 Jim is a jack-of-all-trades in Illinois
public affairs. He has been an Illinois legislator, statewide
candidate, state agency director, senior aide to three unindicted
governors, campaign manager for U.S. Senate and presidential
candidates, professor, newspaper publisher and columnist.
Jim received his BA, MA and PhD degrees in political science, with
minors in economics, from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. Whenever kicked out of government or politics, Jim
has taken refuge as a senior fellow at the University’s Institute of
Government and Public Affairs. He has also taught courses in American
politics at the U. of I. in both Urbana and Chicago, Northern Illinois
University, Knox College and Black Hawk College-East Campus.
Jim is a “foreign expert” with the School of International Relations
and Public Affairs at the elite Fudan University in Shanghai, where he
has taught courses in American politics on three different occasions in
recent years. When in China, Jim is also invited to give lectures at
major universities throughout China, including at Beijing, Nanjing,
Suzhou and Northwestern (Xian) universities.
Jim’s many awards include Educator of the Year at the University of
Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (2005), from the university’ alumni
association, and the 1995 Ben C. Hubbard Award from Illinois State
University for “longstanding service as an effective advocate for
public education.”
Jim is the author or co-author of seven books, including Illinois
Politics (University of Illinois Press, 2010) and Fixing Illinois (U.
of I. Press, 2015). He is at work at present on another book for the
University of Illinois Press. The work will look at Illinois over the
past half-century and will be titled something like, “What’s the Matter
with Illinois: Lessons Learned from a State that Unraveled.”
Jim recently completed a four-year term as member, then chair, of the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission.
At present, Jim is president of Stark County Communications, which
publishes newspapers in his rural home county in central Illinois.
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