Pritzker Calls For Madigan to Step Down as Party Leader.

Illinois’ Democratic governor says Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan should step down as chairman of the state Democratic Party.

Governor J.B. Pritzker on Thursday agreed with the state’s senior U.S. senator, Dick Durbin, that the longtime political powerbroker’s implication in a federal bribery investigation hurt Democrats in Tuesday’s elections.

The Justice Department has implicated Madigan, the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history, in a decade-long bribery scheme in which utility giant ComEd has admitted participating.

Pritzker said his top priority, implementing a graduated income tax structure to tax the wealthy at higher rates, fell victim to voter distrust.

State Representative Dan Swanson believes the defeat of the Progressive Tax Amendment, Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride not being retained, and modest Republican gains in the Illinois Statehouse were a message from voters on election day to Madigan.

Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride lost his bid for retention on the Illinois Supreme Court by a margin of 54% to 43% in what was seen as a resounding rebuke to Madigan, who had spent heavily on ads to push for Kilbride to be retained.