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Neil Hartigan

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Neil Hartigan
Hartigan c.1989
Judge of the Illinois Court of Claims
In office
May 2, 2013 – March 21, 2019
Appointed byPat Quinn
Preceded byNorma Jann
Succeeded bySonia Antolec
Judge of the Illinois First District Appellate Court
In office
December 2, 2002 – June 1, 2004
Preceded byRobert Chapman Buckley
Succeeded byP. Scott Neville Jr.
38th Attorney General of Illinois
In office
January 12, 1983 – January 14, 1991
GovernorJim Thompson
Preceded byTy Fahner
Succeeded byRoland Burris
40th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois
In office
January 8, 1973 – January 10, 1977
GovernorDan Walker
Preceded byPaul Simon
Succeeded byDave O'Neal
Personal details
Born
Cornelius Francis Hartigan

(1938-05-04) May 4, 1938 (age 87)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseMarge Dunne (died 2003)
Children4
EducationGeorgetown University (BS)
Loyola University Chicago (JD)

Cornelius Francis Hartigan (born May 4, 1938)[1] is an American politician, lawyer, and judge who served as the 38th Attorney General of Illinois and the 40th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Born into a politically active Chicago family, Hartigan began his political career under Mayor Richard J. Daley. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1972 alongside Dan Walker. Although he won renomination for a second term, Hartigan and Michael Howlett lost the 1976 election.

Hartigan went on to be elected attorney general in 1982 and was reelected in 1986. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Illinois in 1990, but he narrowly lost the race to Republican Jim Edgar. In 2002, Hartigan was elected to the Illinois Appellate Court and retired in 2004. He was later appointed to the Illinois Court of Claims and served from 2013 until 2019.

Early life and education

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A lifelong resident of Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, Hartigan was born into a large Irish Catholic family that was involved in local Chicago politics but never part of the inner circle that ran the city.[2] His father, David, served in the city treasurer’s office, and his paternal uncle, Matthew, was a longtime municipal judge on the city’s South Side.[3]

Hartigan’s father was appointed City Treasurer of Chicago by Mayor Martin H. Kennelly and held the office from 1954 until 1955, when he was elected Alderman of the 49th Ward.[1] Although he was re-elected in 1959, he died in office soon afterward.[4]

The younger Hartigan attended Loyola Academy and graduated from Georgetown University in 1959.[5] After Georgetown, Hartigan returned to Chicago and went on to attend law school at Loyola University Chicago, graduating in 1966.[6]

Early political career

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Upon graduation from Georgetown, Hartigan was hired by Mayor Richard J. Daley to shovel coal in the basement of the Chicago Board of Health building while attending law school at night.[2] However, he soon became an assistant to the city’s health commissioner. Then, upon passing the bar, he was the attorney for the Board of Health and the general counsel for the Chicago Park District.[3]

Hartigan became a protégé of Mayor Richard J. Daley during this time. He was Daley's administrative assistant and worked as the city’s legislative counsel, acting as an emissary between Mayor Daley and the Illinois Legislature. He also held other roles in Daley’s mayoral administration, including as a deputy mayor and an organizer for the mayor's re-election bids.[7]

In 1968, Hartigan was elected the Democratic Committeeman for Chicago's 49th ward, the same ward his father had represented. He stepped down from the role in 1980.

Lt. Governor and Attorney General

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In 1971, then-lieutenant governor Paul Simon recruited Hartigan to be his running mate in the 1972 gubernatorial election.[4] At the time, the lieutenant governor and governor were nominated through separate primaries. Hartigan won the lieutenant governor nomination, but Simon lost the gubernatorial nomination in an upset to political outsider Dan Walker.[4] Hartigan and Walker were elected on the same ticket in the general election, defeating the incumbent Republican governor Richard B. Ogilvie and his running mate Jim Nowlan.

At the time of his inauguration, Hartigan was the youngest person ever elected lieutenant governor of any state. During his tenure, he was a leading force in establishing the Illinois Department of Aging, which was made to run the state’s government programs for the elderly.[4] Late in his term, Hartigan became chairman of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors.[3]

In 1976, he ran for re-election. He won renomination as lieutenant governor, but Governor Walker lost the primary to Secretary of State Michael Howlett. The Democratic team of Howlett and Hartigan went on to lose handily in the general election. A Democrat would not hold the lieutenant governor’s office again for 26 years until Pat Quinn was inaugurated in 2003.

After losing in 1976, Hartigan worked as an executive for a bank. He returned to elected office as Attorney General of Illinois in 1983, having defeated the Republican incumbent in the 1982 election. During the 1986 election, Hartigan initially decided to run for governor. However, when Adlai Stevenson III entered the Democratic primary, Hartigan dropped out and ran successfully for re-election as attorney general, winning by a large margin. As attorney general, Hartigan was the highest-ranking Democratic official in Illinois during the 1980s.[8]

Hartigan ran for governor in the 1990 election, winning the Democratic nomination unopposed. Campaigning as a moderate Democrat, he advocated for lowering the state income tax and increasing funding for social services, such as education. Hartigan narrowly lost the general election to Secretary of State Jim Edgar by about 80,000 votes out of the over 3.2 million cast.[9]

Later years

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Following his defeat in 1990, Hartigan left elected office again. He worked for a Chicago law firm and served as chairman of World Trade Center Illinois.[10] During the 1990s, Hartigan considered possibly returning to elected office. News outlets named him as a potential leading contender for the Democratic nomination in the 1996 U.S. Senate race and the 1994 and 1998 gubernatorial elections.[11]

In 1997, Hartigan was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve on the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.[12] In addition, his daughter, Laura, served as the chief fundraiser of Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.[13]

In 2002, Hartigan won election to the Illinois Appellate Court from the First District, which covers Cook County.[14][15] After two years, he chose to retire voluntarily from the bench.[16] On March 22, 2013, Governor Pat Quinn appointed Hartigan to the Illinois Court of Claims. He served as a judge on the court from May 2, 2013, until retiring on March 21, 2019.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Oral History Interview with Neil Hartigan" (PDF). Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
  2. ^ a b "FOR HARTIGAN, POLITICS FLOWS IN HIS BLOOD". Chicago Tribune. October 28, 1990. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c "Congressional Record". www.congress.gov. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d Chicago reader: "What's the Deal With Neal Hartigan?" By Florence Hamlish Levinsohn Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine October 25, 1990
  5. ^ "John Carroll Award". Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
  6. ^ "President's Medal Award Winner". Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  7. ^ Tribune, Chicago (November 8, 1990). "HARTIGAN MUM ABOUT HIS FUTURE". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  8. ^ Moberg, David (November 1, 1990). "Where's the Party?". Chicago Reader. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  9. ^ "Vote analysis of Edgar victory:". www.lib.niu.edu. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  10. ^ "Neil F Hartigan, Illinois Court of Claims: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  11. ^ "FOR HARTIGAN, TO RUN OR NOT TO RUN". Crain's Chicago Business. April 21, 1995. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  12. ^ "Digest of Other White House Announcements | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  13. ^ "HARTIGAN'S DECLARATION NOT TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR OPENS '98 DOOR TO 2". Chicago Tribune. November 26, 1996. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  14. ^ Baim, Tracy (October 30, 2002). "Judging the Judges" (PDF). Windy City Times. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  15. ^ "Chief Justice McMorrow to Give Judicial Oath to Neil Hartigan" (PDF) (Press release). Illinois Supreme Court. December 2, 2002. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  16. ^ "Appellate Court gets Hartigan replacement". Chicago Tribune. June 11, 2004. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  17. ^ Quinn, Pat (May 2, 2013). "98th General Assembly Appointment Message 0148". Illinois General Assembly. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
[edit]
Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois
1972, 1976 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Richard J. Troy
 Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Illinois
1982, 1986 		Succeeded by
Vacant
Title last held by
Adlai Stevenson III 		Democratic nominee for Governor of Illinois
1990 		Succeeded by
Legal offices
Preceded by Attorney General of Illinois
1983–1991 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Lieutenant Governor of Illinois
1973 – 1977 		Succeeded by
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