There are two theories as to why house speaker Michael Madigan is working to elect his daughter to the state senate. There’s the southwest-side theory, which says that Madigan is a loyal father helping his daughter’s career. Then there’s the north-side theory: white south-side political bosses are losing their home turf to blacks and Latinos, and are looking to the white wards of the north lakefront to continue their families’ political dynasties.
“I was a north-sider who just happened to have to go live in a house on the southwest side,” Madigan says.
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For the sake of her current ambitions, it was a stroke of tremendous fortune that that southwest-side house contained the most powerful Democrat in Illinois. Michael Madigan not only provided his stepdaughter with a home, he gave her an education in politics. When the legislator was courting her mother, Lisa had to ask, “What’s a politician?” Michael Madigan taught her. Every summer she went down to Springfield to see him at work. Often she joined him at his desk as an honorary page.
“She has an appreciation for how education can change people’s lives when there’s social or economic barriers,” Clontz said. “For such a young woman, she had a deep respect for the senior citizens and an expectation that they wanted to learn and grow.”
Crown believes white south-side pols are trying to take over the north side because their children will always be able to win elections there. The southwest-side wards are slowly being infiltrated by minorities who wouldn’t vote Irish even though this year’s primary will be held on Saint Patrick’s Day. But high property values in Lakeview and Lincoln Park will keep those neighborhoods white indefinitely. Former Cook County assessor Thomas Hynes is another south-side politician trying to move the family business north. His son Dan is running for state comptroller–from an address in Lincoln Park.
Once he was won over, the speaker didn’t just give his daughter his blessing–he let her borrow his political machine. Two of Lisa’s campaign staffers, Novia Pagone and Rob Biederman, used to work for the house Democratic staff, which is controlled by the speaker.
“I don’t have any concerns about my ability to be independent of my father,” she said. “A lot of what you end up hearing is more hype than reality.”
