For the first time, the players angling for the Obama Presidential Library and Museum in Chicago are surfacing in public–testifying Thursday morning at an Illinois State House hearing for a proposal backed by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan D-Chicago to bolster local bids by having the state appropriate $100 million “from the Capital Development Fund to the Capital Development Board for the construction of a presidential library and museum dedicated to the legacy of President Barack Obama.”
The witness list:
Madigan
Mayor Rahm Emanuel
Shirley Madigan, Illinois Arts Council Chair
Susan Sher, U. of Chicago
Deborah Lynch, Dennis Johnson, Anthony Young, Chicago State U.
Karen Riley, Business Leadership Council
Alfred Tatum, Mary Case, Michael Redding, U. of Illinois, Chicago
Illinois House bill sponsors:
Rep. Michael J. Madigan – Monique D. Davis, La Shawn K. Ford, Barbara Flynn Currie, Christian L. Mitchell, Mary E. Flowers, Robert Rita and Charles E. Jefferson