Only insofar as the Keyes meltdown will help Democratic downballot races, but the emergence of Barack Obama as a power base unto himself is not good news to Madigan who likes to run the show. It gives Emil more influence over the state operation as a close ally of Obama and movement candidates are always dangerous to the machine. In the short term, it is very, very good for him as he can go to business and use his stand against The Blagorgeous to feed at the corporate trough along with the Governor and he’s probably pretty safe in maintaining seats (sorry Cross guys, but it’s a tough year)
“Somewhere, Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan must be smiling.”
I think that it is a victory if we play ‘defense’ on Coulson and McAulliffe, and pick up one or two seats…..
this is our ‘first’ shot at winning seats. The old guy had 20 years to get his ‘machine’ running and it still was creaky.
That “old guy” was speaker for 8 out of 10 years under a GOP map. I wouldn’t underestimate his ability to take full advantage of Bush’s unpopularity and Keyes’s nuttiness.