Dec 12, 2008 5:25 pm US/Central
Lisa Madigan In Spotlight Following Scandal
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Illinois Attorney Gen. Lisa Madigan
CBS
The Blagojevich scandal is putting Lisa Madigan in the national spotlight.
She owes her early success in politics to her father. Mike Madigan stands unchallenged now as state government's most powerful figure. He's not only speaker of the Illinois House, but chairman of the State Democratic Party.
Presiding at Friday's no-nonsense news conference about Blagojevich, Lisa Madigan, at age 42, is now far more than Daddy's girl.
Madigan and her husband, Patrick Byrnes, have granted the public only a few brief glimpses of their personal lives. CBS 2 Political Editor visited them six years ago, shortly before their marriage in a traditional Roman Catholic ceremony.
Sharing her powerful father's passion for politics, she also has his renowned toughness, befitting perhaps a former captain of a high school girls' volleyball team. After graduation from Georgetown University, she worked at a Catholic mission in South Africa. While in the General Assembly, she occasionally split with her dad.
"I've been walking the halls of Springfield and had my father come up to me (and say) 'Well, what is this. You're not voting for the Bears stadium bill?'" the junior Madigan said in 2002. "`No, I'm not voting for the Bears stadium bill.'"
Since winning election as attorney general in 2002, she's surrounded herself with a staff that even critics concede is generally smart and hard-working. All of the trademark Madigan qualities were on display at Friday's news conference, even as she repeatedly said something no longtime observer believes at all.
"Political issues and political matters are not even on my radar screen this week," she told reporters. "I haven't been thinking about politics, unlike the rest of you, all week long."
Before the Blagojevich crisis erupted, Lisa Madigan had been very busy behind the scenes lining up support for a campaign for governor. The 2010 primary is only 14 months away. Candidates will be filing one year from now.
Ms. Madigan, by the way, has two very young children: Lucy, age 9 months, and Rebecca, age 3 1/2.
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