Madigan Foe Says Dirty Politics Kept Him Off The Ballot

CHICAGO, IL - A progressive who was forced off the ballot by the Democratic machine is seeking to challenge Mike Madigan for the party's State Central Committeeman position in Illinois' 3rd Congressional District as a write-in candidate. Mateusz 'Mat' Tomkowiak originally sought to have his name listed on the Democratic ballot with Madigan's when voters in the 3rd District vote in that race and others on March 20.

But Tomkowiak, a Mount Greenwood resident and 2003 Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences alum, says the Madigan camp used all the old tricks, and some new ones, to ensure he would not be on the ballot.

"I'm surprised at the length Mike Madigan went to get my name off the ballot," said Tomkowiak, who has identified healthcare, education, the economy and environment as the core issues of his campaign. He says Madigan is "a corrupt guy" whose "been in politics for far too long."

Tomkowiak says he collected more than enough signatures to be placed on the ballot, but Madigan challenged his petition on claims some of the signatures were forged. The Illinois State Board of Elections originally ruled that the signatures were real and that Tomkowiak would remain on the ballot. But when Madigan appealed, the same board sided with the longtime Democratic Party Chairman and Speaker of the House.

"He must have called in a favor at the board of elections," Tomkowiak said. "While Madigan is well-known throughout the state, numbers have shown that he's actually not that popular in the 3rd District. I think he was afraid that I could beat him."

On how Madigan succeeded in throwing the local opponent off the ballot, Tomkowiak says he's been "very transparent" and continues to "try to give people a window into how ridiculous this process was."

"I had signed affidavits, dragged a notary with me and had people swear that their signatures were real and had it on video," Tomkowiak said. "I had film evidence of people signing the petition, and Madigan discarded all of that."

Tomkowiak says Madigan brought someone he considered to be "a handwriting expert" to the state board claiming some of the signatures were forged.

"I'm amazed at how that person was considered an expert," he said. "The three board she showed to prove she was an expert, well, two of them never existed."

After being denied, Tomkowiak says he has heard from about 40 other current or former candidates who have challenged Madigan and others who have had similar problems getting on the ballot.

Madigan also has a trick of lining up "phantom" candidates to oppose him, just to lower the number of votes any serious challenger who makes it on the ballot would get, according to Tomkowiak.

"This is not the way politics should be done," he said.

When it comes to the issues, Tomkowiak says he still considers himself an independent political outsider whose primary belief is that more people should have affordable access to healthcare.

"My interest in politics began with my passion for healthcare policies," Tomkowiak said. "I have family members who have suffered from mental illness and the system just threw them away."

Tomkowiak has a Ph.D in healthcare policy from Princeton University and was involved in writing the Affordable Care Act.

"Madigan, on the other hand, has been a block to healthcare reform in Illinois," he said.

As someone who said he identified most with Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election, Tomkowiak also supports providing a greater access to college education, reforming the tax structure and supporting electoral reform.

"Illinois has some insane tax policies," he said. "We have the largest property and sales tax in the country but the lowest flat income tax. That's a regressive system."

Tomkowiak, who earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago before enrolling in graduate studies at Princeton, says he would support lower sales and property taxes but a higher "progressive" income tax. He says he'll work with anyone "Democrats, Republicans, anyone" to help institute some of those changes.

But none of that is expected in Illinois under the current system, he said. That's why he is seeking the committeeman position and will continue seeking political office should this write-in campaign be unsuccessful.

"I could take (the ballot issue) to the Circuit Court of Appeals, but by the time they rule the election would likely be over," he said, noting that the write-in campaign is the best way to go about it.

"If you write in my name, it will count as a vote," he said.

If Tomkowiak gets enough write-in votes to unseat Madigan, it will mean that Madigan will be forced out of his role as the state's Democratic Party chairman.

If the campaign is unsuccessful, Tomkowiak says he won't rule out running for the Illinois 3rd District Congressional seat as an Independent in this year's general election. Currently, incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski is facing challenger Marie Newman in the Democratic primary for that office.

Tomkowiak says he does not support either Lipinski or Newman.

"Both of them reflect everything that's wrong with politics," Tomkowiak said of Lipinski and Newman. "Two very wealthy people who live in the wealthiest parts of the district."

"Most of the district is filled with working class people, with the largest groups being Latino and Polish immigrants. Here (in the Democratic primary) we have two rich people from the two richest sides of town claiming they can relate to working people."

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Madigan is certainly another politician who hasn't related to working people, Tomkowiak says.

"He has given away so much to rich real estate developers in property tax assessments, and that's money that could have been spent on schools," he said. "He provides loopholes for rich folk and that's something that bothers me."

As to the political dynasty Madigan is part of, Tomkowiak says he hopes that he has "opened people's minds."

"Some folks out there didn't know this is the way democracy works," he said. "There is this vision where you run for office by collecting petitions , but there's this whole bunch of rules that are set up to make people outside of the insider's club fail."

"There's also these weird expectations that this is Chicago, and this is the way it's done here... But it shouldn't work this way."

Photo provided by Mat Tomkowiak