Pete Fitzgerald | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Senator fromIllinois | |
| In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Carol Moseley Braun |
| Succeeded by | Barack Obama |
| Member of theIllinois Senate from the 27th district | |
| In office January 13, 1993 – November 16, 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Virginia B. MacDonald |
| Succeeded by | Wendell E. Jones |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Peter Gosselin Fitzgerald (1960-10-20)October 20, 1960 (age 65) |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | Nina Fitzgerald |
| Education | Dartmouth College (BA) Aristotelian University University of Michigan (JD) |
Peter Gosselin Fitzgerald (born October 20, 1960) is a retired American lawyer and politician who served as aUnited States senator fromIllinois. A member of theRepublican Party, he served from 1999 to 2005. Fitzgerald defeated Democratic incumbentCarol Moseley Braun in1998, becoming the first Republican to win a U.S. Senate race in Illinois sinceCharles Percy twenty years earlier. He had previously served in theIllinois State Senate from 1993 to 1998.
Known as a maverick for his willingness to break party lines, Fitzgerald retired from the Senate in 2005 and was succeeded byBarack Obama. After retiring from politics, he and his wife moved toMcLean, Virginia. The son of millionaire banking magnateGerald Francis Fitzgerald,[1] Peter foundedChain Bridge Bank in 2007.[2]
Born inElgin, Illinois, one of five children of Gerald Francis and Marjorie (née Gosselin) Fitzgerald,[3] Fitzgerald spent most of his life inInverness, a northwestern suburb ofChicago.
He graduated fromPortsmouth Abbey School, a Catholic boarding school in 1978, and fromDartmouth College in 1982. He completed his post-graduate studies as aRotary Scholar atAristotelian University inGreece, and earned hisJ.D. degree from theUniversity of Michigan in 1986. His family has been continuously involved in commercial banking since the mid-1940s.[4] His father builtSuburban Bancorp, a chain of suburban banks, by aggressively founding and buying banks around the Chicago suburbs, which he sold in 1994 to a subsidiary of theBank of Montreal for $246 million.[4] Fitzgerald ran for theIllinois House of Representatives in 1988, but lost the Republican primary to James M. Kirkland by 1.15%.[5]
Fitzgerald was first elected to theIllinois Senate in 1992. He was a member of a group of conservative state senators elected in 1992. They often challenged the leadership of theIllinois Republican Party and were dubbed the "Fab Five." The group also includedSteve Rauschenberger,Dave Syverson,Patrick O'Malley, andChris Lauzen.[6]
Fitzgerald challenged long-time incumbent Republican congressmanPhil Crane in the 1994 Republican primary forIllinois' 8th congressional district. In a multi-candidate field, Fitzgerald lost to Crane 40% to 33%.
Fitzgerald announced his intention to challenge one-termDemocratic incumbent U.S. SenatorCarol Moseley Braun in the 1998 election. He facedIllinois ComptrollerLoleta Didrickson in the Republican primary. Didrickson had the support of the state Republican party, including GovernorJim Edgar and former Republican presidential nomineeBob Dole, who served as her national campaign chairman.[7] A hard-foughtprimary ensued, and Fitzgerald narrowly defeated the establishment candidate, becoming the Republican nominee.
Despite great support from Republicans and Independents, he had alienated some of the party establishment during the primary. Meanwhile, Braun was helped by notable Democrats such asFirst LadyHillary Clinton and U.S. CongressmanLuis V. Gutierrez; final polling had the candidates running even.[8] Fitzgerald defeated Moseley Braun in the general election by a 2.9% margin.
He was the first Republican in Illinois to win a U.S. Senate race in 20 years and the only Republican challenger in the country to defeat an incumbent Democratic senator in the1998 election cycle.
Fitzgerald had two major moments in the spotlight in theUnited States Senate, the first in 2000 when hefilibustered a massive federal spending bill because it included funds for theLincoln Presidential Library in Springfield. He accused Republican governorGeorge Ryan, who later served a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence on a corruption conviction, of opposing competitive bidding so he could dole money to political allies, saying "I want Illinois to get a $150 million (Abraham Lincoln) library, not a $50 million library that just happens to cost $150 million."[9] His second major moment was following theSeptember 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when Congress quickly passed a massive bailout measure for most of the major airlines, which were in trouble financially. Standing alone out of all members of the U.S. Senate, Fitzgerald delivered a speech, "Who will bail out the American taxpayer",[10] arguing that the airlines would simply go through the money and remain financially unstable. The bill passed 96–1.
Fitzgerald was staunchly conservative on such issues asopposition to abortion (except to save the life of the mother),gay marriage, and taxes, but on some issues he broke with his conservative colleagues, particularly environmental issues; he opposed drilling in theArctic National Wildlife Refuge throughout his tenure in the U.S. Senate. Fitzgerald also supported "reasonable"gun control,immigration reform, and theMcCain-Feingoldcampaign finance reform legislation.
Throughout his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Fitzgerald battled with the state Republican Party leadership. He insisted on the appointment of an out-of-stateU.S. Attorney,Patrick Fitzgerald (unrelated[11]) to investigate corruption in the Illinois state government. Though state party officials wanted a "friendly" attorney for Illinois, Fitzgerald insisted on someone who did not have friends or enemies in the Illinois government. Several indictments resulted, including that of former RepublicanGovernorGeorge Ryan, who was eventually convicted of several criminalabuses of authority, and DemocraticGovernorRod Blagojevich, who many years later was convicted of attempting to sell theSenate seat vacated by Fitzgerald's successor and futurePresidentBarack Obama. The scandal was seen as ensuring Illinois' reputation as one of the most politically corrupt states.[12][13]
When the Republican establishment made clear that they would not support him for reelection, Fitzgerald announced he would retire at the end of his current term. Republicans nominated businessmanJack Ryan for the seat in the primaries. However, Ryan was later pressured by the Illinois Republican Party to withdraw because of publicity received from the contents of his previously-sealed divorce case. Fitzgerald stood by Ryan and supported him, despite the pressure from the media and the Illinois Republican party on Ryan to withdraw. Just 86 days before the election, the party drafted Maryland nativeAlan Keyes as the nominee. Keyes was accused of "carpetbagging,"[14][15][16][17] and was defeated byBarack Obama by more than 40 percent of the vote. It has been stated that Fitzgerald, who was popular among independents, stood the best chance of retaining the seat and defeating Obama, who went on to win the presidential election just four years later.[13] During his final months in office,Fox News ran an op-ed on Fitzgerald, "Retiring Senator Stood Up for Principles."[18]
Fitzgerald is the founder and Chairman ofChain Bridge Bank, N.A. inMcLean, Virginia[19][20] He serves on the board of trustees of theNational Constitution Center inPhiladelphia, which is a museum dedicated to theU.S. Constitution.[21]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromIllinois (Class 3) 1998 | Succeeded by Jack Ryan Withdrew |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Illinois 1999–2005 Served alongside:Dick Durbin | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Baby of the Senate 1999–2003 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Senator | Order of precedence of the United States | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Senator |
| Class 2 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
