It’s not such a stretch to link the current attempt to upend the state’s most powerful politician to a teenage gabfest back in 1989.
That’s when a few girlfriends, sitting on a couch in Midlothian, began talking about what they wanted to do with this next phase of their lives after graduation.
That’s also when then 18-year-old Wheaton High School grad Stephanie Kifowit, “a little bored” working at Osco and taking some classes at College of DuPage, declared her desire for some “adventure and excitement.” So she pulled out a phone book, called a Harvey recruiting station, and picked the U.S. Marine Corps over the Air Force or Army because she figured “go big or go home.”
When I spoke with state Rep. Kifowit on Friday, the 84th District Democrat who represents portions of Aurora, Naperville, Oswego and Montgomery, had a day earlier announced she was challenging Michael Madigan’s post as Speaker of the House. And she quickly pointed to her stint in the U.S. Marines with giving her the moxie to take on the undisputed Boss Man of Illinois politics and do so in such way that could define her own political destiny.
Go big or go home?
That’s not the phrase rolling around in Kifowit’s head in early August when she became one of seven female legislators publicly demanding that Madigan, the longest serving state House speaker in the history of the United States and president of the state’s Democratic party, resign his positions after federal prosecutors announced an agreement with Commonwealth Edison in which the utility admitted to a bribery scheme aimed at currying favor with the powerful speaker.
But it sure fits her latest announcement, a move many of her colleagues might label as political folly but to Illinois taxpayers sick of corruption it is a much-appreciated and long-overdue act of courage.
Madigan currently oversees a 74-44 Democratic majority in the House and has been able to build a powerful Democratic machine in which he controls the purse strings and thus the policies and politics in this state. Kifowit’s own campaign fund has received nearly $729,000 in contributions from 2011-2019 from three campaign funds controlled by Madigan, and as we surely know by now, he regards loyalty above all else.
With such power comes arrogance, as was evident when, even with a special legislative investigation going on, Madigan not only ignored mounting calls to step down, he put out a three-page letter defending his aggressive push to put political allies and their friends and family on taxpayer-funded payrolls.
That was the final straw for Kifowit, who felt she had no choice but to challenge his hold on the kingdom, especially after speaking with other colleagues who’ve also asked for Madigan’s resignation but have no plans to challenge the boss.
“If you say nothing, then that is your acceptance of how things run in this state,” Kifowit told me. “I felt someone had to step up to him.”
The former Aurora alderman, running unopposed in her district in the November election, says reaching for a higher political role was never part of her game plan, but that over the years she’s grown more frustrated “when I would see things that concerned me get dismissed or gaslighted.”
“I did not think anyone else would come forward to challenge him and members of the 102nd General Assembly need to have a choice,” she said.
So why not a veteran of the U.S. Marines? After all, they aren’t called Devil Dogs for nothing,
Kifowit credits this recent gutsy decision to those “formative boot camp years” when she had to “face fear head first” while rappelling from a rope 50 feet up or crawling through mud or under barbed wire with simulated bombs going off.
Challenging the most powerful politician in the state “does not scare me,” she said, despite the backlash she knows is coming.
“The amount of intimidation is intense,” Kifowit said. “It’s not necessarily happening right now, but it will happen on a micro-aggressive level or in other nefarious ways.
“I may lose my chairmanship,” she added, referring to the Veterans Affairs Committee. “My residents will understand if I don’t get any bills passed next year. I may not end up with any money in my account, but I always wind up OK.”
That’s because that “knee-jerk reaction made on a couch with a bunch of friends” ultimately resulted in a fearless attitude she knows will be needed for the political dogfight ahead. Although encouraged by the wave of support she’s received from around the state, Kifowit says she’s ready for the David vs. Goliath battle that’s headed her way.
“I have to stand up for the people of Illinois,” she insisted. “I know too many people who have died for this country. And I can’t live with what this state of Illinois continues to evolve into under his leadership.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
