James Peyton "Pate" Philip (born May 26, 1930),
is an American politician. A longtime
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
member of the
Illinois General Assembly
The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 181 ...
, Philip served both the
Illinois House of Representatives
The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...
and the
Illinois Senate
The Illinois Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state, State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adop ...
including a decade as the
President of the Illinois Senate
The President of the Illinois Senate is the presiding officer of the Illinois Senate, the upper house of the Illinois General Assembly. The post dates from the General Assembly's 32nd session, in 1881.
From 1881 to 1973, the lieutenant governor wa ...
.
He was known as a highly influential politician, both for the projects that he passed and blocked in state government and for his often-blunt comments.
Richard S. Williamson
Richard Salisbury Williamson (May 9, 1949 – December 8, 2013) was an American lawyer, diplomat and political advisor. He previously served as Special Envoy to Sudan under George W. Bush. Williamson was a partner at Winston & Strawn and was also ' ...
, the White House chief of intergovernmental affairs under
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
, deemed him ''"one of the most important Republicans in the Midwest"''.
Background
Philip was born on May 26, 1930 in
Elmhurst, Illinois
Elmhurst is a city mostly in DuPage County and overlapping into Cook County in the U.S. state of Illinois, and a western suburb of Chicago. As of 2021, the city has an estimated population of 47,260.
History
Members of the Potawatomi Native A ...
. He attended
York Community High School
York Community High School is a public secondary school in Elmhurst, Illinois, United States. It is a part of the Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205. Most of the students reside in Elmhurst; however, the district also draws a small num ...
,
Kansas City Junior College, and
Kansas State College
Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...
.
Philip was drafted into the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
at the onset of the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, though he was not deployed overseas. He was a district sales manager for
Pepperidge Farm
Pepperidge Farm is an American commercial bakery founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin, who named the brand after her family's 123-acre farm property in Fairfield, Connecticut, which had been named for the pepperidge tree.
A subsidiary of the Camp ...
for 38 years and retired in 1992. He is married to Nancy and they have four children.
James "Pate" Philip State Park
James "Pate" Philip State Park, originally known as Tri-County State Park, is an Illinois state park in DuPage County and Kane County, Illinois, United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United S ...
, located in DuPage County, is named after Philip. Philip received a
heart bypass
Coronary artery bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage") is a surgical procedure to treat coronary artery disease (CAD), the buildup of plaques in the arteries of the heart. It can relieve chest pai ...
at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital in June 2004. Philip's stepson
Randy Ramey was appointed to the Illinois House in 2005.
Early political career
Philip was elected York Township Auditor in 1965
and was elected President of the Illinois Young Republicans the same year.
Illinois House
In 1965, the
Illinois Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the State of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the five ap ...
resolved a longstanding reapportionment issue and Philip opted to run for the Illinois House in the 37th district. The 37th district consisted of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
,
Addison
Addison may refer to:
Places Canada
* Addison, Ontario
United States
*Addison, Alabama
*Addison, Illinois
*Addison Street in Chicago, Illinois which runs by Wrigley Field
* Addison, Kentucky
*Addison, Maine
*Addison, Michigan
*Addison, New York
...
,
Bloomingdale and
Wayne townships along with the City of
West Chicago
West Chicago is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 27,086 at the 2010 census. It was formerly named Junction and later Turner, after its founder, John B. Turner, president of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroa ...
in
Winfield Township. He was reelected as one of the district's three representatives with
Gene L. Hoffman and
Bill Redmond
William Thomas Redmond (born January 28, 1954) is an American politician and minister who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Mexico.
Early life and education
Redmond was born in Chicago. He gr ...
. During his first term, he was assigned to the Committees on Conservation, Fish and Game; Executive; Industry and Labor Relations.
Republican
Lee A. Daniels
Lee Albert Daniels (born April 15, 1942) is an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1975 until 2007 including two years as List of Speakers of the Il ...
succeeded Philip as one of three House members from the 40th district as Republican Gene Hoffman and Democrat Bill Redmond were reelected.
Illinois Senate
In 1974, Republican incumbent
Jack T. Knuepfer chose to retire from the Illinois Senate. Philip defeated John L. Benzin, a former member of the DuPage County Board of Tax Review, in the Republican primary. In the general election, Philip faced Democratic candidate
Bud Loftus. In the aftermath of the
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
, Philip won 22,318 votes to Loftus's 20,984 votes; a slim 3.08% margin in then-staunchly Republican DuPage County.
Philip was chosen as the Illinois Senate Minority Leader in 1981 after the death of Dr.
David C. Shapiro
David C. Shapiro (February 16, 1925 – August 1, 1981) was an American dentist and politician.
Born in Mendota, Illinois, Shapiro served in the United States Army during World War II. He went to Stanford University. Shapiro then received his ...
. Philip had been the assistant minority leader since 1979. In January 1993, after the Republicans gained a majority in the Illinois Senate, he was elected as President of the Illinois Senate and remained in that role until 2003 when Democrats became the majority. He retired shortly after his unopposed reelection and was replaced by
Ray Soden
Raymond R. "Ray" Soden (March 26, 1925 – June 22, 2012) was an American politician.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Soden graduated from Steinmetz High School. He went to the Air Forces Institute and the College of DuPage. He served in the Unite ...
.
Senate District
The 40th district to which Philip was elected was in northeastern
DuPage County
DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat is ...
which would be the center of Philips' various constituencies during his Senate career. In the 1981 reapportionment, the 40th district was renumbered the 23rd district and included all of
Addison Township and portions of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
,
Milton
Milton may refer to:
Names
* Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname)
** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet
* Milton (given name)
** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...
,
Winfield,
Bloomingdale, and
Schaumburg
Schaumburg is a district (''Landkreis'') of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (clockwise from the north) the districts of Nienburg, Hanover and Hamelin-Pyrmont, and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (districts of Lippe and Minden-Lübbe ...
townships. This map, drawn by Democrats, forced Philip to move from Elmhurst to Wood Dale.
After Republicans won map-making power in 1991, the 23rd district included all of
Addison Township,
O'Hare International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...
, and portions of
York Township in DuPage County and
Schaumburg
Schaumburg is a district (''Landkreis'') of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (clockwise from the north) the districts of Nienburg, Hanover and Hamelin-Pyrmont, and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (districts of Lippe and Minden-Lübbe ...
and
Leyden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
townships in
Cook County
Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...
. In the 2001 decennial apportionment, the 23rd district lost its portions that were in Cook County and included all or parts of the localities of
Bloomingdale,
Roselle,
Glendale Heights,
Carol Stream,
Glen Ellyn
Glen Ellyn is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. A suburb located due west of downtown Chicago, the village has a population of 28,846 as of the 2020 Census.
History
Glen Ellyn, like the neighboring town to the east, Lomba ...
,
Itasca,
Addison
Addison may refer to:
Places Canada
* Addison, Ontario
United States
*Addison, Alabama
*Addison, Illinois
*Addison Street in Chicago, Illinois which runs by Wrigley Field
* Addison, Kentucky
*Addison, Maine
*Addison, Michigan
*Addison, New York
...
,
Wheaton,
Winfield,
Bensenville,
Wood Dale,
Elmhurst,
Villa Park
Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...
, and
Lombard.
Political positions
Chicago school reform
Philip's oft-repeated pronunciations that giving more money to the
Chicago public school systems would be like "pouring money down a rat-hole" helped provide the impetus for what Philip has said is one of his most important accomplishments—instituting a series of reforms that removed power from school boards rife with corruption. The major beneficiary of these reforms was Chicago mayor
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...
, who with Chief Executive Officer of Schools
Paul Vallas
Paul Gust Vallas (born June 10, 1953) is an American politician and former superintendent of the Bridgeport Public Schools and the Recovery School District of Louisiana, former CEO of both the School District of Philadelphia and the Chicago Public ...
removed previous money-wasting reformers from their posts and closed a $1.4 billion deficit over four years without the need to request more state funding.
The legislative reforms also challenged the long-standing assertion from Philip's opponents (notably, the
Chicago Teachers Union
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is a labor union that represents teachers, paraprofessionals, and clinicians in the Chicago public school system. The union has consistently fought for improved pay, benefits, and job security for its members, an ...
) that Philip harbored a strong dislike for Chicago and its school system.
Lake Calumet Airport
In 1990, Mayor
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...
, announced his proposal for the
Lake Calumet Airport, which would have resulted in the demolition of all of
Hegewisch
Hegewisch (pronounced "heg-wish" by the locals) is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's far south side. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of Riverdale and South Deering to the west, the East Side to the ...
, along with portions of
Burnham and
Calumet City
Calumet City ( ) is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 36,033 at the 2020 census, a decline of 2.7% from 37,042 in 2010. The ZIP code is 60409.
Etymology
The word ''Calumet'' is the Miꞌkmaq and French word for ...
. The airport faced staunch opposition from Hegewisch residents.
Philip opposed the Lake Calumet Airport, believing an airport in
Peotone
Peotone () is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,142 at the 2010 census, an increase from 3,385 in 2000. The city is about south of Chicago. The village is home to the Peotone High School Blue Devils.
History ...
, then regarded as an alternate site, would be better suited for an airport. He also opposed the state government paying $2 billion of the airport's costs. In the face of this opposition, Daley declared the airport proposal "dead" and focused on plans
to expand O'Hare International Airport.
Criminal Justice
Philip's legislative stances on crime have been mixed. With backing from the gun lobby representing downstate hunters, Philip fought to reduce the penalty for illegal possession of firearms to a misdemeanor.
However, he also fought to expand the death penalty to apply to all convicted murderers. The proposed legislation he endorsed also proposed mandatory 10–year prison sentences with no chance of parole for using firearms in a "safe retail zone", defined as shopping malls, strip malls and commercial districts with more than three stores. Philip expressed a preference for expanding this portion of the law to all gun-related crimes, not just safe retail zones. State's attorneys in the six-county
Chicago metropolitan area
The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...
agreed with Philip's stance on gun crimes, but were mixed with regards to changes in the death penalty.
DuPage Tollway
In June 1984, Philip, then the Republican minority leader of the
Illinois House of Representatives
The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...
, helped push through legislation authorizing the construction of a tollway,
Interstate 355
Interstate 355 (I-355), also known as the Veterans Memorial Tollway, is an Interstate Highway and tollway in the western and southwest suburbs of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. Like most other toll roads in the northeastern portion of th ...
, then referred to as simply the DuPage Tollway.
Controversy
Philip has also been known for making numerous controversial comments on various topics throughout his career. Many, including former Illinois gubernatorial candidate
Dawn Clark Netsch
Dawn Clark Netsch (September 16, 1926 – March 5, 2013) was an American professor of law at Northwestern University and an Illinois politician. A member of the Democratic Party in the United States, she served in the Illinois State Senate fr ...
, labeled him as both holding and vocally expressing racial prejudice. However, Philip himself has said that he is not racist, saying "When you criticize minorities, whether you're right or wrong, their reaction is it's a racist remark."
During the corruption trial of former Gov.
George Ryan
George Homer Ryan (born February 24, 1934) is an American former politician and member of the Republican Party who served as the 39th governor of Illinois from 1999 to 2003.
Elected in 1998, Ryan received national attention for his 1999 mor ...
's top aide Scott Fawell, "Pate" Philip was called as a witness. Prosecutors asked about Philip's 50 year high school reunion—a 1999 $15,000 bash at Navy Pier set up by Scott Fawell. Philip said he never asked for any special treatment, but was happily surprised by it. It was only after the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' revealed the party that Philip paid for it out of his campaign fund.
Also during the trial, prosecutors released a document including ten pages of favors granted to former Senate President Pate Philip.
Philip spoke with Larry Hall, who wore a hidden recorder and taped the conversations as a part of an undercover government investigation. Philip agreed to try to get Hall's sister a job with the secretary of state's office in exchange for Hall's fundraising activities. Prosecutors allege Hall gave $1,400 to Philip's campaign shortly after the conversation.
Philip has been criticized for looking into the voter histories of students applying for legislative scholarships, which are funded by the taxpayers of Illinois. In 2001, all five of Philip's scholarships went to Republican primary voters or to students whose parents voted Republican, and the same trend was observed over the prior five years.
Philip, with backing from the gun lobby, fought to reduce the penalty for illegal possession of firearms to a misdemeanor.
Electoral history
*2002 Race for Illinois Senate — 23rd district
**Unopposed
*1998 Race for Illinois Senate — 23rd district
**James "Pate" Philip (R), 31,347
**Rita Gonzalez (D), 13,961
*1994 Race for Illinois Senate — 23rd district
**James "Pate" Philip (R), 29,452
**Keith Petropoulos (D), 13,100
*1990 Race for Illinois Senate — 23rd district
**Defeated William C. Kaiser (D)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Philip, James
1930 births
Living people
Military personnel from Illinois
Presidents of the Illinois Senate
Republican Party Illinois state senators
Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives
People from Elmhurst, Illinois
People from Wood Dale, Illinois
Kansas State University alumni