Thompson J Gov

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<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_R.Thompson">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_R.Thompson</a></p>

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<b>James R. Thompson</b> is a Commissioner on the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/National_Commission_on_Terrorist_Attacks_Upon_the_United_States" title="National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States">National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States</a>.</p>

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According to his Commission profile, "James Thompson, Illinois' longest-serving governor (1977-1991), is chairman of the law firm of Winston & Strawn, headquartered in Chicago. He first joined Winston & Strawn in 1975 and then rejoined the firm as a partner when he left the governor's office in 1991. From 1959 to 1964, he served in the Cook County state's attorney's office, where he argued criminal <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Civil_rights" title="Civil rights">civil rights</a> cases before the Illinois and US Supreme Courts. He then taught at the Northwestern Law School. In 1971, he became U.S. Attorney for the Northern District, where he established a solid reputation for prosecuting corrupt public officials. He is a member of the Illinois Bar. Thompson is also a director of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/FMC_Corporation" title="FMC Corporation">FMC Corporation</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FMC_Technologies,_Inc.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="FMC Technologies, Inc. (page does not exist)">FMC Technologies, Inc.</a>, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Chicago_Board_of_Trade&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Chicago Board of Trade (page does not exist)">Chicago Board of Trade</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Hollinger_International_Inc." title="Hollinger International Inc.">Hollinger International Inc.</a> (publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times), Prime Retail Inc., Prime Group Realty Trust, Navigant Consulting Group, Public Review Board HEREIU, Japan Society (New York), and MAXIMUS, Inc. He served on the American Bar Association Commission on Separation of Powers and Judicial Independence from 1996-1997. Thompson was educated at the University of Illinois and Washington University, and received his law degree from Northwestern University Law School." <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.9-11commission.gov/about/bio_thompson.htm">[1]</a></p>

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cites needed:

<b>James Robert Thompson, Jr.</b> (born May 8, 1936), also known as <b>Big Jim Thompson</b>, was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_Illinois" title="List of Governors of Illinois">37th and longest serving Governor</a> of the US state of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois" title="Illinois">Illinois</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-ws081208_1-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R.Thompson#cite_note-ws081208-1"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup> A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Republican_Party" title="United States Republican Party" class="mw-redirect">Republican</a>, Thompson was elected to four consecutive terms and held the office for 14 years; his first term was only for two years as Illinois moved its gubernatorial election from Presidential election years to midterm Congressional election years. Many years after leaving public office, he served as a member of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_on_Terrorist_Attacks_Upon_the_United_States" title="National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States" class="mw-redirect">9/11 Commission</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-tm040504_2-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R.Thompson#cite_note-tm040504-2"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a></sup></p>

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<h2>Contents</h2>

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<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#Early_life_and_career"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Early life and career</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#Governor_of_Illinois"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Governor of Illinois</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#Legal_and_lobbying_career"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Legal and lobbying career</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#Post-gubernatorial_political_activities"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Post-gubernatorial political activities</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#References"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#Scholarly_Secondary_Source"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">Scholarly Secondary Source</span></a></li>

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<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life_and_career">Early life and career</span></h2>

<p>Born in Chicago, Illinois, Thompson studied at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Illinois_at_Chicago" title="University of Illinois at Chicago">University of Illinois at Chicago</a> Navy Pier campus, and at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_University_in_St.Louis" title="Washington University in St. Louis">Washington University in St. Louis</a>. He received his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Doctor" title="Juris Doctor">J.D.</a> from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern_University" title="Northwestern University">Northwestern University</a> in 1959.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R.Thompson#cite_note-3"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></a></sup>

Prior to becoming governor, he worked in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_County,Illinois" title="Cook County, Illinois">Cook County</a> state's attorney's office, taught at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern_University_Law_School" title="Northwestern University Law School" class="mw-redirect">Northwestern University's law school</a> and was appointed by President Nixon to serve as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Attorney_for_the_Northern_District_of_Illinois" title="U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois" class="mw-redirect">U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois</a>. As a federal prosecutor in the early 1970s, he obtained a conviction against former Governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Kerner,Jr." title="Otto Kerner, Jr.">Otto Kerner, Jr.</a>, for his use of improper influence on behalf of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racetrack" title="Racetrack" class="mw-redirect">racetrack</a> industry. He also tried and convicted many of Chicago Mayor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J.Daley" title="Richard J. Daley">Richard J. Daley</a>'s top aides, most notably Alderman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Keane" title="Tom Keane">Tom Keane</a> and County Clerk Matt Danaher, on various corruption charges. People like Keane and Danaher, the Mayor's point man on patronage were also major figures in the Cook County Democratic Party's political machine. These high-profile cases gave Thompson the celebrity that fueled his run for governor in 1976. To the chagrin of many, Thompson was very bipartisan in his attacks on corruption in Cook County and Chicago. He not only prosecuted ultra-high-profile Democrats, but also prominent Republicans such as County Commissioner Floyd Fulle and former U.S. Senate candidate, William Rentschler. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime_in_Chicago" title="Organized crime in Chicago">Organized crime in Chicago</a> was harder for his unit to crack and there were few high-profile cases during his era.</p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Governor_of_Illinois">Governor of Illinois</span></h2>

<p>In the 1976 election, he won 65 percent of the vote over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Democratic_Party" title="United States Democratic Party" class="mw-redirect">Democratic</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Secretary_of_State" title="Illinois Secretary of State">Secretary of State</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Howlett" title="Michael Howlett">Michael Howlett</a>, who had defeated incumbent Governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Walker" title="Daniel Walker">Daniel Walker</a> in the primary and who had the support of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Mayor" title="Chicago Mayor" class="mw-redirect">Chicago Mayor</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_County_Democratic_Party" title="Cook County Democratic Party">Cook County Democratic Party</a> chairman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J.Daley" title="Richard J. Daley">Richard J. Daley</a>. Thompson was the first candidate for Governor to receive over 3 million votes, and his tally of 3,000,395 remains the highest number of votes ever cast for a candidate in an election for Governor of Illinois. As noted above, this was only for a two-year transitional term. Thompson was re-elected to a full four-year term in 1978 with 60 percent of the vote, defeating State Comptroller <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bakalis" title="Michael Bakalis">Michael Bakalis</a>. In 1982, Thompson was very narrowly re-elected over former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Senator" title="U.S. Senator" class="mw-redirect">U.S. Senator</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson_III" title="Adlai Stevenson III">Adlai E. Stevenson III</a>; Thompson decisively defeated him in their re-match four years later. Thompson was accused of hiding the sad shape that Illinois' economy and budget were in while campaigning, but once elected, calling for an emergency session of the Illinois legislature to address the crisis.

On November 12, 1980, Thompson, by his executive order, instituted a hiring freeze for all state agencies, boards, bureaus, and commissions under his control as governor. The order affected approximately 60,000 state positions. These positions could only be filled if the candidates were first approved by an office created by Thompson, the Governor's Office of Personnel. The practice essentially consisted of denying the hiring of persons not affiliated with the Republican Party by conducting inquiries into past Republican Party affiliation and possible future pledges of loyalty. Suit was brought and the Supreme Court held this political patronage practice unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment rights of low-level public employees in <i>Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois</i>, 497 U.S. 62 (1990).

In 1993, the State of Illinois Center in Chicago was renamed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson_Center" title="James R. Thompson Center">James R. Thompson Center</a> to honor the former governor.</p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Legal_and_lobbying_career">Legal and lobbying career</span></h2>

<p>After leaving public service, Thompson joined <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston%26_Strawn_LLP" title="Winston & Strawn LLP" class="mw-redirect">Winston & Strawn LLP</a>, a major Chicago-based law firm. Thompson served as Chairman of the Executive Committee from 1991 to 2006, as well as Chairman and CEO of the firm from 1993 to 2006. He is presently Senior Chairman. As CEO of Winston & Strawn, he focused in the area of government relations and regulatory affairs. The firm has lobbied for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines" title="American Airlines">American Airlines</a>, and he has previously represented <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines" title="United Airlines">United Airlines</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R.Thompson#cite_note-4"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></a></sup>

Winston & Strawn is the same firm that represented former Illinois Governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ryan" title="George Ryan">George Ryan</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bono" title="Pro bono">pro bono</a> against federal charges relating to the "Licenses-for-Bribes" scandal during Ryan's tenure as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Illinois" title="Governor of Illinois">Illinois Governor</a> and Secretary of State. On April 17, 2006, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ryan" title="George Ryan">George Ryan</a> was convicted on all 18 counts, which included racketeering, misusing state resources for political gain, and fraud. He was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison and began serving his sentence on November 7, 2007.

Thompson is also a director and head of the Audit Committee for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollinger_International" title="Hollinger International" class="mw-redirect">Hollinger International</a>, the media company founded by convicted fraudster <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black" title="Conrad Black">Conrad Black</a> (it is also now the subject of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission">U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission</a> investigation).</p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Post-gubernatorial_political_activities">Post-gubernatorial political activities</span></h2>

<p>In 2002 he was appointed to serve on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_Commission" title="9/11 Commission">9/11 Commission</a>, where he aggressively questioned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A.Clarke" title="Richard A. Clarke">Richard Clarke</a>, the former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Security_Council" title="United States National Security Council">United States National Security Council</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-tm040504_2-1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R.Thompson#cite_note-tm040504-2"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a></sup> The report of the commission was released on July 22, 2004.

During the 2008 Presidential primary campaign, Thompson came out in support of former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_mayor" title="New York City mayor" class="mw-redirect">New York City mayor</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Giuliani" title="Rudolph Giuliani" class="mw-redirect">Rudolph Giuliani</a> for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Republican_Party_presidential_nomination,_2008" title="United States Republican Party presidential nomination, 2008" class="mw-redirect">2008 Republican nomination</a>. He stressed that Giuliani was the only Republican in the field who could win <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois" title="Illinois">Illinois</a>.</p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span></h2>

<li id="cite_note-ws081208-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#cite_ref-ws081208_1-0">^{</a></b></span}> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.winston.com/index.cfm?contentID=24&itemID=10873"><i>James Thompson, Partner</i> (Winston & Strawn LLP). Accessed August 12, 2008</a></span></li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#cite_ref-3">^{</a></b></span}> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.vasaorden.se/en/index.htm?page=/en/asa/1981.asp"><i>James R. Thompson, Swedish-American of the Year – 1985</i> (Vasa Order of America)</a></span></li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Thompson#cite_ref-4">^{</a></b></span}> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.winston.com/index.cfm?contentid=24&itemid=10873">http://www.winston.com/index.cfm?contentid=24&itemid=10873</a></span></li>

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<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="External_links">External links</span></h2>

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<td class="mbox-text plainlist">Wikimedia Commons has media related to: <i><b><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:James_R.Thompson%28Illinois%29" class="extiw" title="commons:Category:James R. Thompson (Illinois)">James R. Thompson (Illinois)</a></b></i></td>

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<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.9-11commission.gov/about/bio_thompson.htm">Thompson's biography from the 9/11 Commission</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.law.northwestern.edu/inthenews/article_full.cfm?eventid=984">Thompson's biography from Northwestern University</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?26020092423">Receipt for Thompson's contribution for Friends of Hillary</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=6077ae3effb81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD">National Governors Association</a></li>

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<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Scholarly_Secondary_Source">Scholarly Secondary Source</span></h2>

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<li>Hartley, Robert E. <i>Big Jim Thompson of Illinois</i> (1979).</li>

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Thompson J Gov

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