Speaker Madigan Radicalized Illinois Democrats, Resulting in Pritzker’s “Fair Tax” Proposal

Alexandria, VA— Over the 35 years Speaker Madigan has presided over the lower chamber, Democrats have increasingly voted more liberally, according to new analysis from the American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF), host of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). This new radical Left regime has since passed Governor J.B. Pritzker’s “soak the rich” progressive income tax regime which Illinoisans will consider on the November 2020 ballot.

In 2012 when ACUF first began analyzing the voting records of the General Assembly, House Democrats earned an average conservative score of 35%. However, as Speaker Madigan began turning in scores of 16%, 6% and 5% over the next few sessions, House Democrats followed suit and earned average scores of 19%, 14% and 11%.

“While Speaker Madigan’s near-five-decade reign appears to be coming to a disgraceful end, the Illinois Democrats he helped convert into socialists have so far survived his criminal scandal,” said ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp. “Throughout his 47 years in power, Illinois has earned the lowest credit rating in the country, weathered the most severe pension crisis in U.S. history and suffered the worst population decline in the last 10 years. Is there a more damning indictment of liberalism than Madigan’s tenure in government?”

House Democrats earned a 17.92% average compared to Senate Democrats with 14.09%. A greater share of senators (10%) earned awards for conservative voting records than representatives (7%). The Illinois General Assembly matched its overall average score compared to the previous session (35.6%).

ACUF’s Ratings of Congress and Ratings of the States are initiatives of ACUF’s Center for Legislative Accountability (CLA). These ratings are designed to reflect how over 8,000 elected officials across the nation view the role of government while illustrating the differences between chambers of the legislature and revealing lawmakers’ positions on a wide variety of issues that directly affect citizens.

ACU Foundation reviewed each piece of legislation voted on in both chambers of the legislature to produce average scores of each chamber as well as individual scores for each sitting member.

Click Here to view the 2019 Ratings of Illinois online and Click Here to visit our website.

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