Madigan deals with fallout from Mapes
You don’t have to read past the first sentence of Tim Mapes’ statement last week to see one of the core problems with the way he ran the Illinois House Democratic operation. Mapes was responding to an investigative report commissioned by House Speaker Michael Madigan to get to the bottom of allegations of sexual harassment and bullying in his Statehouse operation.
“For over forty years,” Mapes wrote in his response, “I had the privilege of serving in the Illinois State Legislature.”
Um, no.
Mapes worked “for” the legislature, he didn’t serve “in” it. But he always seemed to behave as if he was one of the most important people in all of the General Assembly.
Mapes managed to accumulate just about every power possible: Madigan’s chief of staff, executive director of Madigan’s Democratic Party of Illinois and House Clerk. That meant every single person in Speaker Madigan’s world - from legislators, to lobbyists, to campaign workers, to committee clerks to legislative secretaries - had to answer to him and only to him. He was the indispensable one, until Madigan told him to quit over sexual harassment allegations.
Read more: https://illinoistimes.com/article-21554-madigan-deals-with-fallout-from-mapes.html