Attorney General Lisa Madigan will not run for re-election [View all]

Less than four months ago, Attorney General Lisa Madigan indicated she would run for a fifth term in 2018. “That is, in fact, the plan, yes,” she said at a news conference.

Not so fast. Madigan announced Friday she would not seek re-election, knocking the Illinois political establishment off its cocksure forecasting track. She has been a staple on the Democratic ticket since 2002, has maintained popularity statewide and was considered the front-runner in next year’s election against the only announced and active Republican candidate so far, attorney and former Miss America Erika Harold.

“It should be a happy day for Illinois,” Madigan told us during a phone call Friday afternoon. “We can have somebody work in public service, decide on their own terms to go elsewhere and do something great. I’m going to take a break, do something different.”

No, she’s not running for governor (yet) or Chicago mayor or the U.S. Senate. She is not terribly interested in being a judge: “That’s not me. They sit. I can’t sit all day.” She won’t say what her next step will be — she insists she will focus on the attorney general job until she retires next year — but the possibilities are vast.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-lisa-madigan-retire-michael-speaker-0917-20170915-story.html