Judy Baar Topinka

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Judy Baar Topinka.

Judy Baar Topinka (born January 16, 1944) was the Illinois State Treasurer (from 1995-2007) and former chairman of the Republican Party of Illinois. She was the first woman to become state treasurer, first to be elected to three consecutive terms, was the first Republican to hold the post in over 32 years and during her last term, she was the only elected statewide official from the Republican Party in Illinois.

In November 2005, Topinka announced her decision to run for Governor of Illinois. In March 2006, she was chosen as the Republican candidate. She is the second woman and first Republican woman to be nominated for governor of Illinois. Dawn Clark Netsch ran as the Democratic nominee in 1994.

[edit] Early years

Topinka was born in the Chicago suburb of Riverside to William and Lillian Baar, the children of Czech and Slovak immigrants.^[1] She graduated in 1962 from Ferry Hall School in Lake Forest and entered Northwestern University in Evanston. Topinka received a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the university's prestigious Medill School. She is an alumna of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. After leaving Northwestern, Topinka became an accomplished reporter for several Chicagoland suburban newspapers and rose through the ranks to become an editor. On the side, Topinka established her own public relations business, through which she began a career in consulting for various political candidates.

In 1965, she married Joe Topinka.^{[citation needed]} They had a son, Joe, before divorcing in 1981.^[2]

[edit] Legislative career

In 1980, Topinka first pursued her own career in politics by running for the Illinois General Assembly. She won a seat in the House of Representatives at which she served two two-year terms. In 1984, she set her sights on the upper house of the Illinois General Assembly and won a seat in the Senate at which she served ten years.

[edit] Illinois State Treasurer

In the middle of a term as state senator, Topinka joined the Illinois State Treasurer race in 1994, and won the election. Her popularity grew and she was reelected in 1998 and 2002.

Topinka was appointed Chair of the Illinois Republican Party in 2002 as it faced ruin arising from indictments of its leadership.

[edit] Illinois Republican Party

The year 2002 proved to be one of the most damaging years for the Illinois Republican Party. It suffered immense losses statewide as allegations of corruption emanating from the office of Governor George Ryan culminated in federal criminal indictments. The party lost the governorship to the Illinois Democratic Party under Governor Rod Blagojevich, a former member of Congress from Chicago. To make matters worse, donors withheld funds from the Republican organization and the party was driven into near bankruptcy.

In order to save the state party, Topinka, the only statewide Republican officeholder, was appointed chair that year. Upon assuming the role, Topinka quickly drafted a reorganization plan hoping to fill Republican coffers once again as well as rebuild the party's public image. The difficulty only grew worse in summer 2004 when Topinka was embroiled in a very public controversy over a sex scandal involving her party's nominee for the US Senate, Jack Ryan. Topinka claimed that Ryan told her he had nothing in his past which would blemish his current candidacy, which was clearly not the case. After embarrassing headlines and charges fired from both sides, Ryan dropped out of the race. Topinka then had to deal with the conservative base of her party insisting upon a strongly conservative nominee to replace Ryan. Topinka felt this type of candidate could not win^{[citation needed]}, as she and former governors Jim Edgar, James R. Thompson and George H. Ryan were all moderate and had been among the only Republicans elected statewide for decades. In August 2004, the State Central Committeemen of the Republican Party invited Maryland conservative Alan Keyes to enter the race. Topinka publicly distanced herself from Keyes, who claimed the Democratic nominee Barack Obama took the "slaveholder's position" on abortion, that Jesus wouldn't vote for Obama, and, at the Republican National Convention, said that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary was engaged in "selfish hedonism." Keyes went on to lose in a landslide. The dean of the state's Republican Congressional delegation, Phil Crane, also lost his seat. On the flip side, the party picked up a state Supreme Court seat for the first time in many years, and also gained a few seats in the state legislature. But many of the party activists continued to rage against Topinka and what they viewed as her betrayal of their principles.

Topinka's tenure as the head of the Illinois GOP expired in January 2005; her replacement was Andy McKenna.

[edit] Illinois Gubernatorial Campaign

On November 7, 2005, Topinka announced that she would not seek re-election as state treasurer — instead, she entered the gubernatorial primary, hoping to challenge Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich. The Republican primary was deeply divisive; her tenure as Party Chairman destroyed her support from the conservative wing of her party, and it was feared that her pro-choice and positive gay rights positions would be detrimental to her standing with the same conservatives. In December she announced that she would join forces with DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois.

In February 2006, the candidates for the Republican nomination for Illinois Governor began running their first TV ads for the March statewide primary election. Rival candidate Ron Gidwitz's advertisements, attacking Topinka, were rebuked in the same week by the Illinois Republican Party: "In an unprecedented action, the Illinois Republican Party has officially rebuked the Gidwitz campaign for this ad because the Party found that the ad violates the Party's "Code of Conduct," which was enacted to police proper conduct among Republican candidates."

Later in February, candidate Jim Oberweis, another rival for the Republican Gubernatorial nomination, started a series of attack ads for television markets, against Topinka, that were even more widely criticized, mostly for using "fake" headlines on the images of actual Illinois newspapers. ^{[1] [2]} These ads, like Gidwitz's ads, also came under review by the Illinois Republican Party. ^[3] Because of the controversy generated, several television stations withdrew Oberweis's ads. ^[4]

On March 21, 2006, Topinka won the Republican nomination with 37% of the vote.

On November 7, 2006, she lost the race to Blagojevich, giving an up-beat, humorous speech after his acceptance speech. In it she thanked many, hoped that more young people would be interested in public service, and wished all well.^{[citation needed]}

After her 2006 defeat in the polls, she auctioned off much of her political memorabilia from her campaign office in January 2007.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Electoral history

• 2006 Race for Governor
  • Rod Blagojevich (D) (inc.), 49%
  • Judy Baar Topinka (R), 40%
• 2002 Race for state Treasurer
  • Judy Baar Topinka (Republican) (inc.), 55%
  • Tom Dart (Democrat), 43%
• 1998 Race for state Treasurer
  • Judy Baar Topinka (Republican) (inc.), 51%
  • Dan McLaughlin (Democrat), 49%
• 1994 Race for state Treasurer
  • Judy Baar Topinka (Republican), 51%
  • Nancy Shaheen (Democrat), 49%

[edit] Notes

1. ^  Article originally published in the Chicago Tribune about Oberweis's "faked" newspaper headline campaign ads.
2. ^  FactCheck.org article about the same ads.
3. ^  Article originally published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about Oberweis's ads coming under review by the Illinois Republican Party.
4. ^  Article originally published in the Daily Herald about the withdrawal of Oberweis's ads from some Illinois television markets.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Topinka's personal website