How to get a hold of the top officials in Illinois

By Doug Schroder

Editor

While I was covering the garage sales in Winnebago a few weeks ago, I had a Gazette reader ask me how he could get in touch with Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, as the reader was rather upset about the actions of the Speaker in passing a balanced budget. The reader knew he could probably just Google something and find out the information, but he wanted to see it in print.

Well, for me, it wasn’t as easy as just Googling to finally get Madigan’s contact info. The first search took me to his Madigan-Quinn webpage at http://www.madigan-quinn.com/contact.html, that’s a page Madigan shares with Chicago Ward 13 Alderman Marty Quinn. Two addresses and phone numbers were given, but no distinction was given between the two. I called one number, only to find out it was the 773.581.8000 number for Madigan. So, I called that number, telling them I was a concerned Illinois taxpayer and wanted to know when a balanced budget was going to be passed. All that elicited was another phone number to call. The number for the Issue Staff was given to me, 217-782-4040. After calling that number I was given yet another number to call, Speaker Madigan’s office in Springfield.

Okay, now I thought I was getting somewhere. At 4:48 p.m. on Friday, June 26, I called 217-782-5350. After over 10 rings I hung up.

Fast forward to Monday, June 27 at 11:15 a.m., I called again and got through. I expressed my concern about the budget and was reassured that it would be taken care of at the meeting on Wednesday, June 29. Madigan has cancelled the past three Wednesdays where this was to be taken care of. I was put on hold twice. After the second time I hung up.

Other than the phone numbers given above, Madigan has no other way of getting a hold of him, besides snail mail. Not very many correspond in that fashion anymore. He doesn’t make himself very accessible.

Gov. Rauner can be reached at 312-814-2121 by phone. He also can be contacted through social media on his Facebook page, or email him at [email protected]. That information was easy to find.

Whatever your political association is, here’s some info to contact those in charge.