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
Alot of the interest.
There was about maintainingpersonal power, as opposed to
what's the best policy outcomeinterest for the state of
Illinois.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
He said, Bruce, I do two things.
I manage power and I make moneyfrom managing power.
Speaker 7 (01:19):
No matter what I mean that you're not going to see
anything like that.
He is, is he the last legacy ofthe machine?
Speaker 8 (01:26):
A lot of people stay too long and he might've stayed
too long.
But if I was the governor and Iwas going to have to do
something tough, I sure want himas speaker, try to help him get
it done.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Um, with fewer than 10,000 votes from the 22nd
district in most elections,Madigan dominated the entire
state for five decades, amasspower and reach unrivaled.
And unsurpassed his 50 yearsspan, 10 presidents from Nixon
to Biden and eight governors.
And then in early 2021, hisdynasty came to an abrupt end,
(01:58):
amid a growing investigationinto corruption by close
associates and staff members.
He was pushed out as the chairof the democratic party and
removed as speaker of the house,a position he held for the 36 of
the last 38 years for all of hisprominence and power.
Michael Madigan remains largelya man of mystery.
He rarely gave interviews.
(02:19):
Didn't seek the spotlight, neversought higher national office.
So who is Mike Madigan?
This is a story of how he cameto power, how he wielded that
power and how that poweraffected the lives of the
citizens of Illinois.
Welcome to the first episode ofthe Madigan Rule.
(02:40):
I'm Justin Kaufman.
This podcast is a production ofthe Better Government
Association.
The story of the longest servingstate house speaker in American
history.
This is episode one up from thegarbage truck.
In this podcast we look back andtalk with people who are
witnessed firsthand colleagues,rivals reporters, people who
(03:03):
battled him and collaboratedwith him, people who feared him
and revered him.
Speaker 9 (03:08):
He started off as an individual who worked on the
back of a garbage truck.
And he rose to become anattorney and ended up
representing the majority ofcommercial developments or
properties in the city ofChicago.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Former state representative, Ken Duncan,
Speaker 9 (03:27):
You're talking about an individual who created laws
to insulate himself from anyadditional pursuits that
followed into his legalprofession, those of his
friends, those of his politicalminions.
So he created an institutionthat goes back several
(03:47):
generations, at least three tofour, and all of those
individuals in some way, shapeor form, be indebted to him
Speaker 1 (03:56):
To understand Madigan, you must begin by
understanding the structure ofdemocratic party politics in
Chicago, a system of wards,precinct, captains, ethnic and
tribal, the democratic partyrose to power in the mid 20th
century because it was a familybusiness for many Daley, Burke,
Heinz and Madigan.
That's where he comes from hisdad, a precinct captain in the
(04:18):
13th ward.
Young Mike Madigan started onthe back of a garbage truck,
moved his way up the politicalladder in the Chicago machine.
What's the machine ProPublica'sMick Dunke
Speaker 10 (04:30):
The machine system- you stay in power by exchanging
favors and the patronage systemis what it sounds like.
Essentially jobs are dispensedto loyal members of your
political organization, who inreturn for their continued
employment, mostly in governmentpositions, although as we've
found out now, not necessarilythere were private companies,
(04:54):
the utilities namely, that werealso participating in this
system, but in return for theircontinued employment, you went
out and essentially had a secondjob.
Sometimes it was your primaryjob to do political work for the
organization, ranging fromknocking on doors at election
time to, I guess, knocking ondoors in between elections to
(05:16):
make sure people were satisfiedwith the representation that
they got, the garbage cans theyneed, they got the services they
needed.
And there was that communicationwith elected officials, but the
whole thing rested on thisexchange of favors.
Essentially,
Speaker 1 (05:32):
If you want to truly understand Mike Madigan, the one
place to start is the 13th ward.
Speaker 10 (05:37):
The 13th ward is an area of, uh, Chicago Southwest
side, near midway airport.
Um, long time home of a lot ofpublic sector workers also for a
long time considered one of theethnic wards, uh, meaning, uh,
these were mostly white people,of course, but they had a strong
ethnic identity.
Some of them immigrants orsecond or third generation
(06:00):
immigrants, Mike Madigan, ofcourse, Irish, but a lot of
Polish families out that way,Lithuanian other Eastern
European groups over the years,it is the demographics have
shifted considerably.
So that now I believe the 13thward, like most of the Southwest
side is predominantly Hispanic,but Mike Madigan, uh, worked
(06:22):
with that too.
While he a white Irish guystayed on top of the
organization all these years, hehad a lot of, uh, lieutenants
and, uh, people up and down theladder of the chain of command
in his organization who werethemselves Hispanic.
So, uh, he managed to figure outhow to, how to keep in
connection with the communityand make sure that he had that
(06:44):
kind of base of support.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Another part of the recipe, hard work here's David
Kidwell from the BGA.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I think he had his eye on the prize from very
early.
And it's really, I think it'sdifficult for, especially now,
because most of it's illegal interms of patronage, but I think
it's really difficult for mostpoliticians to get their mind
around the fact of how much heworked on keeping his people
(07:11):
happy and employed and promotedand able to take care of their
families.
And we're talking aboutliterally hundreds of people,
probably even more than that, hespent a great deal of his days
just making phone calls to makesure this guy was taken care of.
And that guy was taken care ofand that garbage hauler and that
(07:35):
right at every level.
And I don't think anybody cancomprehend the amount of effort
that his life was behind takingcare of that, that, that support
base.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So one secret to the Madigan recipe is to work your
ass off.
Another key work the voters.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Mike Madigan, won his power by manipulating the
voters.
In other words, he had guys outat their front door, driving
them to the precinct.
I don't think politicians todaythink that way.
They think about politics asmore of a romance and wooing
people and, and manipulating themindset and getting people out
(08:16):
to the polls through socialmedia or, or, you know, uh,
charisma or whatever.
Mike Madigan was the, is theanti that he, he and his
contemporaries like RichardDaley and Ed Burke just thought
of politics as a different way.
And that is, you know, it's notabout charisma.
It's about just hard work anddeveloping this flanks of people
(08:37):
who are going to work for you.
So it's like stuffing the ballotbox almost, uh, you know, in an
illegal way, uh, at the time,
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Elena Hampton worked for the 22nd district in the
famed Madigan organization,
Speaker 4 (08:50):
It comes down to discipline.
It was about people that workthe hardest.
I mean, when they ask you to dosomething, you'd never say no,
and truly it was a verydisciplined experience.
A lot of times I was workingwhen I was really young, you
know, maybe eight years ago Iwas knocking on doors 40 hours a
week.
(09:10):
And then I would do mygovernment job during the day go
knock doors.
After work.
When I was in campaign season, Iwas walking, knocking on doors
70 hours a week.
I mean, it was really, reallyintense, but it was a good
experience.
I learned a lot from them.
I grew up downstate in aRepublican family, Republican
(09:31):
area.
All I knew about Chicagopolitics really was corruption.
And somehow I had startedworking out of the 13th ward.
It was so bizarre to see howeveryone treated him and
alderman Marty Quinn.
Like they were these likemystical creatures that everyone
had to look up to all the timeand we should be afraid of all
(09:53):
the time.
But as someone that actuallyworked around Madigan, like in
his district office, it wasreally a special experience,
honestly, because I had a, adifferent type of connection
with him and the wardorganization, the precinct
captains that most staffers thatwork in Springfield don't get.
And he is actually like a verykind person, very quiet.
(10:17):
When I would come into theoffice, he would make me coffee.
We both had the same favoritecoffee.
So when he would make a cup forhimself, he would make a cup.
For me.
It was interesting to have thatdifferent experience and see him
in a way that other people nevergot to
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Madigan's playbook wasn't just about taking care of
his community.
It was about mastering the rulesof the game, knowing the rules
better than anyone and usingthem to your advantage, whether
it's parliamentary procedure,ethics, laws, or election laws,
again, Mick Dunke.
Speaker 10 (10:51):
You don't just win by outpolling your opponent.
You win by making sure you don'thave an opponent and using the
machinery of the, the ballotprocess to get people kicked off
before the election evenstarted, you know, the most
famous, uh, nationally famouspolitician from Chicago, Barack
Obama, first got his start thisway, won his first seat in the,
(11:15):
uh, state Senate by getting hisopponents booted off the ballot.
So Mike Madigan, even when theydidn't get people booted, the
threat of, you know, just takingon Mike Madigan and his whole
machine, I think was enough todissuade a lot of people from
even going there.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
There are all kinds of stories going back to the
beginning of time about when,when anybody even remotely
dangerous, uh, uh, file to runagainst him, there would
suddenly be this flood ofcandidates, many of which
propped up by Madigan himselfagainst himself to split the
vote against himself, um, todilute the vote so you literally
(11:54):
had no chance, no chancewhatsoever of challenging Mike
Madigan and in his own district.
Speaker 10 (12:07):
A couple of years ago, I went down on primary
election day, March, 2018 andjust walked around because at
that point in time, there werestarting to be a few dents in
the armor of Mike Madigan.
Certainly of his public image.
I traveled down there.
I wanted to just talk to votersand Mike Madigan's ward.
And the first place I chose, Isaw the address and I was like,
(12:28):
well, you know, there's no placeof business or anything
referenced on the, on the listof polling places for this
particular place.
So I walked up to it and like,am I in the wrong spot?
It's like a bungalow.
It's like this brick house onthe corner of a street.
There's nothing else on thestreet, except other bungalows.
It's quiet except for theoccasional side of an airplane
(12:52):
going into midway or somebodycutting the grass down the
street, but you walk up and Irealized, no, I'm in the right
place.
There was a, a polling placesign, like on the side door to
this house.
I walk up, I opened the door.
The first person I see is awoman sitting half a flight up
at her kitchen table, likehaving breakfast or something.
(13:15):
And I'm just like, oh my God,I've walked into somebody's
house.
I'm so embarrassed.
You know, she just pointsdownstairs.
So she's basically telling meyou're in the right place.
The place to go is downstairs.
So there's a whole polling placeset up in this woman's basement.
You know what I saw there wasjust sort of a snapshot of how
(13:38):
the whole machine worked becausethe first person I spoke to in
the basement was a woman whosaid she was a poll watcher.
Each party can send someone tobe a quote unquote poll watcher
to make sure things appear to beproceeding, uh, without any
Hocus Pocus going on, uh, youknow, any, any kind of
shenanigans going on.
(13:58):
But then as I hung around alittle longer, I saw her leave
her job as a poll watcher and gostand outside and hand out
literature for the wardorganization to people coming in
to vote.
And it was clear.
She knew who most of thesepeople were because they greeted
each other by first name.
You know, somebody came up tome, they're like, Hey, do you
(14:19):
know where Jenny is?
And it turns out, you know,Jenny knew this guy who she
called Manny, and that's justhow it worked.
What I saw there is sort of amicrocosm.
It's sort of an example of howthe whole system works.
Here's former Tribune,investigative reporter, John
Chase.
Now with the BGA.
Speaker 11 (14:38):
It has changed quite a bit throughout, uh, Mike
Madigan's career.
But where it started was thepatronage army Chicago machine
under Richard J Daley, whichreally started previously under
Mayor Cermak.
And so that's how he grew up.
Those were his formativepolitical, uh, years.
And so he kept that going, evenas the machine died or, you
(15:02):
know, in pieces over the years,he kept a lot of it alive
because that's how he grew up.
He didn't need to put oncommercials.
He didn't need to sell himselfto anybody.
He needed to win 10,000 votes inthe 22nd district on the
Southwest side of Chicago.
And that's it.
He didn't need a communicationstyle.
He didn't need to convince him,uh, the voters of Illinois, that
(15:26):
he was a good guy.
He didn't care.
And he didn't need to becausethe power came from this very
small world
Speaker 1 (15:32):
After winning a state representative seat in the
Illinois 22nd Madigan rose upthe ranks of leadership within
the democratic house caucus,ultimately becoming speaker of
the house, a position he heldfor 36 years in 1998.
He also ran for and won theposition of the chairman for the
Illinois democratic party.
That combination of housespeaker and party chair gave him
(15:55):
enormous influence overcandidate selection, campaign
contributions, the legislativeprocess and political loyalty.
Here's Representative KellyCassidy.
Speaker 12 (16:05):
You know, I'd been working in and around politics
and advocacy for many yearsbefore I came into office and I
was married into a family thathad a personal friendship with
him.
So I saw that side of him aswell.
But yeah, I was always very muchaware that he ran the show.
I remember when I first cameinto office, I was originally
appointed to fill a vacancy.
(16:25):
And I met with him in hisdowntown office and he was
describing what what's referredto as the program.
They would put someone in yourdistrict office.
So you got an extra staff personwithout coming out of your
district office allotment thatwould help you sort of get up
and running and get your, youroperation going.
And he explained this person wasgoing to be in my office and
(16:48):
there was a formula to follow.
You were going to knock thedoor, this many doors a week and
make this many calls a week andmake, you know, this, write this
many letters a week.
And, and that your in, indistrict person would report
back.
And he said, a lot of peoplequit the program because they
think I put a spy in, in theiroffice because I did.
And I just laughed and was like,all right, I'm in, I got nothing
(17:09):
to hide.
So I did do the program.
My first, my first term, histheory, and he's not wrong is
that solid constituent servicedrives political success.
Period.
You set up your district officein the right way.
You serve your constituents withan obsession and they're going
to reelect you and he's notwrong.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
For all of his power and influence Madigan was also
remarkably discreet anddisciplined David Kidwell.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
That's the one thing that amazes me most about Mike
Madigan is the amount of powerhe's been able to accumulate
without essentially courting thevoter at all.
There are no quotes from Mike,you search for quotes, and he is
just as happy, never with nopublic face whatsoever.
And, and I think that, againgoes back to this army of power
(18:00):
that he has, that has reallynothing to do with the voters,
but it is incredible.
He doesn't have email.
He talks on the phone.
Uh, there is some technologythere, but he governed by
holding court in his officeevery day.
And it's just really, really,really hard to pin him down
anything because he doesn'treally say much
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Here's WBEZ, Dave McKinney.
Speaker 13 (18:20):
He wound up using the chairmanship of the state
democratic party to, to reallykind of cement the majorities in
the house over the years,because there was, you know,
one, one big advantagestrategically of him running
that was, you know, gettingthese great discounts on postage
for mail pieces that the houseDemocrats were sending out.
(18:41):
And I mean, you think of a stateparty chairman, and you think
that, that this is going to besomebody who will go out in
front of cameras and be, youknow, either be a cheerleader
and, and help kind of sellwhatever the parties selling
that day, or be a bulldog andattack the, the Republicans for,
for doing what they're doing.
And Madigan never really had anykeen interest in doing any of
(19:02):
that part of this job.
He was, he was instead justusing it more or less to ensure
that he never lost the gavel inthe Illinois house,
Speaker 1 (19:10):
In his private life.
Madigan was a lawyer, the firmof Madigan& Getzendanner, a firm
specialized in property taxappeals.
If you wanted to hire a firmthat would help you navigate the
political appeals process, youhired Madigan.
Over time, he mastered the artof blending, the political, the
personal and the professional.
Again, the BGA's David Kidwell.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
He's an incredibly smart guy who built enough power
and enough name recognition sothat when he is sitting in front
of the CEO oin a skyscraper, thefact that he's there is enough,
Hey, I hear you need a propertytax lawyer.
(19:51):
It's really, really hard to sayno to that guy, because, you
know, if you're the CEO, at somepoint, you're going to need
something out of the statelegislature.
And it doesn't have to be said,and Mike Madigan never said it.
It frankly was shocking to mewhen I heard the tape of Ed
Burke saying it, I mean, edBurke has the same sort of
property tax business.
And he got caught on tape makingthe deal.
(20:13):
And Mike Madigan just never hasthe, not that we can find.
And I'm not sure that he everwould, but he didn't have to.
And what's amazing about hispartnership with Vincent
Getzendanner is that he's, he'sthe name partner in a property
tax appeal, law firm, uh, in astate, in a county, in an area
(20:36):
that forces you to appeal yourproperty taxes almost every
single year, especially,especially if you're a major
business.
What's amazing about it, eventhough he's a lawyer and he's a
named partner in, in that, inthat firm, he has very rarely if
ever done any actual law.
(20:56):
His only job there is to go fromskyscraper to skyscraper from
business to business saying,Hey, I hear you need a property
tax attorney, but Getzendannerdoes all the actual law there.
That's what amazes me and thefact that the state ethics laws
allow that is even more amazingconsidering who's in charge
those.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So another secret to Madigan's power was to master
the rules of the game.
And when you can go one better,write the rules yourself.
Here's Chicago Tribune, reporterRay Long.
Speaker 14 (21:28):
Well, he definitely drew some of the tightest rules
that you'd find throughout thenation.
And, uh, that was really hissecond vote that he wanted from
lawmakers.
First vote for him for speakersecond, vote for his rules.
He was able to kill many, manyproposals in that rules
(21:49):
committee.
And as a result, uh, there werea lot of people who were, uh,
who bristled about it.
And that is one of the reasonsthat he was viewed as so, uh,
powerful, because he could stopthings or he could let them go.
And when the Republicans hadcontrol of the Senate and
control of the governorship, hewas viewed by labor, by trial
(22:13):
lawyers, by Democrats, as thestopper of bad legislation for
things like the city of Chicagoor for Democrats in general, he
was powerful by the way, he setthings up and he tried to keep
things under control.
At all times, he knew where thelines were.
(22:35):
He made the rules, he made thelaws, he knew how far he could
go on each one of those.
And of course the question iswhether or not he ever went past
them.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
That's Ray Long before him, Dave McKinney and
others we'll hear more from allof them.
As the series continues comingup in episode two.
Speaker 14 (22:59):
The entire,
Speaker 15 (23:00):
House stood up.
Democratic and Republican andbooed me for three minutes.
Standing boovation led byMadigan.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Madigan rule is produced by me, Justin Kaufmann
in association with the BGA, theexecutive producer, David
Greising, special thanks toSteve Edwards for story
consulting and Alex Sugihara forthe music.
Shout out to the Tribune'saward-winning series.
The Madigan Rules written by theBGA's John Chase and David
Kidwell back in 2014.
It detailed Madigan'sself-styled rules for exercising
(23:31):
power, both as the housespeaker, and as one of the
state's most powerful realestate lawyers, you could check
it out in Trib archives.
To find out more about the BGA'sinvestigative reporting and
watchdog efforts go towww.bettergov.org.
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