In the News`

"Trust or Bust: Reflection on One Year in Washington"
Huffington Post (4/21/2010)

One year ago today, I was sworn in to represent Illinois' 5th District in the United States Congress. As I said that night on the House floor, "the people of my district gave me their trust--I can't tell you how much that means to me." In his State of the Union address, President Obama spoke of a "deficit of trust." A recent Pew poll quantified his concern, showing that only 22 percent of Americans trust their government to do the right thing. Put another way, eight out of ten Americans expect us to make the wrong decision.

On my one-year anniversary, I believe our greatest challenge and mandate in Washington--and Illinois--is regaining the public's trust.

The key to rebuilding that trust is in understanding that, as public servants, our mission matters. It means not just paying lip service, but taking financial responsibility, transparency, and ethics as seriously as the voters want us to. If we can make the tough decisions and prove these as priorities to the public, trust will follow. (click here to read more)

"Why We're For Quigley"
Editorial - Chicago Tribune (3/1/09)

There are a lot of Democrats running in the 5th Congressional District and a lot of them have been throwing mud in the last few weeks. Democratic voters might be growing weary, and even a bit confused.

Let's bring it down to this. If you're a Democrat and you want a candidate with solid Democratic values, you can almost throw a dart at the ballot. Almost all of them qualify.

If you're a Democrat and you want a candidate who fights every day against the corruption and ineptitude that plagues state and local government, you have one candidate: Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley.

The Tribune has endorsed Quigley because he has spent 10 years on the board challenging the political status quo. He led the fight against Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's 1 percentage-point sales-tax increase. He blocked Stroger's attempt this year to borrow money to pay for even more of Cook County's bloated operation.

He has sought to protect taxpayers and to provide better health care and other services in Cook County. He has been a leader on the environment and human rights.

We watched Quigley at a news conference on Friday, fending off a negative ad blitz from Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, one of his opponents, who has questioned his reform credentials. Quigley has thrown some barbs her way too. We're not going to dissect all these attacks.

We'll just pick up a quote from Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, who has also been stalwart in his efforts to clean up county government.

"For 10 years Mike Quigley has stood up to the Stroger political machine," Claypool said at the Friday presser. "He was first on the beach. He led the way ... to suggest otherwise is patently absurd."

"Memo to Fritchey about Quigley"
Carol Marin - Chicago Sun-Times (2/28/09)

Fifth Congressional District candidate John Fritchey sent a note of apology.

Fritchey quoted me in a campaign mailer but misspelled my last name in the attribution.

No problem, John.

The problem was the selective use of my words regarding your opponent, Mike Quigley, about whom I have written a lot.

Yes, I did say in March of 2007 that Quigley was being viewed as "the Benedict Arnold of county politics, the turncoat who keeps turning, reform one day, un-reform the next."

But that's far from the whole story. The criticism of Quigley at the time was that despite his long history of reform as a commissioner on the Cook County Board, he had tried to find common ground with its hopeless president, Todd Stroger, exacting promises of more transparency in return. It didn't work out the couple of times Quigley tried, and he quickly went back to being the ferocious voice of opposition.

But make no mistake: Quigley is a reformer.

And if State Rep. Fritchey, who also properly lays claim to some reform credentials, is going to throw stones for working with un-reformers from time to time, he better be careful. After all, one of his big backers in this candidate-clogged race for Rahm Emanuel's old seat is none other than Dick Mell, the alderman, ward boss and infamous father-in-law who was instrumental in giving us Rod Blagojevich as governor before he later turned on his ingrate son-in-law.

So for the record, no candidate in this race survives living in a glass house. But Quigley has been the real deal.

And you can sign that anyway you want -- Martin or Marin.

"Open Season"
Crain's Chicago Business (1/19/09)
"...It's been a long time since Chicago enjoyed a truly "open" primary for a big elected job, one that City Hall and the Regular Democratic Organization, aka the Machine, sat out. But after much early posturing and maneuvering, that's exactly what has shaped up in the race for the 5th Congressional District seat that incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel held on the North and Northwest sides....If the first poll of the season is accurate, the solid if early front-runner is Mr. Quigley, whose battles with county President Todd Stroger over raising taxes and slashing waste have earned him pages of good publicity.According to a poll conducted for his campaign by Alabama-based Anzalone Liszt Research, Mr. Quigley leads with 19%, to 11% for Ms. Feigenholtz and 8% for Mr. Fritchey. The remainder (55%) is undecided or scattered elsewhere, with a sampling error of plus or minus 4.4%...."

"Candidates vying for Rahm's seat"
ABC - 7 Chicago (1/7/09)
" ...The Democratic primary also includes...Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, who has been battling the Stroger machine for nearly a decade ..."

"In Your Pocket Again"
Editorial, The Chicago Tribune (12/18/08)
" ...Nor could Stroger credibly explain why the county needs to borrow money when it has all this new sales tax revenue. It's senseless. Meanwhile, County Board member Michael Quigley's reports on reinventing Cook County-how to modernize, streamline and dramatically reduce costs-gather dust. Those spending reforms would let Cook County lower taxes and debt rather than raise them. In other words, those reforms would slash your rising Stroger burden... "

"Quigley's caso for Congress has kernel of truth; Tough policy wonk could be good fit for Emauel's seat"
Mark Brown, The Chicago Sun-Times (11/16/08)
" ....The veteran county commissioner undoubtedly enters the race as something of an underdog, if for no other reason than that he has managed to anger a lot of powerful politicians in his efforts to reform county government. But he'd have a chance if progressive-minded voters got together quickly behind his candidacy instead of allowing themselves to be balkanized. There are other good names on the lengthy list of would-be hopefuls putting out feelers, but Quigley is the one who really jumps out of the pack to me as somebody who has advanced good ideas, maintained his independence and battled for his beliefs..."