Mike Madigan | City of Urbana
Mike Madigan | City of Urbana
Urbana Alderman and local restaurant owner Michael Madigan is running for the Illinois Senate on the Republican ticket in the 52nd District.
Madigan has served Urbana's Ward 6 since May 2013. He sits on the Cunningham Township Board and the Urbana Traffic Commission.
Madigan shares a name with the Democratic Speaker of the House and has said he hopes to leverage the similarities in name to draw distinctions between policies.
Madigan has described himself as a pro-business candidate who is not a career politician, though he also touts his background as a former legislative staffer and aide to former Gov. George Ryan.
Madigan said he hopes to leverage his business experience to help address the state's ongoing financial woes.
"I truly believe that everyone should be at the table talking about a shared type of ownership of the problems," he told The (Champaign) News Gazette in a recent interview. "I think that means the trades, I think that means taxpayers, I think that means everyone. A tax increase is not the answer here, in and of itself. I think ultimately if there were some structural business reforms put in place in Illinois, I think we could deal with our structural deficit budget. We've not had a balanced budget since 2001."
Madigan is running against Democratic incumbent Sen. Scott Bennett.
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