Mike Halpin (right) during his interview with a WQAD reporter
Mike Halpin (right) during his interview with a WQAD reporter
The vote of a newly elected House Democrat -- who said in an interview this week that he supported House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) -- has been bought and paid for, according to a GOP spokesman's statement in a recent press release.
"Mike Halpin (D-Rock Island) is a bought-and-paid-for hypocrite," Illinois Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe told Rock Island Today via a news release. "He claims on his campaign website to reject ‘politics as usual’ and ‘insider politics,’ but by doubling down on his support of 'Boss' Madigan, the literal definition of politics as usual, Halpin betrays his own words."
Halpin, a freshman House member who won the 72nd District seat in the last general election, said during a broadcast on WQAD-TV that Madigan's Democrat values represent his own.
"I'm going to vote for the speaker I believe, as a Democrat, represents the values that I as a Democrat represent: what I ran on when I talked to people," Halpin told a WQAD reporter.
Halpin won the House seat with more than 56 percent of the vote, defeating his Republican challenger, working mother and activist Brandi McGuire.
"I don't owe anyone except the people that elected me," Halpin said during the WQAD interview.
Halpin's support for Madigan to be House Speaker again is no surprise, according to Yaffe.
"It’s no surprise that Halpin would back his political patron," the GOP spokesman said. "Madigan funneled $345,000 to help get Halpin elected this cycle."
Calls for Madigan not to enter a fourth decade as House speaker are not new. In fact, the Chicago Tribune's editorial board urged voters to "break up" with Madigan as House speaker.
"Madigan has become a liability for many Democrats on the Nov. 8 ballot, and not only in southern Illinois," the Tribune said to voters on Oct. 21. "The dysfunction of state government, the enormous spending, the pension crisis, the chronically unbalanced budgets -- the onus falls largely on the leader who's been in Springfield for 46 years. Since 1971."
Illinois voters certainly turned out for Republicans in the general election: the GOP gained four House seats to leave Springfield House Democrats with a 67-51 majority, eroding the 71-47 supermajority it had held prior to the election.
More Republicans in the state House could have implications on next week's vote for House speaker, if enough Democrats can be persuaded to join them.
Should Republican House members vote against Madigan, which observers say seems likely, only nine Democrats, rather than 13, would have to break ranks. If that did happen, those 60 votes against Madigan would be enough keep Madigan from continuing on as House speaker.
Before Christmas, the Chicago Tribune's editorial board issued a list of Democrats who might be persuaded to vote against Madigan.
"What do you have to lose except two more years of dysfunction?" the newspaper's Dec. 21 editorial said. "Remember, you don't work for him. You work for voters. They didn't send you to Springfield to be gutless. They sent you to do what's best for Illinois, regardless of the consequences."
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