Jan Schakowsky

Jan Schakowsky
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 9th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 6, 1999
Preceded by	Sidney Yates
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Robert Creamer

Janice D. "Jan" Schakowsky (born May 22 1944), American politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1999, representing Illinois's 9th congressional district (map). The district includes many of Chicago's northern suburbs, including Evanston, Skokie, Park Ridge and Rosemont. It also includes a large portion of Chicago's North Side bordering Lake Michigan, including the area around Wrigley Field.

Personal Background

Schakowsky was born in Chicago of Polish and Jewish origin and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1965. A longtime consumer rights advocate, she was responsible for a 1999 law requiring the printing of freshness dates on groceries. She was Program Director of Illinois Public Action, Illinois' largest public interest group, from 1976 to 1985. She then moved to the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens as executive director for five years until 1990, when she was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. She served there for four terms.

Sidney Yates, who had represented the 9th District since 1949, except for an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1962, had announced in 1996 that he wouldn't run for reelection in 1998. Schakowsky easily won the Democratic primary, which all but assured her of election in the heavily Democratic 9th. She won in November with 75 percent of the vote and has easily won reelection three times with 70 percent or more of the vote. She is only the third person to represent the district since 1949.

U.S. Congress

Schakowsky serves in the House Democratic Leadership as Chief Deputy Whip and as a member of the Steering and Policy Committee. Schakowsky also serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee, where she is vice-chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection; she also serves on the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Schakowsky has been known for her support of women's issues while in Congress, and is a close friend of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D, CA). She reportedly phoned every female partner of a law firm in Chicago during her first run for office in 1998, and has gained national acclaim for her fundraising prowess.

She was one of the earliest and most emphatic supporters of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama before his win in the 2004 Illinois Democratic Primary.

Congresswoman Schakowsky recently added her name as a cosponsor to HR 333, which files articles of impeachment against Vice President Cheney.

She was one of the 31 who voted in the House to NOT count the electoral votes from Ohio in the United States presidential election, 2004. [1]

Controversy

On March 11, 2004, Schakowsky's husband, lobbyist Robert Creamer, the executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund, was indicted in federal court on 16 counts of bank fraud involving three alleged check-kiting schemes in the mid-1990s, leading several banks to experience shortfalls of at least $2.3 million. "He is innocent," Schakowsky said in a statement . In August 2005, Creamer pleaded guilty to one count of failure to collect withholding tax, and bank fraud for writing checks with insufficient funds. All of the money was repaid. According to USA Today Congresswoman "Schakowsky has not been accused of any wrongdoing." [2] Schakowsky served on the organization's board during the time the crimes occurred and Schakowsky signed the IRS filings along with her husband. U.S. District Judge James B. Moran noted no one suffered "out of pocket losses" and Creamer acted not out of greed but in an effort to keep his community action group going without cutting programs, though Creamer paid his own $100,000 salary with fraudulently obtained funds. [3] On April 5, 2006, Creamer was sentenced to five months in prison and 11 months house arrest . Creamer served his 5 month incarceration at the Federal Correction Institute in Terra Haute Indiana and was released on November 3, 2006. [4]

In hearings held by the House Energy and Commerce subcomittee in July of 2006, Rep Schakowsky expressed concern that a report from the National Academy of Sciences showing discrepancies among scientists studying global warming might be "used in a way to discredit the whole notion that our country and the rest of the industrialized and developing world ought to do anything about global warming".[5]

External links

• U.S. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky official site
• United States Congress. "Jan Schakowsky (id: s001145)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Federal Election Commission — Janice D. Schakowsky campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — Jan Schakowsky issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Jan Schakowsky campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative Janice D. 'Jan' Schakowsky (IL) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Jan Schakowsky profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Jan Schakowsky voting record
• Jan Schakowsky for Congress official campaign site

Articles

• Schakowsky, Jan Patriot Corporations, The Nation, January 19, 2006.
• Interview: Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, BuzzFlash, February 2001
• Rep. Jan Schakowsky, The Huffington Post, archives of her posts