Simon-Edgar Statesmanship Award
In 2021 I asked former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar to work with me to create a special statesmanship award. Named for former Senator Paul Simon, a Democrat, and Governor Edgar, a Republican, the annual award is presented to a sitting or former elected state or local Illinois government official who has demonstrated a pattern of public service characterized by vision, courage, compassion, effectiveness, civility, and bipartisanship.
Recipients
2024 — Former Ottawa, Illinois Mayor Robert Eschbach. Selected for his more than two decades of visionary, practical, and effective leadership as mayor and his continuing work to make his community strong, vibrant, and optimistic.
2023 — Former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. Selected for his half-century of constructive, practical, and principled leadership in Illinois. As secretary of state from 1999 to 2023, White worked for traffic safety, teen driver safety, strong DUI laws, truck safety, and enhanced organ and tissue donations.
2022 — Former Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie. Selected for her four decades of forceful, creative, consequential, and civil leadership in the Illinois General Assembly. Rep. Currie championed clean air and water legislation, pushed for the first Freedom of Information Act, advocated for same sex marriage legislation, crafted critical school funding and juvenile justice reforms, and fought to end the death penalty in Illinois.
2021 — The inaugural recipients of the Simon-Edgar Statesmanship Award were the 11 Republican members of the Illinois General Assembly who, in 2017, joined with their Democratic colleagues to support a critical budget package. The vote ended a two-year fiscal stalemate that tarnished Illinois’ reputation, damaged schools, battered the state’s credit rating, and led to about $15 billion in unpaid bills.