Kelly Cassidy — ‘in the game’ to win

About a year ago, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy was in her head as she walked to her office in Springfield, preoccupied with thoughts about a part-time government job she had just lost — after going public with criticisms of House Speaker Mike Madigan’s handling of sexual harassment complaints in his organization.

A woman stopped her on that walk with her own #MeToo story, allegations that immediately snapped Cassidy back to reality — and would ultimately lead to the resignation of one of Madigan’s most trusted lieutenants.

“‘All right, Cassidy, get out of your head’,” she remembers thinking. “‘Yeah, you lost a job. Get over it. Get in the game.’”

Flash forward to this spring, when Cassidy helped push through two of the most important bills the state has seen in years — legalizing recreational marijuana and strengthening the state’s abortion laws should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

There are so many pictures of Cassidy being hugged on the House floor that you have to read the caption to see which bill she’s celebrating.

No one can question whether Cassidy is “in the game.”

Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register via AP

From sexual harassment to reproductive rights to marijuana legalization, the North Side Democrat has been at the forefront as the state grapples with one critical issue after another.

Take her role in the landmark legislative session that concluded a few weeks ago.

Cassidy is indeed having a moment, but she’s very humble about it. She credits her three children — an 18-year-old son and 14-year-old twin boys — as the reason she does everything, and her legislative accomplishments this session to a confluence of factors, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s support, her “sisters” in the General Assembly and a political wave that pushed it through.

Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP

Pritzker considers Cassidy a personal friend and a leader. So does state Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield.

”For many years, I’ve called Kelly Cassidy a friend, and it has been an honor to work with her so closely on some very big issues in Springfield,” Pritzker told the Sun-Times. “She’s proven she’s a leader who fights for those who need representation the most, and I look forward to continuing to work with her as she takes on even more big issues in Springfield.”

Butler said the political climate — including Pritzker’s support — helped Cassidy push through major wins this year. But Butler says her work ethic is also a major factor.

“I give her a lot of credit. Kelly works very hard. She’s very passionate about her issues, and she certainly does a great job working with members on the other side of the aisle, trying to get her stuff done,” Butler said.

LGBTQ issues are among those Cassidy is most passionate about. She endorsed Lori Lightfoot before the April runoff saying “representation matters. And it will matter that there is an openly gay mayor of the city of Chicago.”

Cassidy and her spouse — a sibling of conservative Newt Gingrich — live in Rogers Park.

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Cassidy, 51, has been a legislator since 2011. The Florida native — the youngest of seven children — first got a job with the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women, ultimately taking a job with Illinois Senate President John Cullerton. From there, she worked for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and later a part-time job with the Cook County sheriff’s office — which ended in some controversy. She also became 49th Ward committeeman in April.

In May 2018, Cassidy said she was forced out of the sheriff’s office as political payback for her criticism of Madigan’s handling of sexual harassment allegations — a claim the sheriff’s office denied. She ultimately resigned.

Cassidy’s role in that chapter of the #MeToo movement began in February 2018, when she criticized Madigan’s response to harassment allegations among top political operatives. Then, a few months later she accused Madigan’s chief of staff, Tim Mapes, of retaliation against her for going public with her concerns.

Cassidy — who had worked part time in the sheriff’s office since January 2015 — said Mapes called the sheriff’s office to check on her employment within days of her vocal opposition of Madigan’s handling of harassment claims. Cassidy was among the first to call for an independent investigation into how Madigan’s political operation had handled sexual harassment claims.

Cassidy’s courage in taking on the state’s most powerful Democrat prompted another Madigan staffer, Sherri Garrett, to seek her out to share her own allegations of “bullying and repeated harassment” by Mapes, who ultimately resigned from his positions as chief of staff to the speaker and executive director of the Illinois Democratic Party.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Cassidy vividly remembers that day Garrett approached her.

“I can see where I was. It’s almost like watching the film strip of the moment. I was walking out of the Capitol. I was walking to the Stratton building. I was very much in my head. I was not in a good place, and I heard somebody coming and calling my name, and I stopped and turned, and it was Sherri,” Cassidy said of Garrett, an account technician and minutes clerk for the speaker’s office.

“I kind of knew where this was going to go,” Cassidy said.

“And I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do. I still hadn’t made the decision to come forward [about claims of retaliation],” Cassidy said. “I was having a similar struggle as she was, and so I think that the fact that they happened in the same way, we immediately clicked and connected in a way that maybe would have been different had I been in a different place when it happened. There is that whole ‘stuff happens when it happens for reasons.’”

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

After Cassidy emerged as a loud voice against harassment in Illinois politics, there were even rumblings she would try to run for speaker. Instead, she found a way to work with the veteran politician she had criticized.

“My relationship with the speaker this year has been quite positive. We started the session off with a really good conversation about what had happened between us and what we wanted to do differently moving forward,” Cassidy said. “And I think we both stuck to the plan through this session in terms of a more communicative direct discussion.”

But has the #MeToo movement, which has led to the resignations of several in the Madigan world, changed the speaker?

“I don’t know what to place that on, the changes in the way the House was run this year. Could it be his direct reaction to that? Could it be just the difference between Mapes’ leadership style and Jessica’s [Basham, his current chief of staff] leadership style? Is it a combination of the two? I don’t know because I try really hard to not spend time in anyone’s head but my own.”

“I can’t really say which I think it is, certainly some combination of those things probably had an impact on it. But things were different. Things were definitely different in the House this year,” Cassidy said.

Among her legislative victories this year — which also includes a bill to ban for-profit detention facilities — Cassidy, alongside state Sens. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, and Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, and state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, worked tirelessly to advocate for the cannabis measure. And part of that process involved working with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Foxx attended the bill signing last week and was credited by many for her work on the massive expungement and restorative justice elements of the measure. These days, anything Foxx does in public is scrutinized in light of controversy over the Jussie Smollett case. But Cassidy calls herself a “huge supporter” of Foxx.

“I think that race certainly plays a factor in the way people are responding to this [the Smollett investigation]. There’s no question. And frankly a lot of the language that you see used in the description of it from people who are criticizing her, it’s pretty thinly veiled,” Cassidy said.

“And so, prosecutors exercise discretion. They’re sometimes criticized for it. So I think that piece in some ways is a fair play thing that people look at — what the decisions you make are, but it’s very clear that this is not because she exercised her discretion,” Cassidy said. “It’s because she’s a black woman who exercised her discretion in a case involving a black man. And the details will come out, as they should. But I think we have to examine the motives of the people who are attacking her.”

As for legalizing pot, Cassidy said the restorative and social justice aspects of the massive cannabis bill are what brought her to the measure. But she has an “open mind” when it comes to using marijuana. Cassidy said she “looks forward to the day when it’s not a novelty question” — “nobody asks me if I drink wine.”

She also celebrated legalization by getting a tattoo just days ago: a cartoon of the paper bill from “Schoolhouse Rock” waving hi. It features marijuana leaves and a sash that reads “bill.”

Provided photo.

“I grew up on a barrier island in Florida, and so this was a product I have been familiar with for a very long time, and I grew up around people who used it,” Cassidy said. “I grew up in a family where alcohol and anger were a terrible combination, and you don’t see that with cannabis. I grew up with a pretty open mind about cannabis, and yes, I have and will.”

Cassidy married Candace Gingrich, an LGBTQ rights activist, two years ago. Candace Gingrich is one of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s siblings. But Cassidy says Newt Gingrich spends most of his time in Rome, where his wife Callista serves as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

“We don’t see each other much, and it’s not a family that gets together a lot, but when we met, he and I talked like people who have a career in common, because we do,” Cassidy said. “It’s not like we’re grabbing a beer. But to be honest, if we lived closer, I’d be happy to grab a beer with him because he’s a fascinating person to talk to.”

And yes, there are discussions about their differing politics, at least on Twitter.

“Candace still fires shots at him on Twitter when he posts something stupid, and I frequently do, too,” Cassidy said. “But at the same time, he’s family.”