Government of Illinois
Encyclopedia
State governments of the United States
State governments in the United States are those republics formed by citizens in the jurisdiction thereof as provided by the United States Constitution; with the original 13 States forming the first Articles of Confederation, and later the aforementioned Constitution. Within the U.S...
of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
is modeled after the federal government with adaptations originating from traditions cultivated during the state's frontier era. The capital city
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of Illinois is Springfield
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
. Under the Constitution of 1970, there are three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is split into several statewide elected offices. Legislative functions are granted to the Illinois General Assembly
Illinois General Assembly
The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois and comprises the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Illinois has 59 legislative districts, with two...
, made of the 118-member Illinois House of Representatives
Illinois House of Representatives
The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The state House of Representatives is made of 118 representatives elected from...
and the 59-member Illinois Senate
Illinois Senate
The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the state of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. The Illinois Senate is made up of 59 senators elected from...
. The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court of Illinois
Supreme Court of Illinois
The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court 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 appellate judicial districts of the state: Three justices from the First District and...
, Illinois Appellate Court
Illinois Appellate Court
The Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for civil and criminal cases arising in the Illinois Circuit Courts. Three Illinois Appellate Court judges hear each case and the concurrence of two is necessary to render a decision. The Illinois Appellate Court will render its opinion in...
and Illinois Circuit Courts
Illinois Circuit Courts
The Illinois Circuit Courts are state courts of the U.S. state of Illinois. They are trial courts of original jurisdiction. There are 23 judicial circuits in the state, each comprising one or more of Illinois' 102 counties. Five circuits comprise solely of a single county - Cook, Will, DuPage,...
.
History
The first capitol building was in Kaskaskia, IllinoisKaskaskia, Illinois
Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. In the 2010 census the population was 14, making it the second-smallest incorporated community in the State of Illinois in terms of population. A major French colonial town of the Illinois Country, its peak population was about...
. It was a two-story brick building that rented for $4 per day.
Vandalia
Vandalia, Illinois
Vandalia is a city in Fayette County, Illinois, United States, northeast of St. Louis, on the Kaskaskia River. From 1819 to 1839 it served as the state capital of Illinois. Vandalia was the western terminus of the National Road. Today it is the county seat of Fayette County and the home of the...
became the second capital in 1820, and was the site of three capitol buildings. Vandalia's first capitol was a simple two-story structure, which was destroyed by fire. In 1824, Vandalia's second capitol was built to replace the burnt building for $15,000. Soon after the third capitol building was built, many Illinoisans began lobbying to move the capital to a more central location in the state. In 1833, the General Assembly responded by passing an act allowing Illinoisans to choose their capital city. This worried the people of Vandalia, who did not want to lose the capital. Therefore, in 1836, without authorization from the General Assembly, the city tore down the third capitol building and replaced it with the fourth, a brick state house, costing $16,000. Despite this, in 1839, voters selected Springfield, Illinois
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
as the new state capital city, where it remains to this day.
Illinois' fifth capitol building was built in Springfield in 1853 at a cost of $260,000. Construction on the sixth, and present capitol, was begun in 1868. The building took twenty years to complete at a cost of $4.5 million.
Departments
The government of Illinois has numerous departments, including:- Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois
- Illinois Arts CouncilIllinois Arts CouncilThe Illinois Arts Council is a government agency of the state of Illinois formed to encourage development of the arts throughout Illinois. Founded in 1965 by the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Arts Council provides financial and technical assistance to artists, arts organizations, and...
- Illinois Board of Elections
- Illinois Board of Higher Education
- Illinois Capital Development Board
- Illinois Civil Service Commission
- Illinois Commerce CommissionIllinois Commerce CommissionThe Illinois Commerce Commission is a quasi-judicial tribunal which regulates public utility services in the U.S. state of Illinois. The mission of the ICC is "to pursue an appropriate balance between the interest of consumers and existing and emerging service providers to ensure the provision of...
- Illinois Community College Board
- Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
- Illinois Department of AgricultureIllinois Department of AgricultureThe Illinois Department of Agriculture is an executive agency of the U.S. state of Illinois. It supervises the Illinois State Fair, regulates various facets of the agriculture industries of Illinois, oversees Illinois soil and water conservation, and supervises the fair weighting and measuring of...
- Illinois Department of Central Management Services
- Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
- Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
- Illinois Department of Corrections
- Illinois Department of Employee Security
- Illinois Department of Financial and Professional RegulationIllinois Department of Financial and Professional RegulationThe Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation is an executive agency of the U.S. state of Illinois. It was created in 2004 by an executive order promulgated by Governor Rod Blagojevich....
- Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family ServicesIllinois Department of Healthcare and Family ServicesThe Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services is an executive agency of the U.S. state of Illinois. It was created in 2005 by an executive order promulgated by former Governor Rod Blagojevich...
- Illinois Department of Human Rights
- Illinois Department of Human ServicesIllinois Department of Human ServicesThe Illinois Department of Human Services is an administrative agency of the U.S. state of Illinois. It is responsible for providing a wide variety of safety net services to Illinois residents in poverty, who are facing other economic challenges, or who have any of a variety of disabilities or...
- Illinois Department of Insurance
- Illinois Department of Juvenile JusticeIllinois Department of Juvenile JusticeThe Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice is a state agency of Illinois, headquartered in Springfield. The department, formed on July 1, 2006, acts as the state juvenile corrections agency...
- Illinois Department of LaborIllinois Department of LaborThe Illinois Department of Labor is a state agency of Illinois. It manages the state's labor situation.-External links:*...
- Illinois Department of Military Affairs
- Illinois Department of Natural ResourcesIllinois Department of Natural ResourcesThe Illinois Department of Natural Resources is a cabinet-level department of the state government of Illinois. It is headquartered in the state capital of Springfield...
- Illinois Department of Public HealthIllinois Department of Public HealthThe Illinois Department of Public Health is a state agency of Illinois, headquartered in Springfield. The agency promotes public health.-External links:*...
- Illinois Department of RevenueIllinois Department of RevenueThe Illinois Department of Revenue is a cabinet-level department of the state government of Illinois. It is headquartered in the state capital of Springfield...
- Illinois Department of TransportationIllinois Department of TransportationThe Illinois Department of Transportation is a state agency in charge of state-maintained public roadways of the U.S. state of Illinois. In addition, IDOT provides funding for rail, public transit and airport projects and administers fuel tax and federal funding to local juridictions in the...
- Illinois Department of Veterans AffairsIllinois Department of Veterans Affairs-Mission:The mission of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs is to assist veterans and their dependents and survivors in obtaining the benefits they are entitled to under the laws of the United States, and the State of Illinois or any other governmental agency, through its forty-three...
- Illinois Department on Aging
- Illinois Emergency Management AgencyIllinois Emergency Management AgencyThe primary responsibility of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency is to better prepare the State of Illinois for natural, man-made or technological disasters, hazards or acts of terrorism...
- Illinois Environmental Protection AgencyIllinois Environmental Protection AgencyThe Illinois Environmental Protection Agency of the state of Illinois is the primary body concerned with the protection of the environment for the state...
- Illinois Finance Authority
- Illinois Gaming Board
- Illinois Historic Preservation AgencyIllinois Historic Preservation AgencyThe Illinois Historic Preservation Agency is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois. It is tasked with the duty of maintaining most State-owned historic sites within Illinois, and maximizing their educational and recreational value to visitors....
- Illinois Housing Development Authority
- Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board
- Illinois Liquor Control CommissionIllinois Liquor Control CommissionThe Liquor Control Commission is an Illinois state government commission, with four divisions.The Licensing Division is responsible for reviewing state liquor applications and issuing new and renewal state liquor licenses...
- Illinois Office of Appellate Defender
- Illinois Office of Appellate Prosecutor
- Illinois Office of the Attorney GeneralIllinois Attorney GeneralThe 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 election through universal suffrage...
- Illinois Office of the Auditor General
- Illinois Office of the Comptroller
- Illinois Office of the GovernorGovernor of IllinoisThe Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....
- Illinois Office of the Lieutenant GovernorLieutenant Governor of IllinoisThe Lieutenant Governor of Illinois is the second highest executive of the State of Illinois. In Illinois, the lieutenant governor and governor run on a joint ticket, and are directly elected by popular vote. Candidates for lieutenant governor run separately in the primary from candidates for...
- Illinois Office of Management and Budget
- Illinois Office of the Secretary of State
- Illinois Office of the State Treasurer
- Illinois State Board of EducationIllinois State Board of EducationThe Illinois State Board of Education administers public education in the state of Illinois. The State Board consists of nine members who are appointed by the Governor with the consent of the...
- Illinois State PoliceIllinois State PoliceThe Illinois State Police is the state police force of Illinois. Officially established in 1922, the Illinois State Police have over 3,000 personnel and 21 districts. The main facilities of the Illinois State Police Academy, which were constructed in 1968, are located in Springfield. Prior to...
- Illinois State Toll Highway AuthorityIllinois State Toll Highway AuthorityThe Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is an instrumentality and administrative agency of the State of Illinois, United States. The roads, as well as the Authority itself, are sometimes referred to as the Illinois Tollway...
- Illinois Supreme Court
Politics
| Year | Republican Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S... |
Democratic Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous... |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 36.9% 1,981,158 | 61.8% 3,319,237 |
| 2004 | 44.48% 2,345,946 | 54.82% 2,891,550 |
| 2000 | 42.58% 2,019,421 | 54.60% 2,589,026 |
| 1996 | 36.81% 1,587,021 | 54.32% 2,341,744 |
| 1992 | 34.34% 1,734,096 | 48.58% 2,453,350 |
| 1988 | 50.69% 2,310,939 | 48.60% 2,215,940 |
| 1984 | 56.17% 2,707,103 | 43.30% 2,086,499 |
| 1980 | 49.65% 2,359,049 | 41.72% 1,981,413 |
| 1976 | 50.10% 2,364,269 | 48.13% 2,271,295 |
| 1972 | 59.03% 2,788,179 | 40.51% 1,913,472 |
| 1968 | 47.08% 2,174,774 | 44.15% 2,039,814 |
| 1964 | 40.53% 1,905,946 | 59.47% 2,796,833 |
| 1960 | 49.80% 2,368,988 | 49.98% 2,377,846 |
In the past, Illinois was a critical swing state leaning marginally towards to the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. This has changed and the state has supported Democratic presidential candidates since 1992. John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
easily won the state's 21 electoral
United States Electoral College
The Electoral College consists of the electors appointed by each state who formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Since 1964, there have been 538 electors in each presidential election...
votes in 2004 by a margin of 11 percentage points with 54.8% of the vote. Traditionally, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, East Saint Louis, and the Illinois portion of the Quad Cities
Quad Cities
The Quad Cities is a group of five cities straddling the Mississippi River on the Iowa–Illinois boundary. These cities, Davenport and Bettendorf and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline , are the center of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area, which, as of 2010, had an estimated population of...
have tended to vote heavily Democratic, along with the Central Illinois population centers of Peoria
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
, Champaign-Urbana and Decatur
Decatur, Illinois
Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city, sometimes called "the Soybean Capital of the World", was founded in 1823 and is located along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2000 the city population was 81,500,...
.
Rural districts have tended to vote more heavily Republican, and the southern half of the state has historically tended Republican since the 1920s. The Republican Party was strongest in southern Illinois during the sixties and seventies when Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
, Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, and Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
won all areas of southern Illinois, with the exception of East St. Louis
East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis is a city located in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA, directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 27,006, less than one-third of its peak of 82,366 in 1950...
, three to one.
Statewide offices
Pat QuinnPat Quinn (politician)
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Quinn III is the 41st and current Governor of Illinois. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Previously elected three times to statewide office, Quinn was the sitting lieutenant governor and became governor on January 29, 2009, when the previous governor, Rod Blagojevich,...
became governor after the impeachment and removal of Rod Blogojevich.
Rod R. Blagojevich (Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
) was elected Governor
Governor of Illinois
The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....
in 2002, replacing George H. Ryan. Blagojevich was re-elected in 2006, defeating Republican state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka
Judy Baar Topinka
Judy Baar Topinka is the Illinois State Comptroller and former Illinois State Treasurer, having served as Treasurer from 1995 to 2007, and former chairwoman of the Illinois Republican Party. She was the first woman to become state treasurer, first to be elected to three consecutive terms and the...
. However, in 2009, Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office due to charges that he abused his power while in office. Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn succeeded him.
See also
- Elections in IllinoisElections in Illinois-Election law:In the case of a resignation of a member of the United States House of Representatives, the Governor of Illinois must issue writs of election, and the election must be held within 115 days thereafter.- Statewide elections :...
- Politics of IllinoisPolitics of Illinois-Statewide elected officials:-2004:Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry carried Illinois with 54% of the vote. His victory in Illinois was determined by a wide margin of votes cast in Cook County. However, many counties outside of the Chicago metropolitan area voted for President Bush...
- Political party strength in IllinoisPolitical party strength in IllinoisThe following table indicates the party of elected officials in the U.S. state of Illinois:*Governor*Lieutenant Governor*Secretary of State*Attorney General*Comptroller/ Auditor *Treasurer...
External links
- Illinois.gov official site
- Illinois at Project Vote SmartProject Vote SmartProject Vote Smart is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States...