Judy Baar Topinka
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Judy Baar Topinka (born January 16, 1944) is the Illinois State Treasurer and chair of the Republican Party of Illinois. She is the first woman to become state treasurer, first to be elected to three consecutive terms, as well as the first Republican to hold the post in over thirty-two years.
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Early Years
Topinka was born in the Chicago suburb of Riverside where she attended local schools. She graduated in 1962 from Ferry Hall School in Lake Forest and entered Northwestern University in Evanston. Topinka received a BS degree in journalism from the university's prestigious Medill School. After leaving Northwestern, Topinka became an accomplished reporter for several Chicagoland suburban newspapers and rose through the ranks to become an editor. On the side, Topinka established her own public relations business, through which she began a career in consulting for various political candidates.
Legislative Career
In 1980, Topinka first pursued her own career in politics by running for the Illinois General Assembly. She won a seat in the House of Representatives at which she served two two-year terms. In 1984, she set her sights on the upper house of the Illinois General Assembly and won a seat in the Senate at which she served ten years.
Illinois State Treasurer
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In the Illinois General Assembly, Topinka gained a wealth of experience, name recognition statewide and considerable popularity. In the middle of a term as state senator, Topinka joined the Illinois State Treasurer race in 1994. She became the first woman to hold the office in the history of the state as well as the first Republican in over thirty-two years. Her popularity grew and she was reelected in 1998 and 2002.
Illinois Republican Party
The year 2002 proved to be one of the most damaging years for the Illinois Republican Party. It suffered immense losses statewide as allegations of corruption emanating from the office of Governor George Ryan culminated in federal criminal indictments. The party lost the governorship to the Illinois Democratic Party under Governor Rod Blagojevich, a former member of Congress from Chicago. To make matters worse, donors withheld funds from the Republican organization and the party was driven into near bankruptcy.
In order to save the state party, the only statewide Republican officeholder, Topinka, was appointed chair that year. Upon assuming the role, Topinka quickly drafted a reorganization plan hoping to fill Republican coffers once again as well as restore the confidence and dignity voters once found in the party. Topinka's efforts to save the crippled party were fraught with difficulty.
The difficulty only grew worse in summer 2004 when Topinka was embroiled in a very public controversy over a sex scandal involving her party's nominee for the US Senate, Jack Ryan. Topinka claimed that Ryan told her he had nothing in his past which would blemish his current candidacy, which was clearly not the case. After embarrassing headlines and charges fires from both sides, Ryan dropped out of the race. Topinka then had to deal with the far-right base of her party insisting an extremely conservative nominee replace Ryan. Topinka felt this type of candidate could not win, as she and former governors Jim Edgar, James R. Thompson and George H. Ryan were all moderate and had been among the only Republicans elected statewide for decades. In August 2004, powerful Republicans such as Congressman Don Manzullo and state senators Dave Syverson and Steve Rauschenberger overruled her objections and invited the very conservative Alan Keyes to enter the race, which he did. Her fears came true as Keyes immediately began uttering inflammatory remarks, claiming the Democratic nominee Barack Obama took the "slaveholder's position" on abortion, that Jesus wouldn't vote for Obama, and, at the Republican National Convention, saying that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary Cheney (along with all other homosexuals) was a "selfish hedonist." At this point Topinka publicly washed her hands of Keyes. He went on to lose in a landslide. The dean of the state's Republican Congressional delegation, Phil Crane, also lost his seat. On the flip side, the party picked up a state Supreme Court seat for the first time in many years, and also gained a few seats in the state legislature. But many of the party activists continued to rage against Topinka and what they viewed as her betrayal of their principles.
Topinka's tenure as the head of the IL GOP expired in January 2005; her replacement was Andy McKenna.
Political Future
Commentators have speculated that Topinka may run against James D. Oberweis and Steve Rauschenberger, among others, in the Republican primary for 2006's gubernatorial election. Topinka's strong support of abortion and gay rights may help her in a general election, but may also be extremely detrimental to her in a primary where she is already unpopular with many active Republican voters.
Resources
- Illinois State Treasurer Official Site (http://www.state.il.us/treas/)
- Judy Baar Topinka Personal Site (http://www.judybarrtopinka.com/)