Patrick J Quinn

Pat Quinn was re-elected Lieutenant Governor on Nov. 7, 2006. His priorities include advocating for taxpayers and consumers, protecting the environment, promoting decent health care, and helping members of the armed services and their families. Quinn led the successful effort to enact the Illinois Military Family Relief Act, which provides financial assistance to families of Illinois National Guard members and Reservists called to active duty. He also spearheaded passage of the “Let Them Rest in Peace Act,” which has been a national model in protecting grieving families from vile and disruptive protests at funerals of servicemen and women. The Lieutenant Governor’s office provides a wide range of services to military families, troops and veterans, and maintains the website www.OperationHomefront.org, one of our country’s most informative websites for military men and women and their families. In 2003, Governor Rod Blagojevich named Quinn chairman of the Blackout Solutions Task Force to study the state’s power grid and prevent power outages. He also chairs the Mississippi River Coordinating Council, the Illinois Green Governments Coordinating Council, the Illinois Biofuels Investment and Infrastructure Working Group, and the Broadband Deployment Council. Quinn served as Illinois State Treasurer from 1991 to 1995, where he cut his office’s budget each year and earned taxpayers $848 million in investment income. Since 1975, Quinn has organized petition drives for consumer protection laws, tax reform and citizen empowerment. He spearheaded the 1983 drive to create the Citizens Utility Board. In 2001, he walked across Illinois, from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan, to raise awareness of the need to provide decent health care for everyone. Quinn, 60, is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and holds an international economics degree from Georgetown University. He was elected Commissioner of the Cook County Board of (Property) Tax Appeals in 1982 and served as Revenue Director for the City of Chicago. The father of two sons, Quinn grew up in Hinsdale and now lives in Chicago.