Illinois House Speaker Faces Challenger Amid Budget Furor
The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform is mentioned in this article
via The News Tribune
“Jason Gonzales stands out among the longshot candidates who have dared attempting to unseat powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has handily won his southwest side Chicago district every two years for almost four decades.
Gonzales has a Harvard degree. He has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to compete in the now-majority Latino district. And his candidacy in the March 15 primary comes at a time when circumstances might favor a challenger: Voters are frustrated at state government’s ongoing paralysis amid a budget deadlock between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Madigan-led Democrats, plunging Illinois further into debt every day.
‘We need some serious disruption if we’re going to survive as a state,’ said Gonzales, 42, who has not run for office before. ‘We gotta face the facts, we gotta face the situation that we’re in. And Speaker Madigan has helped put is in that position.'”
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