Jim Edgar

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On August 8th, 1989, Edgar announced his candidacy for Governor of Illinois following incumbent Governor Jim Thompson's decision not to run for a fifth term. [19] Despite instantly becoming the Republican Party's frontrunner and Thompson's heir-apparent, Edgar was challenged in the 1990 primary by perennial candidate Robert Marshall and conservative political activist Steve Baer. [20] [21] Baer, the former executive director of the Illinois Republican Fund, opposed Edgar's pro-choice stance on abortion and his support of making permanent a then-temporary 20% income tax in support of the state's education system. [20] Edgar won the Republican nomination with a little under 63% of the primary vote. [22]

In the general election, Edgar faced Democrat Neil Hartigan, the incumbent Illinois Attorney General and former Illinois Lieutenant Governor under the state's last Democratic Governor Dan Walker. [23] Hartigan, like Baer, opposed making permanent the state's 20% education-focused income tax and attacked Edgar as a tax-and-spend politician. [20] In addition to being fiscally conservative, Hartigan was a noted social liberal. [24] [25] He supported abortion rights and other socially liberal causes throughout his time in public life. [26] [27] [28]

Edgar, meanwhile, campaigned on fiscal responsibility for the state and on his character as a consistent leader while attacking Hartigan as being an indecisive policy maker who changed his opinions on issues when it became politically convenient, a perspective that had hurt Hartigan in the past. [6] [23] [29] At one rally towards the end of the campaign, Edgar held up a waffle and joked that it would become the state seal if Hartigan were elected. [29]

Edgar onstage with his family and Lt. Governor-elect Bob Kustra after winning the election. Edgar-gallery-4.jpg
Edgar onstage with his family and Lt. Governor-elect Bob Kustra after winning the election.

Edgar's campaign was hindered by a poor national environment for Republicans and a desire amongst the Illinois public for a change in leadership following the previous four terms of Jim Thompson. [6] [30]

In the two weeks prior to the election, those hindrances paired with poor polling led Edgar to believe he was going to lose, but despite trailing Hartigan for most of election night, Edgar narrowly won the election by a little over 2% of the vote. [17] [31] Edgar's close victory occurred alongside the re-election of incumbent U.S. Senator Paul Simon in a Democratic landslide and made Edgar one of only two Republicans to win statewide office in Illinois that year. [32]

In the election's aftermath, a few factors were given credit for Edgar's success: first was his successful effort to market himself as a candidate representing change for the state despite being a Republican, second was the Edgar campaign's strong get-out-the-vote effort on election day, and third was Edgar's unique appeal to groups that were not traditionally a part of the state's Republican coalition. [6] [32]

Despite being attacked for it for most of the campaign, Edgar's position on the state income tax benefitted him with Chicago-area Black voters, a number of whom already felt disrespected by Hartigan due to his endorsement of third party candidate Thomas Hynes, a longtime ally of his, in the 1987 Chicago Mayoral election against incumbent Democratic mayor Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor. [32] [33] [34] Hartigan worked to regain support in the African American community throughout the race, even bringing in former professional boxer Muhammad Ali to campaign alongside him. [35]

During the campaign, Edgar openly opposed U.S. President George H.W. Bush's vetoing of the Civil Rights Act of 1990 and courted the support of prominent Black leaders, especially those involved with the recently-formed Harold Washington Party, gaining endorsements from several including Lu Palmer. [36] [37] [34]

As a result of Hartigan's shortcomings and Edgar's overtures to these longtime Democratic constituencies, Edgar ran stronger in the Black community than any Republican had in decades, earning a quarter of the black vote in Cook County. [32] [38] Edgar also performed better than Republicans traditionally did amongst Chicago's Latino voters, many of whom were already familiar with him thanks to Edgar's library and literacy programs while Secretary of State. [17] [34] Edgar's gains amongst these traditionally Democratic groups helped negate his losses to Hartigan in more traditionally Republican areas of the state that would have otherwise resulted in a loss. [32] [38]

Governor of Illinois

First term (1991–1995)

Edgar with President Bill Clinton in 1993 Photograph of President William J. Clinton Greeting Illinois Governor Jim Edgar - NARA - 2840358.jpg
Edgar with President Bill Clinton in 1993

On January 14th, 1991, Edgar took the oath of office as Governor of Illinois and gave a speech focused on fiscal responsibility. [39] During the gubernatorial transition between the 1990 election and his inauguration, Edgar and his staff were made aware of a nearly billion-dollar deficit in state spending that he would have to deal with upon assuming office and though the exact size of the deficit was downplayed by the Illinois State Bureau of the Budget to the public and to the news-media of the time, it was still recognized to be the largest budget deficit in state history up to that point. [40] [41] Then, three weeks following Edgar's inauguration, the state began to feel stronger effects of the early 1990s recession, worsening the state's financial standing further. [42]

To try and correct the state's finances, Edgar's first proposed budget for the fiscal year 1992 included no tax increases and extensive cuts to state spending totaling in the millions of dollars—with the exception of education, which received a slight increase. [43] [44] This budget ran into conflict with the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly and a months-long budget fight ensued between Edgar and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan over his proposals. [43] [45] After months of negotiations, the two reached a compromise in mid-July that included most of Edgar's initial spending cuts, made permanent the temporary income tax increase that had dominated the 1990 campaign, and established property tax caps in all counties except Cook. [45] [40] Edgar would have two more significant budget fights in 1992 and 1993 and the state's financial troubles would dominate much of Edgar's first term. [46] [47]

In between budget fights, Edgar also sought to reform the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which had been put under court supervision following an ACLU lawsuit three years prior to Edgar taking office. [48] Policy changes enacted by Edgar included reorienting the department's priorities around focusing on the best interests of the children they were dealing with as opposed to keeping families together, toughening standards for private agencies and organizations overseeing child-care, and passing a bipartisan package of welfare reforms in 1994 focused on increasing scrutiny in abuse-related death investigations, establishing methods of stopping child abuse before it occurs, and requiring the department to draft standardized training procedures and guidelines for caseworkers. [48] [49]

On April 24th, 1993, Edgar declared Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties disaster areas due to flooding. [40] This would be the first of many actions Edgar would take to curb the devastation of the Great Flood of 1993, later be regarded as one of the worst natural disasters in Illinois history. [40] [50] Edgar would mobilize over 7,000 members of the Illinois National Guard to flood duty over the course of the disaster and organize hundreds of inmates from the Illinois Department of Corrections to help with sandbagging and levee-reinforcement. [51] [40] Edgar would also help with sandbagging efforts himself throughout the summer. [50] [40]

The "Edgar ramp"

In 1994, Edgar signed into law Public Act 88-593, a bipartisan compromise bill between Edgar and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan to address the state's developing pension crisis. [1] Prior to 1981, the State of Illinois funded pensions on an "as-you-go" basis, making benefit payouts as they came due, with employee contributions and investment income funding a reserve to cover future payouts. [52] This approach was stopped in 1982 due to strains on the Illinois budget and state contributions remained flat between 1982 and 1995, resulting in an underfunding of pensions by approximately $20 billion. [52] Public Act 88-593 set out a schedule to raise the state's pension funding ratio from the flat then-52% liability to 90% by 2045 with mandatory yearly payments and a 15 year "ramp" period at the start where the state's payments would begin low and increase at an escalating rate yearly. [53] [54] It would be from this "ramp" period that the funding plan would gain the colloquial name "the Edgar ramp." [54] Despite being heralded as a bipartisan success at the time, the "ramp approach" was imperfect at correcting the state's pension issues long-term and the Illinois pension crisis continues into the present day, with Illinois' public pensions being the worst-funded in the nation as of 2023. [55] [54]

1994 Illinois gubernatorial election

In 1994, Edgar easily defeated the Democratic nominee, incumbent state comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch, to win re-election in a landslide. He won 101 of the state's 102 counties, including the historically Democratic stronghold of Cook County.

Second term (1995–1999)

During his second term, the relationship between his re-election campaign and Management Systems of Illinois (MSI) came under federal scrutiny. MSI, Edgar's largest campaign contributor, was granted a contract that cost an estimated $20 million in overcharges. Edgar was never accused of wrongdoing, but he testified twice, once in court and once by videotape, becoming the first sitting Illinois governor to take the witness stand in a criminal case in 75 years. In those appearances, the governor insisted political donations played no role in who received state contracts. [56] Convictions were obtained against Management Services of Illinois; Michael Martin, who had been a partner of Management Services of Illinois; and Ronald Lowder, who had been a state welfare administrator and later worked for Management Services of Illinois. [57]

While pro-choice, Edgar signed into law the Parental Notification of Abortion Act during his second term. [58]

On August 20, 1997, Edgar announced he would retire from politics at the end of his second term. If he sought a third term, he was seen by his supporters as likely to win it. He was also encouraged by Republican officials to run for U.S. Senate that year, which he also declined to do. [59]

Edgar supported Secretary of State George Ryan to succeed him. Ryan was elected governor in 1998. [60]

Post-governorship

Edgar in 2013 JimEdgar2013.png
Edgar in 2013

Edgar is a distinguished fellow of the Institute of Government & Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. [61]

In 1999, Edgar was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. [62]

Edgar was named the honorary chairman of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration at Eureka College, President Reagan's alma mater. To open the Reagan Centennial year in January 2011, Governor Edgar delivered the keynote speech at the concluding dinner of the "Reagan and the Midwest" academic conference held at Eureka College. [63] In September 2011, Edgar helped dedicate the Mark R. Shenkman Reagan Research Center housed in the Eureka College library. [64]

As former chairman of the board of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, Edgar underwrote the costs of the traveling trophy for the annual Lincoln Bowl tradition started in 2012. The Lincoln Bowl celebrates the Lincoln connection with Knox College and Eureka College, two Illinois colleges where Lincoln spoke, and is awarded to the winning team each time the two schools play each other in football. [65]

In July 2016, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Illinois Financing Partners, a firm for which Edgar served as chairman, won approval by the state to advance money to state vendors who had been waiting for payments by the state. In turn, the firm would get to keep late payment fees when Illinois finally pays. [66]

Edgar was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 1999 in the area of Government. [67]

He is a resident fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. [68]

Political opinions

A moderate Republican, Edgar supports abortion rights. [58]

In February 2008, Edgar endorsed Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona for President of the United States. [69]

Edgar supported Mitt Romney in 2012. [70] When Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016, Edgar publicly announced that he would not be voting for him. [71] After the President's second nomination, Edgar, along with other Illinois GOP moderates, announced their support of former United States Vice President and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. [72] Edgar told Peoria-area newspaper Peoria Journal Star, "I have been very disappointed. We’ve had chaos for four years we didn’t need to have. I mean, there’s always going to be some turmoil, but he stirs it up. He bullies. You can’t believe what he says because he’ll do the different thing the next day. ... He’s bungled the virus, there’s no doubt about that. He continued to stir up division in the country, (when) a president should be trying to bring people together. I mean, the list goes on and on." [73]

In the spring of 2016, Edgar said that he believed Governor Bruce Rauner should sign the Democratic budget and support the Democratic pension plan. [74] Edgar pushed for a pension bill to save $15 billion back in 1994. [75] "We had a time bomb in our retirement system that was going to go off in the first part of the 21st century," Edgar told The State Journal-Register in 1994. "This legislation defuses that time bomb." [75] The legislature passed Edgar's bill unanimously. [75]

Personal life

Edgar is married to Brenda Smith Edgar. They have two children, Brad and Elizabeth. [6]

Edgar is Baptist. [3]

In 1994, Edgar underwent emergency quadruple bypass surgery and was hospitalized in 1998 for chest pains. [76]

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Jim Edgar
Jim Edgar (Illinois Blue Book Portrait 1993-1994).jpg
Edgar in 1993
38th Governor of Illinois
In office
January 14, 1991 January 11, 1999
Illinois House of Representatives
Preceded by
Max E. Coffey
Robert "Bob" Craig
Member of the Illinois House of Representatives
from the 53rd district

1977–1979
Served alongside: Charles M. "Chuck" Campbell, Larry Stuffle
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of State of Illinois
1981–1991
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Illinois
1991–1999
Party political offices
Preceded by
Sharon Sharp
Republican nominee for Secretary of State of Illinois
1982, 1986
Succeeded by
Preceded by Republican Party nominee for Governor of Illinois
1990, 1994
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded byas Former US Senator Order of precedence of the United States
Within Illinois
Succeeded byas Former Governor
Preceded byas Former Governor Order of precedence of the United States
Outside Illinois