Alum Restores Hope to Illinois

Following the impeachment and conviction of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, on Jan. 29, his successor, then-Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn (SFS ’71), was charged with restoring honor to the Illinois Statehouse.

“Look, I’m not going to use Governor Blagojevich as a role model,” Quinn said in an interview with THE HOYA on Tuesday. “He disgraced himself and our state. But that’s the past and we need to focus on the future.”

Quinn said he hopes to emulate the successes of another high-profile Illinois politician.

“Our state produced Rod Blagojevich but it also produced [President] Barack Obama. He will be my role model as governor,” he said.

Other Illinois public officials have made statements urging the state to put the stain of Blagojevich’s tenure behind them. In a statement following Blagojevich’s conviction, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (COL ’88) said, “The people of Illinois should feel confident that they were well served [by Governor Blagojevich’s impeachment] over these past weeks. I am committed to working with Governor Quinn to move our state beyond this sad chapter.”

“The state of Illinois is in need of a fresh start. I look forward to working with Governor Pat Quinn to move our state forward,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)

The new Illinois governor has a track record of advocating for reform in the state. In order to protest the high salaries of government officials in the state, for example, Quinn once organized his supporters by having them send tea bags to their offices in a protest inspired by the Boston Tea Party. After graduating from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in 1971, he worked as an aide on the campaign of another Illinois governor, Dan Walker.

“I worked in East St. Louis [on the campaign] for $600 a month. I was in charge of seven counties in Southern Illinois, which was a rough political area with a lot of challenges for someone just out of college,” Quinn said.

After working for Walker, Quinn focused on getting reform-minded petitions passed in Illinois.

In 1980, as only a law student at the Northwestern University School of Law, Quinn led the successful effort to reduce the size of the Illinois House of Representatives from 177 to 118 members. In 1986, he ran unsuccessfully for Illinois state treasurer, but later served as revenue director for Chicago’s first African-American mayor, Harold Washington.

Quinn was elected Illinois state treasurer in 1991, serving until 1995. As treasurer, he publicly sparred with then-Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan. Ryan, who would later serve as governor of Illinois from 1999 to 2003, and is currently serving a six-and-a-half year sentence in federal prison for corruption, including federal-level charges of racketeering, bribery, money laundering, extortion and tax fraud.

Quinn sought the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate in 1996 and lost narrowly to current Sen. Dick Durbin (SFS ’66, LAW ’69, D-Ill.). He also lost the nomination for lieutenant governor in 1998, but was granted the position in 2002. In Illinois, each party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor compete in separate primaries before running on the same ticket in the general election. As a result, Quinn was nominated independently of Blagojevich.

Quinn said that his time at Georgetown helped build his interest in a career in public service. After graduating from Chicago’s Dominican-run Fenwick High School, he arrived in Washington, D.C., for the first time after enrolling at Georgetown as a freshman in the fall of 1967. Living in Maguire Hall, which was then used for student housing, he said he was excited to be in the nation’s capital during such an important era of reform.

“It was a pivotal time in American history,” he said. “I liked Georgetown’s emphasis on international affairs and you can’t find a better place to go to school for that.”

The following spring, Quinn learned the harsh realities of that turbulent era firsthand.

“I was at Georgetown when Martin Luther King was shot,” he said. “I tutored young people in a grammar [school] on 14th Street and when I got down there I saw that thing had been set on fire. The mother of one of my students met me at a bus stop and told me it was too dangerous to teach, so I went home.”

Like many Hoyas, Quinn’s time at Georgetown was not limited just to time preparing for tests or interning on Capitol Hill.

“I liked sports and was involved in intramurals for all four years. We should have won my senior year but I’m not going to dwell on calls that weren’t made some 38 years ago,” he joked.

Quinn also served as a sports editor for The Hoya from 1968-1970. Nonetheless, Quinn did take advantage of the opportunities that living in the nation’s capitol provided him. Quinn said he immensely enjoyed the opportunity to explore the city and visit places like the Supreme Court. He also gained first-hand experience by volunteering in the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Abner Mikva (D-Ill.).

Quinn also said that Georgetown instilled in him the values that he would need in his political career. He cites Professor Carroll Quigley, a noted historian, as one among many great teachers that he had the opportunity to learn from.

“The classes I took were outstanding and the professors were idealistic and inspiring,” he said. “I really liked the emphasis that Georgetown placed on getting an education in history, government, economics, philosophy and English.”

Quinn said he also benefited from being exposed to the Jesuit principle of service.

“I appreciated their emphasis on values, especially that a position of influence in society should be focused on service,” he said.