Dawn Clark Netsch

Born in Cincinnati, Netsch graduated from Northwestern University's law school at the top of her class in 1952. She got her first taste in politics working on Adlai Stevenson's first presidential campaign, then worked as an attorney in private practice before joining the staff of Gov. Otto Kerner. In 1970, she was elected as a delegate at the Illinois Constitutional Convention. Two years later, she was elected to the state Senate as a Democrat. In 1990, she beat Sue Suter to become Illinois comptroller. Four years later, she beat a crowded field to win the Democratic nomination for governor but was trounced by Edgar, getting just a third of the vote. Kerr remembers his aunt being wooed by the architect Walter Netsch in the early 1960s. They had met in 1962 when Dawn Clark Netsch was organizing a Democratic fundraiser and someone mentioned that Walter Netsch had moved into an apartment on Lake Shore Drive. Most recently, she had served on the board overseeing the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a good-government group Cindi Canary once headed.