To understand Madigan’s style, look up flamboyant in the dictionary, then try to find the opposite. That’s him, the opposite. Quiet, calm and calculating. Chess master focus. Doesn’t court attention, except perhaps from behind-the-scenes political donors whose largesse he metes out among the chamber’s Democrats at campaign time as a way of keeping them under control.

There is never any question whom they will elect every session as speaker.

And there is never any question that Madigan’s 22nd District, up by Chicago’s Midway Airport, will keep returning him to the House. He’s been a member since 1971. The last time he had a Republican challenger, in 2012, Madigan got 77 percent of the vote.

But there were fewer than 29,000 people voting.

So the most powerful Democrat in a state of about 12.9 million people is first selected by a majority among only about 29,000 voters, then by a reliable majority of the 118 members of the House. Over and over and over. At age 74, he shows no sign of letting up.

There is a term-limits movement in Illinois right now, spurred by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. He wants the General Assembly to authorize a referendum on a constitutional amendment, maybe in time for the 2018 ballot.