Pat Quinn

Name: Pat Quinn

Age: 69

Party: Democratic

Current residence: Chicago

Current position: Attorney at law

Past legal experience: Sole practitioner, 1980-present; public interest law, 1980-present

Campaign funds available, July 1 to Dec. 31: $328,156.17

Campaign funds spent, July 1 to Dec. 31: $49,442.13

Law school: Northwestern University Law School, 1980

Campaign website: quinnforillinois.com

Family: Two sons, Patrick and David

Hobbies/interests: Recreational basketball player and White Sox baseball fan

What would you consider your greatest career accomplishment?

My greatest career accomplishment: Working together with many advocates to persuade the General Assembly, and then signing the legislation, to bring the benefits of the Affordable Care Act to Illinois. At first there had been substantial opposition to the bill. The ACA has expanded health-care coverage to hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents and brought $12 billion of federal funding to the state. Other career highlights as governor: abolishing the death penalty; successfully pursuing the legislation to establish marriage equality in Illinois and bringing about the $31 billion capital projects program to jumpstart the state’s economy during the Great Recession.

Why should voters support your candidacy?

I have pursued the public interest throughout my life and have both the independence and knowledge to vindicate the law and protect people in need. I also have a long record of pursuing ethics and transparency in government. Over the course of my career, I have litigated public interest cases before the circuit court, appellate court and Illinois Supreme Court; evaluated thousands of pieces of legislation; practiced before administrative bodies including the Illinois Commerce Commission; won reforms in election law cases; represented hundreds of homeowners and businesses in property tax matters; judged thousands of property tax appeals and analyzed thousands of clemency petitions. I would bring to the attorney general’s office the energy and commitment to aggressively challenge unlawful actions of the Trump Administration.

What would be your top priority as attorney general?

Integrity and transparency in government will be my top priority. I will aggressively enforce the Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act, partner with federal prosecutors and state’s attorneys to prosecute officials who violate the laws and seek new legislation to battle corruption and raise ethical requirements. I also will emphasize consumer and privacy rights, criminal justice reform, protecting immigrants, workers’ rights and environmental protection.

Regarding the ongoing consent decree talks with the Chicago Police Department, what policies or measures do you view as being necessary for the department to adopt?

The U.S. Department of Justice and Chicago’s Police Accountability Task Force recently confirmed reports spanning decades that the Chicago Police Department has continued to engage in excessive force and racially discriminatory practices. Although the city and CPD have taken steps to implement change, in order to ensure lasting reform, the consent decree must be judicially enforceable, independently monitored and transparent to the public. The DOJ report persuasively outlined numerous CPD policies and procedures that should be addressed in a consent decree, including: training to support officers, use of force, supervision, disciplinary review and officer mental health and support. Also, it is important that CPD implement stronger and better community policing policies to build trust between the department and the communities it serves.

How do you view the attorney general’s role in conjunction with the federal government?

The Illinois attorney general should aggressively challenge unlawful actions taken by the current administration in Washington, such as its efforts to limit access to health care and violations of the rights of immigrants. The attorney general should also act when the federal government abrogates its responsibility to enforce the law. For example, state attorneys general must expand their efforts to prosecute polluters when the federal government fails to act. The attorney general should partner with federal prosecutors as well as states attorneys to prosecute corruption and should seek legislative authority to act unilaterally when federal prosecutors decline to act.

Do you believe state employees should be paid absent an appropriation? Under the current laws of the state, would you go to court to block their pay if they continued receiving checks absent a budget?

There simply is no excuse not to have a budget. During my tenure as governor, it often was difficult to come to a budget agreement, particularly during the depth of the Great Recession. But every year we all rolled up our sleeves and achieved a budget while making the full contribution to the pension funds, and by the end of my tenure we had substantially reduced the backlog of bills that had resulted from the recession. As attorney general, I will determine if the law is being followed after considering all of the relevant facts at the time and initiate a court challenge if I conclude that the law has been broken.