Persuasion

By Kelly Chernenkoff

Published December 24, 2015

If Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan wasn't planning to run for the US Senate seat in Illinois, a sit-down meeting with President Obama may have changed her mind.
Though White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed the meeting took place last week he steadfastly maintained the purpose of it was not to tell Madigan to run for the seat.
"[T]he president is not going to pick a candidate in the Illinois Senate race," Gibbs told reporters at the White House Thursday. "The president has a very long relationship with the attorney general dating back to their time in the state senate and has enormous respect for what she accomplished there, and has as attorney general, and think she'd be a terrific candidate. But we're not going to get involved in picking that candidate in Illinois."
Madigan's own spokesperson, however, is telling reporters that the visit was intended to push Madigan to join the senatorial contest, rather than run for governor.
Apparently, she needs a little more persuasion. Madigan still hasn't made up her mind which race she'll join.
Back at the White House, Gibbs tried to tamp down talk of an endorsement, "I said we're not picking a candidate, we're not going to endorse in this race."
If that's true, then what about other potential candidates who may want the same face-time with the president? Gibbs quipped, "If people want to meet, the address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/persuasion