IL-AG: On Friday, Democrat Lisa Madigan surprised the Illinois political world when she announced that she would not seek a fifth term as state attorney general. Madigan did say she would not run for anything in 2018, though she left open the possibility that she would seek major office again.
For years, Madigan has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the U.S. Senate or for governor. In 2009, national Democrat, including President Obama, tried to recruit Madigan to run for his old Senate seat, but she turned them down, and she also did not run for governor that year. In 2014, it looked likely that Madigan would challenge Gov. Pat Quinn in the primary, but she once again passed. (Democrats ended up losing both the 2010 Senate race and 2014 gubernatorial contest.) Madigan's father, Mike Madigan, is the speaker of the state House, and Lisa Madigan said in 2013 that she felt it would be bad for the governor and speaker to come from the same family.
Madigan showed little interest in running for the Senate in 2016 or for governor this cycle, and she seems to be waiting for her father to leave the stage before going further. But Mike Madigan, who has been speaker since 1983 (aside from two years in the mid-1990s when Democrats were in the minority) shows no sign of going anywhere.
Several Democrats have already expressed interest in running to succeed Madigan in the attorney general's office. State Sen. Kwame Raoul, another rising star who has been stalled for years, acknowledged his interest. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who passed on a 2011 bid for mayor of Chicago, did not rule anything out, either.