| Patrick J Quinn | |
|---|---|
| Quinn at the 2010 Chicago Green Festival | |
| 41st Governor of Illinois | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 29, 2009 |
|
| Lieutenant | None (2009-11) Sheila Simon (since 2011) |
| Preceded by | Rod Blagojevich |
| 45th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois | |
| In office January 13, 2003 – January 29, 2009 |
|
| Governor | Rod Blagojevich |
| Preceded by | Corinne Wood |
| Succeeded by | Sheila Simon |
| Treasurer of Illinois | |
| In office January 14, 1991 – January 9, 1995 |
|
| Governor | Jim Edgar |
| Preceded by | Jerome Cosentino |
| Succeeded by | Judy Topinka |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 16, 1948 Hinsdale, Illinois, United States |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Residence | Executive Mansion |
| Alma mater | Georgetown University Northwestern University |
| Profession | Tax attorney |
| Religion | Roman Catholic[1] |
| Signature | |
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Quinn III (born December 16, 1948) is the 41st and current Governor of Illinois. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Previously elected three times to statewide office, Quinn was the sitting lieutenant governor and became governor on January 29, 2009, when the previous governor, Rod Blagojevich, was impeached and removed from office. Quinn was elected to the office during the 2010 gubernatorial election, narrowly defeating Republican Bill Brady to serve his first full term as Governor.
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Born in 1948 in Hinsdale, Illinois, Quinn attended the local Catholic grade school, St. Isaac Jogues. He graduated in 1967 from Fenwick High School, a Catholic school in Oak Park, Illinois run by the Order of Dominican friars.[2] While a student at Fenwick, Quinn was the cross-country team captain and the sports editor of the school newspaper. Quinn went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa from Georgetown University in 1971 with a bachelor's degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service where he was a student of Professor Jan Karski[3] and a sports editor for The Hoya.[4] After taking a few years off from education, he received a Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1980.[5]
Quinn is divorced and has two sons, Patrick IV and David, born on April 12, 1983, and December 16, 1984, respectively. Both sons, like their father, competed in scholastic sports, specializing in track and field events.[6]
Quinn was briefly a practicing tax attorney before his career in public office.
Before running for public office, Quinn was already involved in political action, serving as an aide to Governor Daniel Walker.[2] He was first put on the political map in the late 1970s by leading a petition to amend the 1970 Illinois Constitution with the "Illinois Initiative". This amendment was intended to increase the power of public referendums in the political process and recalls for public officials.[2] The petition drive was successful, but the Illinois Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the Illinois Initiative was an "unconstitutional constitutional amendment," and thus never was presented to voters.[6]
Quinn drew more attention to his causes by holding press conferences on Sundays, seen as a slow news day.[2] While still in law school, Quinn scored his first political success in 1980, earning a reputation as a reformer on the Illinois political scene. Through his organization, "The Coalition for Political Honesty," he initiated and led the statewide campaign for the Cutback Amendment to the Illinois Constitution, ultimately reducing the size of the Illinois House of Representatives from 177 to 118 members.[6][7] This also earned him some enemies among the state's establishment, since they had fewer seats and possibly less power.[2]
In 1982, Quinn was elected as commissioner of the Cook County Board of Tax Appeals, now known as the Board of Review.[2] During this time, Quinn was instrumental in the creation of the Citizens Utility Board, a consumer watchdog organization. He did not seek re-election in 1986, but waged an unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic nomination for Illinois State Treasurer, which was won by Jerome Cosentino. After this defeat, Quinn briefly served in the administration of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington as Revenue Director.[8][9]
Quinn's bid for office was successful in the 1990 election. He was elected Illinois State Treasurer and served in that position from 1991 to 1995. During this period, he was publicly critical of Illinois Secretary of State and future governor George Ryan. Specifically, he drew attention to special vanity license plates that Ryan's office provided for clout-heavy motorists. This rivalry led Quinn to challenge Republican George Ryan in the 1994 general election for Secretary of State, unsuccessfully.[8]
Quinn then took his aspirations to the national stage. When United States Senator Paul Simon chose not to seek re-election in 1996, Quinn entered the race. Dick Durbin won the Democratic primary and eventually the Senate seat.[10]
Quinn sought the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor in 1998, but was narrowly defeated by Mary Lou Kearns. Quinn did not initially accept the count and charged fraud, but several weeks after the election he declined to ask the Illinois Supreme Court for a recount and endorsed Kearns.
In 1998, Quinn protested an increase in state legislators' salaries by urging citizens to send tea bags to Jim Edgar, then the governor. The tactic was a reference to the Boston Tea Party; Quinn was born on December 16, the anniversary of that event.[11] As Lieutenant Governor, he repeated the tactic in 2006, urging consumers to include a tea bag when paying their electricity bills, to protest rate hikes by Commonwealth Edison.[12]
Quinn won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in March 2002 and subsequently won the general election on the Democratic ticket alongside gubernatorial nominee Rod Blagojevich. In Illinois, candidates for lieutenant governor and governor run in separate primary elections, but are conjoined as a single ticket for the general election.[2] This same ticket won re-election in 2006, where Quinn was unopposed in the primary.[6] While lieutenant governor, according to his official biography, his priorities were consumer advocacy, environmental protection, health care, broadband deployment, and veterans' affairs.[13]
On December 14, 2008, when David Gregory asked Quinn on NBC's Meet The Press about his relationship with Blagojevich, he said, "Well, he's a bit isolated. I tried to talk to the governor, but the last time I spoke to him was in August of 2007. I think one of the problems is the governor did sort of seal himself off from all the statewide officials... Attorney General Madigan and myself and many others..."[14] Quinn has stated that his relationship with Blagojevich has been estranged at best, pointing out that Blagojevich officially announced that Quinn was not part of his administration in 2006.[15]
On January 29, 2009 Rod Blagojevich was removed from office by a vote of 59-0 by the Illinois State Senate.[16] Quinn was sworn in as Governor of Illinois, after earlier signing a written oath, at the chambers of the Illinois State House of Representatives by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke at 5:40 p.m. Central Standard Time.[17]
Unlike Blagojevich, who continued to live in his Ravenswood, Chicago, home while commuting via state plane to Springfield and preferred to execute his gubernatorial duties from within his home and, less commonly, the governor's office in Chicago's Thompson Center, Quinn moved into the Illinois Executive Mansion in Springfield, saying it would be an honor to live "in the people's house".[18] Quinn works primarily from his office in the Illinois State House.
Quinn has announced several "belt-tightening" programs to help curb the economic ailments of Illinois. He has also had meetings with other statewide officers of Illinois, in stark contrast to Rod Blagojevich's seclusion from others. In July 2009, Quinn signed a $29 billion capital bill to provide construction and repair funds for Illinois roads, mass transit, schools, and other public works projects. The capital bill, known as Illinois Jobs Now!, was the first since Governor George H. Ryan's Illinois FIRST plan, which was enacted in the late-1990s.[19] On July 7, 2009, he for the second time in a week vetoed a budget bill, calling it "out of balance", his plan being to more significantly fix the budget gap in Illinois.[20] In March 2009, Quinn called for a 1.5 percentage point increase in the personal income tax rate. To help offset the increased rate, he also sought to triple the amount shielded from taxation (or the "personal exemption") -- from $2,000 per person to $6,000.[21] However, the bill that eventually passed increased the personal income tax by 2 percent.
On January 5, 2009, Quinn appointed Patrick M. Collins to chair the Illinois Reform Commission, which was tasked with making recommendations for ethical reform for Illinois government.[22][23]
On February 20, 2009, Quinn called for the resignation of US Senator Roland Burris, the man appointed to the United States Senate by Blagojevich to fill the vacant seat created by the resignation of Barack Obama. He changed his position, however, following pressure from prominent African Americans who threatened electoral repercussions.[24]
On March 3, 2009, the Associated Press reported that Quinn had "paid his own expenses" many times as Lieutenant Governor, contradicting Blagojevich's accusations against Quinn.[25][26] As a rule, he either paid his own way, or stayed at "cut rate hotels" (such as Super 8), and never charged the state for his meals.[26][27]
In June, Quinn launched a panel, chaired by Abner Mikva, to investigate unethical practices at the University of Illinois amid fears that the prior investigation would have no clout. The panel is charged with searching the admissions practices, amid reports that the public university is a victim of Illinois corruption.[28]
Quinn has generally won high praise for his leadership on environmental issues, going back at least as far as his lieutenant governorship, where he helped develop annual statewide conferences on green building, created a state day to celebrate and defend rivers,[29] and promoted measures such as rain gardens for water conservation. As governor, Quinn helped pass measures on solar and wind energy,[30] including sourcing electricity for the state capitol from wind power, and helped secure funding for high-speed rail in the midwest corridor. In the 2010 primary, the Sierra Club, Illinois's largest environmental group, endorsed Quinn, calling him "The Green Governor."[31]
On March 9, 2011, Quinn signed the bill which abolished the death penalty in Illinois.[32] On signing the bill, Quinn stated,
"It is impossible to create a perfect system, one that is free of all mistakes, free of all discrimination with respect to race or economic circumstance or geography. To have a consistent, perfect death penalty system, I have concluded, after looking at everything I’ve been given, that that’s impossible in our state. I think it’s the right and just thing to abolish the death penalty."[33]
In the Democratic primary, Quinn defeated State Comptroller Daniel Hynes with 50.4% of the vote.[34] On March 27, 2010, Illinois Democratic leaders selected Sheila Simon to replace Scott Lee Cohen on the ballot after Cohen won the February 2010 Democratic primary to be Illinois' lieutenant governor but later withdrew amid controversies involving his personal life.[35] Quinn won the general election on November 2, 2010, by a narrow margin and Republican candidate Bill Brady conceded the race to Quinn on November 5, 2010.[36] Quinn's campaign aired television ads produced by Joe Slade White that repeatedly asked the question of his opponent, "Who is this guy?"[37] Quinn's campaign was named by RealClearPolitics.com as the #5 General Election upset in the country.[38] Ben Nuckels was the general election Campaign Manager and was named a "Rising Star of Politics" by Campaigns & Elections Magazine for his efforts with Quinn.[39] It was stated by Politico to be the 7th closest gubernatorial in United States of America history.
With the state budget deficit projected to hit $15 billion in 2011, and debt continuing to grow, the Democrats who control the Legislature in early 2011 raised the personal income tax from 3% to 5%, and the corporation profits tax 4.8% to 7%. Governor Quinn's office projected the new taxes will generate $6.8 billion a year, enough to balance the annual budget and begin reducing the state's backlog of about $8.5 billion in unpaid bills.[40] Despite the tax increase, a report from the Civic Federation in September 2011 projected a $8.3 billion deficit to end the budget year.[41] The Illinois Policy Institute has calculated that the tax hike will cost the average Illinois household one week's pay.[42]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Jerome Cosentino |
Treasurer of Illinois 1991–1995 |
Succeeded by Judy Topinka |
| Preceded by Corinne Wood |
Lieutenant Governor of Illinois 2003–2009 |
Succeeded by Sheila Simon |
| Preceded by Rod Blagojevich |
Governor of Illinois 2009–present |
Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Rod Blagojevich |
Democratic nominee for Governor of Illinois 2010 |
Most recent |
| United States order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Joe Biden as Vice President |
Order of Precedence of the United States Within Illinois |
Succeeded by Mayor of city in which event is held |
| Succeeded by Otherwise John Boehner as Speaker of the House of Representatives |
||
| Preceded by Haley Barbour as Governor of Mississippi |
Order of Precedence of the United States Outside Illinois |
Succeeded by Robert Bentley as Governor of Alabama |
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