Madigan Suspends His Campaign for Speaker

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan has announced he is suspending his campaign for re-election to the speaker position after falling short of the number of votes needed on the closed-door first ballot. Madigan received only 51 or the needed 60 votes to secure re-election. Madigan announced in a statement on Monday that he would not withdraw from re-election but suspend his campaign. Madigan has been speaker of the house from 1983 to 1995 and then from 1997 to the present.