Dupage Policy Journal

Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) has been a conductor on the "Mike Madigan needs to go express train" long before his feud with Rep. Scott Drury (D-Highwood) became public.

“(House Speaker) Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) rules with an iron hand, even when he’s clearly wrong and even when the dispute is with members of his own party,” Ives, who is challenging Gov. Bruce Rauner in the Republican primary, told the DuPage Policy Journal. “It’s no way to govern and is a disservice to the voters.”

Madigan and Drury have been at loggerheads ever since Drury decided not to support his re-election as House speaker. Drury, a former federal prosecutor, is running for attorney general in the Democratic primary and Madigan has been far from a supporter, culminating in a union Illinois News Network has reported as having ties to Madigan working to have Drury knocked off the March 20 ballot.

Illinois State House Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton)

“Every other Democrat falls in line with him (Madigan),” Ives said. “They do it because they want his money to get re-elected and they want to keep their cushy jobs with all the benefits. Drury has an independent streak; he’s the first Democrat to publicly call for Madigan’s resignation.”

In the end, Ives said she is hoping that voters will wake up and realize that Madigan has been in charge in Springfield through all the state’s ongoing doldrums.

“My family showed up in Illinois 26 years ago and back then the state was a haven for jobs,” she said. “Things have drastically changed under Madigan and none of it has been for the better.”

Even given that reality, Ives isn’t willing to absolve Rauner for all the ways he has contributed to the state’s tough times during his four years as governor.

“It was Rauner who signed abortion expansion bill HB40, presided over the 32 percent income tax increase and turned us into a sanctuary state,” she said. “All those things are his doing and he has to take responsibility for them along with all his other many blunders.”