Welcome to Springfield, Mr. Rauner.

In a clear rebuke to Gov-elect Bruce Rauner as he prepares to take office, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan today announced his support for legislation that would require a special election in 2016 to fill the remaining half of the term of the late Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.

The bill is expected to come up and be approved in a special legislative session on Thursday. It then will be immediately signed into law by outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn, with Rauner powerless do to anything about it because he doesn't take office until next Monday, Jan. 12.

Rauner has wanted the person he's appointing comptroller, north suburban businesswoman Leslie Munger, to hold office until 2018, by which time separate legislation to combine the comptroller's office with that of the state treasurer may have been approved. But Madigan and other Springfield Democrats, who retain veto proof majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, feel otherwise.

"He thought there was some wisdom to the special election, letting the voters pick who fills this office the next time they go to the polls, in 2016," Madigan spokesman Steve Brown told me. Previous concerns Madigan were resolved when Quinn agreed that his appointee, Jerry Stermer, would fill only Topinka's expiring term, not the new one that will begin next week, Brown added.

The bill the speaker would back also would require special elections whenever a vacancy of more than 28 months arises in the position of treasurer, lieutenant governor, secretary of state or attorney general.

The Rauner camp declined comment on Madigan's move, but an aide noted that his position "is clear" that the safest legal path now is for him to appoint a new comptroller for an entire four-year term.

A third position has come from Treasurer-elect Michael Frerichs. He wants to abolish the comptroller's office in a referendum in 2016, leaving only one statewide financial officer: the treasurer.

Brown did not elaborate on the speaker's thoughts, but today's action almost certainly will be the first in a series of clashes as the new governor and long-dominant speaker jostle over finances, pensions, budget and other matters.

In anticipation of such hostilities, Rauner on Dec. 31 contributed $20 million to his political fund, Citizens for Rauner, to push his agenda.