[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 15, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3705-S3706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO NEIL HARTIGAN

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I rise today to offer belated birthday 
wishes and heartfelt thanks to a man who has devoted more than five 
decades of his life to serving the people of Illinois.
  Neil Hartigan made history in 1972 when he became Lieutenant Governor 
of Illinois. He was just 34 years old, making him, at that time, the 
youngest person ever elected Lieutenant Governor of any State. In 1973, 
Time magazine named him as one of the ``Future 200 Leaders'' in the 
country.
  He was recruited to run by Illinois' then-Lieutenant Governor, an 
ambitious young man who planned to run for Governor and wanted Neil 
Hartigan as his running mate. That other man was Paul Simon, my 
political inspiration and the man whose Senate seat I now hold.
  Paul Simon lost his 1972 bid for Governor by a razor thin vote. But 
Neil Hartigan won his race and, as Lieutenant Governor, became a 
champion for seniors. He pushed through the State legislature a bill 
that consolidated the

[[Page S3706]]

State's numerous programs for the elderly into a single, cabinet-level 
department of aging. It was the first department of aging in the 
Nation, and it became a national model.
  His inspiration for that change were the mothers of his childhood 
friends in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood. As he often said, 
growing up in that enclave of mostly Irish and Jewish families, he 
didn't have just one mother; he had 50. Years later, when he was 
running for political office and knocking on doors in his old 
neighborhood, he saw these women again; they were now elderly, often 
lonely, and unsure of where to turn for help.
  In 1976, the last year of his term, he was elected chairman of the 
National Conference of Lieutenant Governors.
  The belief that the purpose of government is to make life better for 
others is a conviction that Neil inherited from his parents. His father 
David Hartigan was the youngest of 14 children in an Irish Catholic 
family on the South Side of Chicago. The family fell on hard times 
after David's father--Neil's grandfather--was badly injured in a work 
accident which left him unable to ever work again. David's mother 
supported the family on her small salary as a teacher. Neil says his 
dad worked ``every job under the sun'' to put himself through college 
and then law school.
  David Hartigan served two terms as Chicago's deputy city treasurer 
and briefly as city treasurer, before being twice elected alderman in 
the 49th Ward.
  When Neil was a senior at Georgetown University, his dad died at the 
age of 57. The cause was complications of diabetes, which had stolen 
most of his dad's eyesight and ravaged his body for years.
  Two things happened to change Neil's life when he returned to Chicago 
after graduating from Georgetown. Loyola University Chicago, offered 
him a scholarship to study law--a generosity he has repaid many times 
over by establishing a scholarship for third-year Loyola law students 
in his father's name. And the city of Chicago offered him a job. This 
was no cushy ``nepo baby'' position. It was physical labor, shoveling 
coal in the basement of the city board of health building.
  Neil didn't stay in the basement long. He soon became a trusted 
assistant to the city health commissioner. After he passed the bar, he 
became attorney for the board of health. He spent a year representing 
the board in Springfield. It was a short time, but he made a long list 
of friends, including Paul Simon.
  At the age of 27, he was hired by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley as 
the mayor's administrative assistant. He became a rising star in 
Illinois Democratic politics, Chicago's chief lobbyist in Springfield, 
and later deputy mayor.
  He won his first political race in 1968, when he was elected 
Democratic committeeman for the 49th Ward, the same ward his father had 
led.
  In 1982, he was elected attorney general of Illinois. In his two 
terms as AG, he managed to get nearly 90 bills through the State 
legislature. One of his bills was the 1983 Illinois Violent Crime 
Victims Assistance Act, which uses fines paid by convicted individuals 
to fund shelters and services for survivors of domestic violence, 
survivors of child abuse, and other survivors of violent crime.
  He sued the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to recover 
benefits for 30,000 people with disabilities in Illinois whose Federal 
assistance had been cut off by the Reagan administration. His victory 
in that case became the basis for similar suits in other States.
  He persuaded the general assembly to override a Governor's veto and 
establish a plan to provide medical services for the indigent.
  Another bill he championed amended the State criminal code to hold 
corporate executives and directors accountable for their companies' 
criminal violations of the State's Environmental Protection Act.
  In 1990, he was the Democratic nominee for Governor, a race he lost 
narrowly to then-Secretary of State Jim Edgar.
  He left politics and government for a while after that, becoming 
chairman of the World Trade Center Illinois.
  In 2002, he was elected to the Illinois Appellate Court from the 
First District, which serves Cook County. One of his role models was 
his paternal uncle Matthew Hartigan, a longtime and respected judge on 
the city's South Side. He stepped down from the bench voluntarily in 
2004.
  Earlier this month, this once Wiz Kid of Illinois politics turned 86. 
He has outlived two spouses, including his first wife and longtime 
political partner Marge. He and his third wife Mary Lou were married 
last year. He remains as interested as ever in politics and good 
government.
  I will close with a story Neil tells about an interview he had with 
Mayor Richard J. Daley when he was 27 and applying for the job as 
assistant to the mayor. Mayor Daley, then at the height of his power, 
asked simply: ``Neil, why do you want to be in government?''
  Neil said he was later embarrassed by the simple sincerity of his 
answer. He replied, ``Frankly, Mayor, I consider it sort of like a 
religious calling. It's the next highest place after the church where 
you can help people.''
  It was a belief inherited from his father and one that has guided 
Neil Hartigan's long life in public service. I am grateful for his 
service and proud to be his friend.

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