Madigan-eye view of Illinois politics

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Updated: March 6, 2012 8:16AM

Wait, could this be some crazy mistake?

Tuesday night when I walked into Saputo’s Italian Restaurant in Springfield, a regular haunt of lawmakers and lobbyists, a server led me to the table everyone in this political town knows.

Yikes, it was the Speaker’s Table! The table of four where Mike Madigan ALWAYS sits when dining there. And he’s there a lot.

I looked around.

Cautiously, I took his chair. The one on the inside where, Al Capone style, he sits with his back against the wall.

When two colleagues arrived and saw where I was, they, too, stopped cold.

“Isn’t this .... ?” one began, not needing to finish his question.

“Yes,” I said quietly, “it is.”

If anyone ever doubted there is always a method to Madigan’s madness, sitting in his chair puts that notion to rest.

The speaker’s table is strategically positioned. Whoever walks through Saputo’s front door, Madigan has time, sitting in the second of the restaurant’s three sections, to spot them. And decide if he’s going to allow them to greet him or turn his full attention to his dinner instead.

“Very few will stop,” said Rich Miller, publisher of the Illinois’ political bible, the Capitol Fax blog.

What does the person in this chair order?

Healthy stuff.

Chicken with peppers or capers, halibut or salmon, according to Madigan spokesman Steve Brown.

Plus, adds Miller, “Two house side salads, he’s crazy about those salads.”

And Toasted Head chardonnay — a restrained amount — that Saputo’s orders specifically for the speaker.

Me? I opted for red meat and red wine. But I spent a lot of time thinking about how Mike Madigan might be thinking about the coming elections of 2012 and 2014.

He’s head of the Illinois Democratic Party, and a lot is in play.

It has always been assumed that the speaker is preparing a path by which his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, might one day become governor. And yet a rumor has been gaining steam that Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton are quietly pushing the idea that County Board President Toni Preckwinkle should jump in the 2014 primary. And run against fellow Democrat and incumbent Pat Quinn, whom they disdain.

Preckwinkle’s approval numbers, after all, are a lot better than the sorry state of Quinn’s most recent polls.

Nobody from Preckwinkle, Cullerton, Madigan or Quinn’s camps offers any credence to this rumor. Which could mean it’s true. But also problematic.

Preckwinkle’s independent streak has already resulted in a clash with Madigan’s Democratic ward bosses. She’s endorsed 2012 candidates they don’t like, among them Joy Cunningham, an Appellate Court justice running for the Illinois Supreme Court against Rahm Emanuel’s preferred candidate, Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis. Another well-known name is also in that race, Appellate Court Justice Aurelia Pucinski.

Pucinski and Cunningham have earned the distinction of beating the Machine before. It’s way too soon to call this race.

And precious few political people in this town truly know who’s up, who’s down, who’s in or who’s out.

One of them — when an imposter is not in his place — sits in Saputo’s.

Back to the wall. Inside seat.