CHICAGO (AP) Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, whose plainspoken and sometimes salty demeanor propelled her to a pioneering political career, died early Wednesday from complications of a stroke. She was 70.
Topinka reported discomfort Tuesday morning and was admitted to a hospital in Berwyn, spokesman Brad Hahn told The Associated Press. After tests, she appeared to be doing well in the evening before suddenly losing consciousness. She was pronounced dead shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday. Her son, Joseph Topinka, was with her.
A moderate Republican unafraid of taking independent positions and jabbing both Democrats and more conservative Republicans, Topinka had won a second term last month against Democratic challenger Sheila Simon, the current lieutenant governor.
That victory became the last chapter in a political career unlike any other woman in state history. She was the only one to hold two different statewide offices, having served as comptroller, a three-term state treasurer and several years in the Illinois Legislature. In 2006, she was Illinois GOP chairman and nominee for governor, but lost her bid to become the states first female chief executive to Democrat Rod Blagojevich.
And she remained popular and in office during the early 2000s, when she was the lone Republican in a leadership position in a state thats a Democratic stronghold.
Topinka accomplished it all with a style that made people smile and cringe sometimes simultaneously. A legendary penny-pincher who loved to talk about buying clothes at Goodwill and yard sales, she doted on her dogs and fed them McDonalds cheeseburgers and also played accordion and loved to dance to polka music.
She was known to refer to opponents as morons and when she ran for governor, she accused Blagojevich of having weasel eyes. Topinka famously told a flatulence joke at her first inauguration.
Not one to toe the party line, she not only supported abortion rights and gay marriage, she once offered gay couples her services as a flower girl free of charge.
In a political world of cocker spaniels she could be a bulldog, taking a bite out of both Democrats and right-wing Republicans without missing a beat, U.S. Sen. d**k Durbin said in a statement in which he called Topinka a friend and the states Polka Queen.
Others with whom she shared the political stage focused on her unique career and personality.
Judy was a trailblazer in every sense of the word, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn said. Never without her signature sense of humor, Judy was a force of nature (who) paved the way for countless women in politics.
Republican Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner called Topinka one of the states all-time greats whose one-of-a-kind personality brought a smile to everyone she met
Topinka was to have been sworn in for her second term as comptroller next month. By law, Quinn, who is outgoing, has the authority to appoint a replacement.
Topinka was born in 1944 to William and Lillian Baar, the children of Czech and Slovak immigrants. They lived in Riverside, near two blue-collar Chicago suburbs that were centers for Eastern European immigrants. Lillian Baar ran a real estate business while William served in World War II. After the war, she continued to manage the business, turning it into a prominent firm.
Topinkas father hammered home the message that she could pursue any career she wanted.
He would always tell me, `Dont be a clinging vine. A man neither needs nor wants that, she once told the AP.
Topinka described herself as a fat kid and said she developed other skills to get past bullying and harassment a sense of humor and an effort to be as smart as she could.
She graduated from Northwestern University with a journalism degree and became a reporter for a suburban Chicago newspaper chain. She married and had a son, but divorced in 1981 after 16 years.
The same year, she began a four-year stint in the Illinois House, which she ran for because she said corrupt officials were ignoring the communitys needs. She later spent 10 years as a state senator before running for state treasurer.
As state party chairman, she stepped forward to run for governor in 2006 due to the mounting political scandal involving outgoing Gov. George Ryan, who eventually was convicted of corruption. During the campaign, Blagojevich broadcast effective ads showing her dancing the polka with Ryan.
Topinka likened her job to being a skunk at a picnic a reference to the task of writing checks to a state with a backlog of unpaid bills.
Topinka often sounded like a doting mother when she talked about the state of Illinois.
I feel its being hurt and abused, she said during her gubernatorial run. If I dont stop it, Id be complicit in watching it go down the tubes and I dont want that.
Former GOP Gov. Jim Edgar noted that Topinka was among a shrinking number of moderate Republicans and gave folks who are not traditionally Republican in recent years someone they could talk to and relate to.
Theres not going to be another Judy Baar Topinka, Edgar said. State treasurer, comptroller for the most part people dont know those offices. Judy had a personality that people knew her and remembered her.
This story was updated at 11:32 a.m.
( Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
MORE POLITICS NEWS:
Source: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/12/10/illinois-comptroller-judy-baar-topinka-dead-at-70/
No comments:
Post a Comment