Political Quotes

“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 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.…”