CHICAGO | First, Gov. Rod Blagojevich called on Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to come off the sidelines in Blagojevich's high-profile feud with House Speaker Michael Madigan over a stalled state construction program.

Now, Blagojevich wants some of the city's top civic leaders to intervene.

Blagojevich headlined the City Club of Chicago on Monday and asked the more than 300 attendees to reach out to Madigan, his political nemesis.

"If you know Speaker Madigan and talk to him, tell him I said hello, I'll cut his apple, get him a cup of coffee," Blagojevich said to chuckles from the crowd.

It was Blagojevich's latest appearance in a string of public events where he has sought to keep the heat on Madigan with lawmakers due back today in Springfield. Legislators are going back to work at Blagojevich's behest for a two-day special session to deal with his scaled-down capital program to rebuild roads, bridges and schools and do much more.

Blagojevich's recent flurry of public events with their steady focus on legislative matters is a switch for the Democratic governor, who just a few months ago struggled to keep the attention on anything but the conviction of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, one of his former political fundraisers.

Rezko was convicted in June of fraud and other offenses after a trial that exposed crooked politics in Illinois that Blagojevich said he has no part in. Blagojevich has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

At Monday's event, Blagojevich encouraged civic leaders to tell Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, to side with him and the other legislative leaders to get a smaller capital program passed.

Blagojevich repeatedly has accused Madigan of being a roadblock to a deal. But some in the Madigan-controlled House contend they simply don't trust Blagojevich to fulfill project commitments in a capital plan without diverting money to his pet projects and away from others to punish lawmakers who have crossed him.

A Madigan spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.

Blagojevich and the three other top lawmakers, including two Republicans, have met to talk about a capital plan, but Madigan has refused to attend, sending surrogates instead. Madigan has called meetings with the governor unproductive.

But Blagojevich wasn't the only one trying to keep the heat on lawmakers as they head back to the state Capitol.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn was outside Blagojevich's event passing out fliers and urging the state Senate to reject automatic pay raises for lawmakers and top government officials.

The House has already rejected the pay raises. If the Senate doesn't eventually vote, the pay raises automatically take effect.

But state Comptroller Dan Hynes said it doesn't immediately matter what the Senate does. He said there's no budget appropriation for the raises and they won't happen without one.

Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, who attended Blagojevich's event, said he likely would call a regular session to run concurrent with the upcoming special session to deal with the pay raises. Jones said some members of his caucus support the pay raise.

"When people in Illinois are living from paycheck to paycheck and hurtin', we got to stop that," Quinn said.

Blagojevich agreed, saying, "There should be no pay raise."