SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois history is not light on political heavyweights. But Michael Madigan’s longevity as speaker of the state House and chairman of the Democratic Party made an outsized impact during the past four decades.
Chicago Tribune investigative reporter Ray Long has assembled the highs and lows of Madigan’s career in “The House that Madigan Built: The Record Run of Illinois’ Velvet Hammer.” It’s scheduled for release Tuesday by the University of Illinois Press.
Long’s account covers Madigan from his 1981 wrangling of the legislative district process that put him in the speaker’s chair to his implication in a federal bribery scheme that would cost him the gavel and eventually lead to a 22-count indictment in a pay-to-play scandal.
