Dear Friends:
On November 13th and 14th, I will officially kick off my campaign for re-election.
During my campaign for Illinois Attorney General in 2002, I promised you that if elected I would work tirelessly as a forceful public advocate, protecting all families in Illinois. I promised that if elected, I would use all of the powers of the Office of the Attorney General to stand up for all of the people and the State of Illinois.
Since then I’ve gone to work everyday with that promise in mind. I truly believe that the job of Attorney General is to be the people’s lawyer and, based on that belief, I have aggressively represented the people in many of the most important issues affecting our families.
Whether the issue is protecting women from domestic abuse, protecting our children from sexual predators, protecting seniors from scam artists who are targeting them, fighting unfair pricing by prescription drug companies, protecting the quality of the air we breathe, or protecting our communities from the dangers of methamphetamine, my record shows that I have worked hard every day to make a difference for the people of Illinois.
Since January 2003, we have achieved many significant victories on behalf of the people of this State. I successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in a case that gave Illinois law enforcement a major victory in their work to stop illegal drug trafficking. I have fought – in and out of court – to protect the public’s trust and ensure integrity in Illinois’ gambling industry. And I am prosecuting a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry, challenging practices that inflate the prices our state pays for critical medications.
I also have worked hard to change the legal landscape in our state, pushing for new and stronger laws that will make Illinois safer. I drafted new laws that better protect our children, including a law requiring lifetime supervision for the most dangerous sex offenders. I have fought for new laws to protect our communities from the spread of meth, clamping down on the manufacture and distribution of this deadly drug. I wrote new laws to help protect Illinois residents from identity theft and advocated for sweeping legal changes to limit predatory lending practices that target working families. And I drafted and advocated for important new laws to protect women from domestic violence and assist in prosecuting repeat abusers.
To ensure that Illinois government is open and accessible, I created the position of Public Access Counselor in my office. Through this position, we have responded to hundreds of questions and complaints by citizens, members of the media and elected officials – working with them to make sure that the public’s business is conducted in the open and that the Freedom of Information Act is enforced. We have also provided training on the state’s sunshine and ethics laws to government officials, press and citizens across the state.
As I look back on all that we have accomplished during my first term as your Attorney General, I am proud of our work together. We have made a real, positive difference for the people of Illinois.
I am asking you now to join with me as I seek re-election as Attorney General. I want to build on our successes and continue to work hard to protect Illinois families over the next four years.
We made history on election night in 2002 when I became the first woman ever elected as the Illinois Attorney General. We have made history every day since then through our fight to protect Illinois families. Let’s continue to make history!
Very truly yours,
Lisa Madigan
The People's Lawyer - 11/9/2005
Lisa Madigan, Illinois’ first female Attorney General, was elected on November 5, 2002. She is the state’s 41st Attorney General.
Madigan, the state’s chief legal officer, advocates for the people of Illinois and for the state. Since being sworn into office in January 2003, she has worked to pass a lifetime supervision law to keep dangerous sexual predators away from women and children, led efforts to restore integrity to Illinois gaming, secured passage of laws to help stop the spread of methamphetamine and protected consumers from fraudulent practices.
In December 2003, Madigan created a statewide team of law enforcement agencies to focus on improving the state’s Sex Offender Registry, which is administered by the Illinois State Police (ISP). Leading this team, Madigan has worked with law enforcement across the state to crack down on sex offenders who fail to register and helped secure passage of legislation to improve the registry.
Together with law enforcement, Attorney General Madigan has made it a top priority to help stop the spread of the destructive and highly-addictive drug, methamphetamine. She has passed legislation to crack down on meth makers who endanger children, passed legislation to cut off criminals’ access to the ingredients to make the drug and most recently passed legislation that brings Illinois in line with its border states in requiring people to sign a log and show ID when purchasing medicines with pseudoephedrine (PSE) and ephedrine – the main ingredients needed to make meth.
Madigan also has provided training for local prosecutors to better prosecute meth crimes and has provided prosecutorial assistance to State’s Attorneys handling difficult meth cases that cross through many jurisdictions.
Madigan is the state’s chief consumer advocate. Her efforts to protect consumers, especially seniors who often are the target of fraud, include educating consumers about emerging scams, mediating consumer complaints and filing lawsuits to stop fraudulent practices and recover money on behalf of Illinois consumers.
Madigan, who recently received the “Sunshine Award” from the Society of Professional Journalists, has worked to make government more open and accessible to the public. In December 2004, she created the position of Public Access Counselor (PAC) to take an aggressive role in ensuring that public bodies conduct their business openly and that the public has access to governmental information.
Prior to her election as Attorney General, Madigan served as a State Senator and was a litigator at a Chicago law firm. Before becoming an attorney, she worked as a teacher and community advocate on Chicago’s west side, helping prevent children from becoming involved in gangs and drugs. After graduating from college, Madigan traveled to South Africa, where she was a volunteer high school teacher in apartheid-era South Africa.
Madigan received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her J.D. from Loyola University Law School. She and her husband, Pat Byrnes, have a daughter.
Lisa Madigan
Issue 1: Protecting Illinois Communities: Throughout my tenure as attorney general, I have focused on better protecting our communities from sexual offenders, protecting women and children from domestic violence and curbing the spread of methamphetamine. As a result of my efforts, we have: 1) strengthened our laws to protect communities against sexual offenders, including passing a law that I drafted requiring lifetime supervision for the most dangerous sex offenders, and dramatically improved Illinois' Sex Offender Registry; 2) strengthened the laws protecting women and children from domestic violence and increased the tools available to prosecutors and law enforcement seeking to convict domestic abusers; and 3) significantly improved our efforts to stop the production and sale of methamphetamine in a number of ways, including making it much more difficult for makers of this deadly drug to access the key ingredient, pseudoephedrine. If re-elected, I will continue these efforts to protect our communities.
Issue 2: Protecting consumers: Over the next four years, I will continue to use the powers of the office of the attorney general to serve as the state's chief consumer advocate. In this capacity, I will continue, both in court and through legislative, policy and program initiatives, to fight identity theft, as well as predatory lending practices and mortgage fraud. Recently, I formed an identity theft unit in my office, creating a hot line for victims of this crime to call and find help in navigating the difficult and time-consuming process of repairing damage to credit reports. Later this spring, my office will host an Identity Theft Summit, bringing together law enforcement, consumer advocates and businesses to discuss new ways to prevent this growing crime. Working with the staff of my Public Utilities Bureau, I will continue to actively fight for consumers and against unfair and unjustified rate increases by utilities. I also will continue to make protecting health-care consumers a high priority by increasing my ongoing efforts to fight unreasonably high prescription drug costs and assisting patients in dealing with unfair denials by insurance companies.
Issue 3: Protecting seniors: Too often, seniors are the biggest targets of consumer scam artists looking to prey on others. And far too often, seniors are victims of abuse and neglect. As attorney general, I have focused my attention on crimes against seniors. My office provides specific, targeted help for seniors experiencing consumer fraud, including a Senior Sleuths program designed to work with seniors, teaching them to protect themselves from scams and educate others on how to avoid consumer fraud. I also have worked extensively to increase the protections for seniors and other vulnerable adults living in nursing homes. Over the next four years, working in cooperation with local police and prosecutors, I will continue these efforts to use all of the tools of law enforcement and to create new, innovative efforts to protect our most vulnerable residents from fraud, abuse and neglect.
From: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/politics/naperville/n17attygen.html