Martin J. Oberman

Last updated
Marty Oberman
Marty Oberman.jpg
Official portrait, 2019
Chair of the Surface Transportation Board
In office
January 21, 2021 –May 10, 2024

After nearly three years (1969–1972) as a lawyer with the Chicago firm of Leibman, Williams, Bennett, Baird, and Minow,[ citation needed ] Oberman became General Counsel to the Illinois Racing Board under Anthony Scariano. Oberman investigated and prosecuted various corrupt racing interests in License revocation proceedings for political payoffs, race-fixing and horse drugging.[ citation needed ]

Chicago City Council

In 1975, Oberman was elected Alderman from Chicago's 43rd Ward. He had an adversarial relationship with the Chicago City Council's political majority. In 1979 and again in 1983, he was reelected as Alderman.

Oberman was a member of the minority independent bloc of aldermen. He had a reputation as a reformer, and kept himself distanced from the city's Democratic machine politics.[ citation needed ]

Oberman, along with fellow independent alderman Dick Simpson, was one of only two aldermen to vote against the resolution appointing Michael Anthony Bilandic to hold the mayoralty after Richard J. Daley's death in office.

From 1983 to 1986, Marty supported Mayor Harold Washington, Chicago's first African American mayor in the era of the Council Wars.[ citation needed ] He had been a supporter of Washington's mayoral candidacy.

Subsequent career

After leaving the City Council, Oberman was appointed Chairman of the Shore Protection Commission, which was tasked with doing a complete rehabilitation of Chicago's shoreline to ensure environmental protection.

Oberman ran for Illinois Attorney General in 1982 (in which he was not on the ballot), 1986, and again in 1994. He did not win any of these campaigns.

In September 2014, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel named Oberman to the board of Metra, Chicago's commuter rail system. [17] He took his seat in November. [18] On February 11, 2014, the board unanimously voted to make him Metra chairman, a position he held until November 1, 2016. [17] [19] His term at Metra was plagued with problems, including late trains [20] and train breakdowns, among other issues. [21]

On July 5, 2018, President Donald Trump announced he was seeking to appoint Oberman to the Democratic vacancy on the United States Surface Transportation Board. He was confirmed for the vacancy on January 3, 2019, by a voice vote in the United States Senate. In January 2019, he began a five-year term on the Surface Transportation Board. In January 2021, he was named Chairman of the Board by President Biden.

In the 2019 Chicago mayoral election, Oberman endorsed Lori Lightfoot, publicly declaring his support of her candidacy in advance of the first round of the election. [22]

Surface Transportation Board (STB)

He was confirmed for the vacancy on January 3, 2019, by a voice vote in the United States Senate. Following Joe Biden's inauguration as president in 2021, Oberman was chosen to serve as chair of the STB. [23]

Oberman retired in May 2024. [24]

Family life

Oberman lives in Chicago with his wife, Bonnie Oberman, who was the Chicago Director of Facing History and Ourselves. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University Park, Illinois</span> Village in Illinois, United States

University Park is a village in Will County with a small portion in Cook County in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a south suburb of Chicago. The village is one of the region's few planned communities; it was developed in the 1960s as Wood Hill, then Park Forest South, and finally University Park. Governors State University was established in the village in 1969. The village population was 7,145 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Davis (Illinois politician)</span> American politician (born 1941)

Daniel K. Davis is an American politician who is the U.S. representative from Illinois's 7th congressional district, elected in 1996. The district serves much of western Chicago, as well as the Loop. It also includes several of Chicago's inner western suburbs, such as Bellwood, Oak Park, and River Forest. Davis is a Democrat, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metra</span> Suburban railroad operator in the Chicago, Illinois metropolitan area, in the US

Metra is the primary commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 243 stations on 11 rail lines. It is the fourth busiest commuter rail system in the United States by ridership and the largest and busiest commuter rail system outside the New York City metropolitan area. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 31,894,900, or about 168,600 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2024. The estimated busiest day for Metra ridership occurred on November 4, 2016—the day of the Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series victory rally, with a record 460,000+ passengers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago City Council</span> Legislative body for Chicago

The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is called into session regularly, usually monthly, to consider ordinances, orders, and resolutions whose subject matter includes code changes, utilities, taxes, and many other issues. The Chicago City Council Chambers are located in Chicago City Hall, as are the downtown offices of the individual alderpersons and staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surface Transportation Board</span> Independent agency of the United States federal government

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is an independent federal agency that serves as an adjudicatory board. The board was created in 1996 following the abolition of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and absorbed regulatory powers relevant to the railroad industry previously under the ICC's purview.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael A. Bilandic</span> American politician and judge

Michael Anthony Bilandic was an American Democratic politician, judge, and attorney who served as the 49th mayor of Chicago from 1976 to 1979, after the death of his predecessor, Richard J. Daley. Bilandic practiced law in Chicago for several years, having graduated from the DePaul University College of Law. Bilandic served as an alderman in Chicago City Council, representing the eleventh ward on the south-west side from June 1969 until he began his tenure as mayor in December 1976. After his mayoralty, Bilandic served on the Illinois Appellate Court from 1984 until being elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1990. He served on the state supreme court until 2000, and was the court’s chief Justice from 1994 to 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward M. Burke</span> American politician from Chicago

Edward Michael Burke is an American politician found guilty of racketeering, bribery, and extortion who served as the alderman of Chicago's 14th ward from 1969 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the Chicago City Council in 1969, and represented part of the city's Southwest Side. Chair of Council's Committee on Finance, Burke had been called Chicago's "most powerful alderman" by the Chicago Sun-Times. Burke was named one of the "100 Most Powerful Chicagoans" by Chicago Magazine, describing him as "[o]ne of the last of the old-school Chicago Machine pols."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Madigan</span> American politician from Illinois and the Chair of the Illinois Democratic Party

Michael Joseph Madigan is an American politician who is the former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. He was the longest-serving leader of any state or federal legislative body in the history of the United States, having held the position for all but two years from 1983 to 2021. He served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021. He represented the 27th District from 1971 to 1983, the 30th district from 1983 to 1993, and the 22nd district from 1993 to 2021. This made him the body's longest-serving member and the last legislator elected before the Cutback Amendment.

The SouthEast Service is a proposed commuter rail line to be operated by Metra, the commuter railroad service for the Chicago metropolitan area. The route of the proposed line would use tracks owned by CSX Transportation and the Union Pacific Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regional Transportation Authority (Illinois)</span> Northeastern Illinois transit agency

The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) is the financial and oversight body for the three transit agencies in northeastern Illinois; the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and Pace, which are called Service Boards in the RTA Act. RTA serves Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.

Edwin Eisendrath is former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times and former alderman of the 43rd ward of Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirk Dillard</span> American politician

Kirk W. Dillard is an American politician and the current Chairman of the Regional Transportation Authority Board of Directors. Previously, he served as a Republican member of the Illinois State Senate, representing the 24th District from 1993 until his resignation in August 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toni Preckwinkle</span> American politician (born 1947)

Toni Lynn Preckwinkle is an American politician and the incumbent County Board president in Cook County, Illinois, United States. She was elected to her first term as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the executive branch of Cook County government, in November 2010, becoming the first woman elected to that position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Chicago mayoral election</span>

The city of Chicago, Illinois held a nonpartisan mayoral election on Tuesday, February 22, 2011. Incumbent Mayor Richard Michael Daley, a member of the Democratic Party who had been in office since 1989, did not seek a seventh term as mayor. This was the first non-special election since 1947 in which an incumbent mayor of Chicago did not seek reelection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gery Chico</span> American politician and lawyer

Gery J. Chico is an American politician, lawyer, public official and former Democratic primary candidate to become the U.S. Senator from Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1989 Chicago mayoral special election</span>

The Chicago mayoral election of 1989 saw Democratic nominee Richard M. Daley win election to the remainder of an unexpired mayoral term with a 14% margin of victory. This marked a return for the Daley family to the office of mayor. Daley was elected over Alderman Timothy Evans, the nominee of the newly formed Harold Washington Party, and the Republican nominee Ed Vrdolyak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuy García</span> Mexican-American politician (born 1956)

Jesús G. "Chuy" García is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Illinois's 4th district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, as well as in the Illinois Senate and on the Chicago City Council before his election to Congress. He was also a candidate for mayor of Chicago in 2015 and 2023. Throughout his career in Chicago and national politics, he has been described as a progressive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Illinois gubernatorial election</span>

The 2018 Illinois gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the governor of Illinois, concurrently with the 2018 Illinois general election and other midterm elections. Incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner ran for re-election to a second term in office, but was defeated by Democratic nominee J. B. Pritzker. This was one of eight Republican-held governorships up for election in a state that Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kam Buckner</span> American politician

Kambium Elijah "Kam" Buckner is an American politician and attorney who serves as a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives from the 26th district. The district, located entirely in Chicago, includes neighborhoods such as Bronzeville, Downtown, Gold Coast, and Hyde Park, among others. Buckner is the past chair of the Illinois House Black Caucus and current Assistant Majority Leader for the House Democratic Caucus. In college, he played football for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team as an offensive tackle and defensive lineman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Simpson (politician)</span> American professor (born 1940)

Dick Weldon Simpson is an American professor, author, politician, activist, political consultant, and filmmaker who formerly served as a Chicago alderman from 1971 through 1979.

References

  1. ↑ "Surface Transportation Board".
  2. ↑ "President Biden Designates Robert E. Primus as STB Chairman". Surface Transportation Board. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  3. ↑ "Surface Transportation Board".
  4. ↑ "Metra board poised to name new chairman". Chicago Tribune. 9 February 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  5. ↑ Dorfman, Daniel I. (29 November 2022). "Lake Forest resident retiring from Metra board". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  6. 1 2 Wanek-Libman, Mischa (2018-07-06). "Oberman nominated for STB slot". Railway Track and Structures. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
  7. ↑ "Board Members". Surface Transportation Board. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
  8. ↑ "Illinois State Journal VOL. 114: OFFERS PLAN TO END STRIKE" . Illinois State Journal. Vol. 114. Springfield. October 2, 1945. p. 8. Retrieved October 5, 2023. Harry Oberman (...) died at 5. a. m. yesterday (...) Mr. Oberman was born March 25, 1888, in Russia and came to the United States in 1906. He entered the junk business a few years later and (...) became owner of the grocery store.
  9. 1 2 "The Illinois State Journal VOL. 78: LEADING INCIDENTS IN CHINESE MISSION MURDER" . The Illinois State Journal. Vol. 78. June 21, 1909. p. 6. Retrieved October 5, 2023. Oberman-Graonick--Married, at 5 o'clock Sunday afternoon, June 20, 1909, at the Synagogue of the Congregation of B'Nal Abraham (...) Harry W. Oberman and Miss Ida Graonick...
  10. ↑ "Illinois State Journal VOL. 108: SOVIET-GERMAN PACT TO BE PUSHED" . Illinois State Journal. Vol. 108. October 9, 1939. p. 13. Retrieved October 5, 2023. Miss Sophia Gertrude Freidman, (...) became the bride of Morris David Oberman (...) yesterday.
  11. ↑ "Illinois State Journal VOL. 132, NO. 303: SOVIETS LET CONVOY PASS" . Illinois State Journal. Vol. 132, no. 303. November 6, 1963. p. 5. Retrieved October 5, 2023. M. D. (Mush) Oberman, (...) who is heading a drive for Howarth for the Republican nomination for secretary of state...
  12. ↑ "Illinois State Journal and Register: SETS WORLD SPEED RECORD" . Illinois State Journal and Register. September 5, 1948. p. 6. Retrieved October 5, 2023. Installation of officers of the Emes Jodge, Bnai Brith of Springfield (...) The following were installed: (...) Morris D. Oberman, secretary...
  13. ↑ "Illinois State Journal VOL. 117: SENATE DEBATES DRAFT BILL" . Illinois State Journal. Vol. 117. June 10, 1948. p. 12. Retrieved October 5, 2023. B'nai Abraham Elects Officers (...) Elected as members of the board of directors were (...) Morris Oberman....
  14. 1 2 "Illinois State Journal VOL. 128, NO. 49: POWELL WINS ON GOP SHIFT" . Illinois State Journal. Vol. 128, no. 49. Springfield. January 8, 1959. p. 3. Retrieved October 5, 2023. Martin J. Oberman is serving as a page in the House of Representatives of the 86th Congress (...) he received his appointment while a superior honor student at Lawrence Junior High School. (...) Martin graduated from Culver Military Academy (...) and ranks in the top selection of his class in all subjects.
  15. ↑ "Illinois State Journal VOL. 131, NO. 164: CARPENTER READY TO ORBIT" . Illinois State Journal. Vol. 131, no. 164. Springfield. May 24, 1962. p. 34. Retrieved October 5, 2023. ...Martin Oberman, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Oberman (...), will graduate from Culver Military Academy, (...) on June 5.
  16. ↑ Alsene, Ed (October 5, 1962). "Illinois State Journal VO. 131, NO. 276: Quotes And Notes" . Illinois State Journal. Vol. 131, no. 276. p. 31. Retrieved October 5, 2023. ...Martin Oberman of Springfield is on the freshman football squad at Yale University...
  17. 1 2 "Former alderman picked as new Metra chairman". Chicago Tribune. 11 February 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  18. ↑ Franz, Justin (20 November 2023). "Surface Transportation Board Chair Martin J. Oberman to Step Down". Railfan & Railroad Magazine. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  19. ↑ "Martin J. Oberman, Chairman, Surface Transportation Board". North American Rail Shippers Association (NARS). Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  20. ↑ ABC30. "Metra elects new board chairman Martin Oberman, expects delays Tuesday | ABC30 Fresno | abc30.com". ABC30 Fresno. Retrieved 2024-05-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ↑ "Critic dubs Metra's $1.3M tab for Clifford exit 'indefensible'". Chicago Sun-Times. 2014-09-05. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  22. ↑ "Former Clerk David Orr, Former Alds. Dick Simpson and Marty Oberman, endorse Lightfoot". Lightfoot for Chicago. February 20, 2019. Archived from the original (Press release) on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
  23. ↑ "President Biden Designates Martin Oberman as Chairman of the Surface Transportation Board » Freight Rail Customer Alliance". railvoices.org. 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  24. ↑ "STB Chairman Martin J. Oberman Retires". Surface Transportation Board. 2024-05-10. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  25. ↑ Community Conversation with Marco Williams | Facing History and Ourselves


Political offices
Preceded by Member of the Chicago City Council
43rd Ward
1975 –1987		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.