To get the right people to your party, sometimes you need to personalize the invitations.

    Miller and Simpson shared with me the e-mails asking them to take part. Miller’s came from a producer with Emergent Order, the production house in Austin, Texas, that’s creating the documentary. It read:

                      We’re looking for your extensive knowledge of Illinois’ political climate and unique perspective on what’s happening with the state, particularly as it relates to Michael Madigan’s 31 years as speaker of the house. What is working? What is not working? What should be changed? Learning your insights into the current state of the state, state of political tensions and perhaps some historical anecdotes would help us paint an accurate picture of this great state and how it can move forward into the future with success.


                      I’m emailing you as part of an effort to source outstanding interview subjects for a feature-length documentary on Speaker Madigan. The project is being produced by a shop called Emergent Order, which does great work. They requested that Illinois Policy assist them in this process.  

                      If you’d be interested in participating, please let me know and I will have them reach out to you directly. I believe the budget contains per diem payments for the interviewees. 


    Rich Miller felt the impact of the Madigan documentary when he found out who was behind it. He wrote an item for Capitol Fax on September 15 under the  headline “Duped.” He went on, “I had no idea that the Illinois Policy Institute was behind this thing, but I did get a couple of hints during Tuesday’s interview when some of the group’s stories were used as a basis for a few of their questions. So, I have no clue what they’re gonna do with my interview. Sigh.”

  I’ve written skeptically of IPI in the past—here, for example, and here—which is why I was surprised when Rickert and Austin Berg approached me at last spring’s Lisagor Awards dinner to engage in badinage and take pictures. They seemed like nice kids. But apparently our relationship’s new footing didn’t survive the first rainstorm. Rickert and Berg have ignored my repeated requests—by phone and e-mail—to speak to them about Madigan. And it appears, given the equal silence in Austin, that someone advised Emergent Order to do the same. 


I’d asked the Tribune‘s editor, Bruce Dold, what he thought about his page-two columnist and editorial cartoonist showing up in Madigan‘s partisan arena. He sent me a prepared statement, and in it he didn’t sound happy.