Illinois Governor Rod Blagovich has been indicted and arrested
in a continuing investigation into pay for play politics in
Illinois. The Leutenant Governor of Illinois is Pat Quinn.
Here is some biographical information on Pat Quinn:
“Not to be confused with the other Pat Quinn, Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn was elected to executive office in 2002, and recently won a second term, defeating Joe Birkett. He served as the elected State Treasurer of Illinois from 1991 to 1995, and was the Commissioner of the Cook County Board of (Property) Tax Appeals in the early eighties. He has also served as Revenue Director for the City of Chicago. In addition to being first in line of succession to the Governor, the Lt. Governor serves on a variety of boards and commissions around the state.
Regarded in political circles as a progressive, Pat Quinn has a record of organizing grassroots political initiatives around the state since the 1970s, including the ultimately unsuccessful push for the “Illinois Initiative,” which would have amended the state constitution to give state citizens the power to enact statutes through the process of referenda, much like California. Although the petition drive was successful, it was blocked by the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled that the Illinois Initiative was an “unconstitutional constitutional amendment” and was never put before voters. In 1980 he successfully led the fight for the Cutback amendment to the Illinois Constitution, which reduced the size of the Illinois House of Representatives from 177 to 118 members. In 1983 he led the drive to create the Citizens Utility Board. His undergraduate degree is in International Economics, which he earned at Georgetown, and he holds a law degree from Northwestern and teaches Tax Law at Chicago-Kent. Recently, he has led the fight against utility rate hikes in Illinois, and, much like former Lt. Governor Paul Simon, he has used his position in state government to advocate for taxpayers and other people that lack powerful interests in our political system.
Much like the political culture in this state, Illinois election law has some unusual requirements, among them that candidates for lieutenant governor run separate in the primary from candidates for governor. As such, the two highest elected executives in the state don’t always agree, and the Blagojevich-Quinn administration has been no exception. Chicagoist had the opportunity to sit down with Quinn in his Chicago office a few weeks ago to discuss grassroots activism, tax relief, ethics, public transit, and Paul Simon.”
Read more here:
http://chicagoist.com/2007/04/20/interview_illinois_lieutenant_governor_pat_quinn.php