Jim Durkin
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James Brian Durkin (born January 28, 1961) is a
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 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 ...
, representing the 82nd District since 2006 when he was sworn in to replace
Eileen Lyons Eileen Lyons (born July 3, 1941) was a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1995 until 2006. Biography Born in New York City, New York, Lyons received her bachelor's degree in English from Elmhurst College. She liv ...
after she retired mid-term. Durkin previously represented the 44th District from January 1995 to January 2003. In August 2013, he was elected the Minority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives. After his party lost a number of seats in the
2022 Illinois House of Representatives election The 2022 elections for the Illinois House of Representatives occurred on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, to elect representatives from all 118 Representative districts in the Illinois House of Representatives. The primary election occurred on Tuesda ...
, he announced that he would not seek re-election to the leadership post. He was succeeded by Tony McCombie.


Early and personal life

Jim Durkin was raised in
Westchester, Illinois Westchester is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a western suburb of Chicago. The population was 16,892 at the 2020 census. The current Village President is Nick Steker, serving in the special role of acting president after ...
, one of eight brothers. He attended Divine Infant grade school and Fenwick High School. He later attended
Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is recognized as one of th ...
in Bloomington-Normal and graduated in 1984 with a degree in Criminal Justice. He continued his education at John Marshall Law School in Chicago, where he received his Juris Doctor degree in 1989. He served as an assistant
Illinois Attorney General The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by statewide election. Based in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, the attorney ...
and an assistant
Cook County State's Attorney The Cook County State's Attorney functions as the state of Illinois's district attorney for Cook County, Illinois, and heads the second-largest prosecutor's office in the United States. The office has over 700 attorneys and 1,100 employees. In ad ...
where he served as a felony prosecutor and a special prosecutor in the narcotics unit.Representative Jim Durkin (R) 82nd District
my.ilga.gov; accessed December 11, 2014.
His brother,
Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...
, is a federal judge on the
United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (in case citations, N.D. Ill.) is the federal trial-level court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of Illinois. Appeals from the Northern District of Illinois ar ...
. Durkin is on the board of trustees at the John Marshall Law School, and on the board of trustees for Misercordia Home in Chicago. Durkin lives in
Western Springs, Illinois Western Springs is a village located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and is a suburb of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the village had a total population of 12,975. It is twinned with Rugeley, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. In July 1962 ...
with his wife Celeste, daughter and three step-daughters.


Illinois House of Representatives

In 1991, Durkin was elected to the Board of Trustees for Triton Community College District 504. Durkin was appointed to the Illinois House of Representatives on January 6, 1995 and served until 2002. Durkin was appointed to succeed
Thomas J. Walsh Thomas James Walsh (June 12, 1859March 2, 1933) was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Helena, Montana who represented Montana in the US Senate from 1913 to 1933. He was initially elected by the state legislature, and from 1 ...
after Walsh was appointed to 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 ...
to replace
Judy Baar Topinka Judy Baar Topinka (January 16, 1944 – December 10, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Republican Party from the U.S. State of Illinois. Originally a journalist, Topinka served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1981 ...
upon her election as
Illinois Treasurer The Treasurer of Illinois is an elected official of the U.S. state of Illinois. The office was created by the Constitution of Illinois. Current Occupant The current Treasurer of Illinois is Democrat Mike Frerichs. He was first elected to head t ...
. In 2000, he served as state chairman for U.S. Senator
John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
's presidential campaign in Illinois, and then in 2007, Illinois co-chair and national legislative co-chair for McCain's second presidential campaign. In the 2001 decennial redistricting, Durkin was drawn into the same district as fellow Republican Bob Biggins and opted not to run for reelection.
Eileen Lyons Eileen Lyons (born July 3, 1941) was a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1995 until 2006. Biography Born in New York City, New York, Lyons received her bachelor's degree in English from Elmhurst College. She liv ...
, a Republican, opted not to run for reelection in the 2006 election. Durkin chose to enter the race to succeed her. Lyons opted to resign from the Illinois House of Representatives midway through the 94th General Assembly effective January 5, 2006. Local Republicans leaders opted to appoint Durkin to the seat. In 2013, Tom Cross stepped down as House Minority Leader to run for the Republican nomination for
Illinois Treasurer The Treasurer of Illinois is an elected official of the U.S. state of Illinois. The office was created by the Constitution of Illinois. Current Occupant The current Treasurer of Illinois is Democrat Mike Frerichs. He was first elected to head t ...
in the 2014 election. Durkin's chief opponent for the position, Representative Raymond Poe of
Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...
, conceded to Durkin prior to the caucus vote.


U.S. Senate campaign

In 2002, Jim Durkin ran for U.S. Senate against incumbent
Dick Durbin Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, Durbin has served as the Senate Dem ...
. Durkin self-identified as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. Durkin received the Republican nomination with 46%, or 371,000 votes, defeating multi-millionaires
Jim Oberweis James D. Oberweis (born June 10, 1946) is an American businessman, investment manager, and politician from the state of Illinois. The owner of Oberweis Dairy in North Aurora near Chicago, he served as a member of the Illinois Senate, representi ...
and
John H. Cox John Herman Cox ( Kaplan; born July 15, 1955) is an American businessman, housing developer, and political activist, who has run for public office several times, mostly recently for Governor of California as the GOP candidate. Cox began his po ...
in the primary. He lost to Durbin in the general election, with 38%, or 1,302,000 votes.


Electoral history

*2006 Republican primary for State Rep. 82nd District **Jim Durkin 78.4% **William D. "Bill" Seith 21.6% *2006 election for State Rep. 82nd District **Jim Durkin (R) 65% **Kim Savage (D) 35%


Governor Blagojevich impeachment

Representative Durkin served as ranking Republican on the Illinois House impeachment committee in December 2008–January 2009. U.S. Senator
Roland Burris Roland Wallace Burris (born August 3, 1937) is an American politician and attorney who is a former United States Senator from the state of Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party. In 1978, Burris was the first African American elected to ...
testified in front of the committee, but his testimony was called into question by a later Burris affidavit, in February 2009. Representative Durkin was then quoted as saying "I can't believe anything that comes out of Mr. Burris at this point," and called for Senator Burris' resignation. Durkin called for a criminal
perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
investigation of Senator Burris, and "scoffed at the notion that Mr. Burris had not been granted time to mention such relevant conversations or that lawmakers had moved on." The news report continued that "Republicans also questioned why it had taken Mr. Burris nearly a month to amend his testimony, and why lawmakers had not heard of the amendments until they were revealed on Saturday in ''
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 ...
'' — more than a week after he sent them." Democrat
Barbara Flynn Currie Barbara Flynn Currie (born May 3, 1940) is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1979 to 2019. She served as the Majority Leader from 1997 to 2019. Flynn Currie's forty years as a ...
, chair of the impeachment committee, was the recipient of the follow-up affidavit. Senator Burris filed it February 5 or so with Currie, so she became one of the objects of Republican questions and criticism over the delayed release of the information.


Opposition to redistricting

Representative Durkin along with other members of the Illinois Republican Party posed strong opposition to the Democratic Drawn Redistricting Maps passed by the State Legislature May 2021. Durkin along with other Senate Minority Leader
Dan McConchie Daniel McConchie is a Republican member of the Illinois Senate. He represents the 26th Senate District which includes Algonquin, Barrington, Cary, Deer Park, Fox River Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Hoffman Estates, Island Lake, Kildeer, Lake Zuric ...
criticized the new maps as drawn up too soon arguing that the population assumptions in the new map are off the total population range by up to 29.88%, more than three times the federal maximum range. Durkin along with other State GOP Leaders filed a federal lawsuit challenging the new maps.


References


External links

*
Representative Jim Durkin (R) 82nd District
at the Illinois General Assembly **By session
98th97th96th95th94thJim Durkin
constituency website *
Profile
ilhousegop.org; accessed December 11, 2014. , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Durkin, Jim 1961 births 21st-century American politicians Illinois lawyers Illinois State University alumni John Marshall Law School (Chicago) alumni Living people Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives People from Westchester, Illinois Politicians from Cook County, Illinois