* Ten years ago, I received a phone call in the middle of the night to inform me that Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka had died…
As you already know, Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka passed away last week.
Topinka had a stroke the morning of December 9th, but that’s not what killed her. In fact, by the afternoon, she announced she was going to walk to the restroom. Her chief of staff Nancy Kimme told her not to try because she was paralyzed on her left side. In mocking defiance, Topinka started kicking her no longer paralyzed leg.
By early evening, medical staff told Topinka that she’d be out of the hospital in a few days and would then need three weeks of rehabilitation. The indestructible Topinka appeared to have won again, just like she did after she fell and broke her hip and badly injured her back after giving a speech in 2012. The accident slowed her down, but it never stopped her, never silenced her, never broke her spirit, never stopped her from running for reelection.
What finally felled Topinka was completely unexpected. Hours after her speedy recovery, Topinka fell asleep. A massive clot somehow withstood her blood-thinning medication and got around a clot trap installed beneath her rib cage and entered her lung.
The end came quickly.
In a matter of seconds, we lost not only one of our state’s strongest voices for financial prudence, its most consistently successful female statewide elected official, its most pro-union, pro-gay rights Republican, but also its most human politician.
My brother Doug met Topinka when he was with me at an event. Doug posted this on his Facebook page the day she died: “She was the first statewide elected official I ever met that I thought ‘Hey, she’s just a regular person like the rest of us.’”
Judy only talked down to dunderheads. Everyone else was treated like an old friend, and she just had that way about her that you knew she meant it.
I once had lunch with Judy in her state Senate district. She took me to a local Bohemian place and I barely got to talk to her. She knew, by name, just about everyone at that restaurant. People literally lined up to shake her hand and chat with her the entire time we were there. She’d hug them, ask about their children, their aunts, their cousins, mostly by name. And she never lost that smile, even while she was eating.
She often told stories about when she served in the Illinois House during the height of the Equal Rights Amendment debate. Ultra-conservative women, she’d humorously recall, would often grab her arm, fall to their knees and pray for her.
What did you do? I asked. “I let them pray!” the ERA supporter hooted. She then thanked them for their prayers and continued on her merry way.
Topinka was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1984, after first building a House constituent services program unlike almost anywhere else. Her phone number was always public, and she would get calls at her home at all hours, once from a constituent with a cat up her tree during the middle of the night. She served not only her own constituents, but also those who lived in the neighboring district represented by former Democratic Senate President Phil Rock, who was often too busy with the affairs of state to handle mundane constituent requests.
Born to immigrant parents, Topinka graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She went on to write a column for the Berwyn Cicero Life newspaper called “Let’s Talk.” Former Rep. Jack Kubik, who once represented half of Judy’s district, said it was the most-read column in his family’s newspaper. It was all about political stuff that nobody else was writing about. The two of us were a natural fit.
I first encountered Judy not long after I was hired as Hannah Information’s columnist in 1990. She was fascinated by the company’s “new wave” technology and my “alternative” form of journalism and her Statehouse office quickly became my second home.
We were both “nobody what nobody sent.” Topinka was elected to her first House term over the opposition of the local party bosses. I started writing about Statehouse politics for a little technology startup.
Few would talk to me back then because I wasn’t anybody. But Judy helped teach me how to be successful in this crazy business. She also taught me a valuable lesson about how to treat strangers and acquaintances: like old friends.
I loved that woman.
- VK - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:14 pm:
A old boss of mine used to tell me stories about Judy. They were all about her being an incredibly decent and good human. But, the one that stuck with me years and years later was about an ad where she made a parody of the old “slinky” jingle where they just replaced the words with “Topinka, Topinka, Judy Baar Topinka”
This was before my time so I don’t recall if this is just a thing he thought in his head and pitched to her or if this was a real commercial. It doesn’t matter either way because at least once a month or any time I walk through a toy aisle I will quietly sing that jingle to myself, smile, and think about her and how she was absolutely one of the best ones to ever do this.
I never even got the chance to meet her, but I’ve never heard any major story that didn’t confirm that she was an absolute mensch.
- 44 - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:22 pm:
Great re post. I remember when you first wrote these words. I met her once and I can vouch for everything you wrote about her. One of those extraordinary people you meet every once in a while.
- Jak Tichenor - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:27 pm:
Judy Baar Topinka was one of the first people I met covering the General Assembly for Illinois Lawmakers in the early 1990s. No one knew the Illinois budget process better than she did and she was just an absolute delight as a guest. One of our producers told her that red looked best on television and she never failed to show up on camera with the brightest red outfit she could find! Beyond that, she was the consummate public servant. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who could outwork her or outthink her and all the while that she maintained such a human touch and connection to people all around the state. I have many fond memories finding letters from the Treasurer’s Office containing newspaper clippings she’d found from papers around the state that she wanted me to know about. But first and foremost JBT was always the adult in the room that we needed when it came to balancing the budget in the most effective and humane ways. Thank you Rich for bringing her memory and legacy to the attention of today’s readers of Capitolfax. They need to know more about her and we certainly as a state and nation need more like this remarkable human being.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:28 pm:
A very special person. RIP Judy.
- DuPage Saint - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:28 pm:
She was fun. A politician of real joy and caring. I wish she was around now and at the had of a normal Republican Party
I did not realize she was only 70 what a shame
- Linus - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:30 pm:
I still miss JBT and her practical, down-home, no-baloney approach to politics and to everyday human interactions. I first met her 35 years ago, and she remains one of the most memorable policymakers I’ve ever had the privilege to cross paths with.
- JoanP - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:39 pm:
It’s sad to think that she would not be welcome in today’s ILGOP. If they had more like her, the Republicans might actually hold a statewide office or two. But they’d rather whine. Which JBT never did.
- H-W - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:41 pm:
Illinois has produced several truly extraordinary politicians, on both “sides” of the aisle, who in fact transcend that aisle. Judy Barr Topinka was one of them, and one for the ages. Rest in Peace, those who knew her. Her memory will live beyond her time on earth.
- smile politely - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:49 pm:
And to think the Dems tied her to a photo of her dancing with George Ryan and that lost her the election to whom? Oh yeah. Blago
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:50 pm:
Having almost passed away from a pulmonary embolism 2 1/4 years ago this hits differently, but man, she understood politics should include joy and we need that today.
- Give Us Barabbas - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:51 pm:
I’ve been to her home; she had a tchotchke collection elegantly arrayed throughout the living room with elephants of all kinds predominating; she was so proud of collecting pieces from thrifts and getting a good deal. I saw her collection of carved walking sticks, her Madonna of Czestochowa prints and her sci fi book selections were on point. Indeed, she was a down to earth person.
She often said her inspiration was the cartoon character, Brenda Starr, star reporter, when she was an investigative journalist.
In our conversation, she said the cutback amendment had had good intentions but bad results, in that by reducing representation to one person per district, it concentrated power in the wrong place. “Had I run for a house seat after that change, as a first-timer, I never could have gotten elected to anything in the first place. The cutback amendment froze out independent candidates like me.”
I think she would have been a great Governor if she’d won that race, but I also think she would be repudiating much of today’s state GOP and certainly she would have been a never-Trumper, ride or die.
- McDem Chair - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:52 pm:
I grew up in her district. She indeed was a fixture in our community. Much like Dan Brady here in McLean County, there was rarely a public event that she was not at. She truly understood what it meant to be a servant of the people.
- Wonderful World - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:56 pm:
Her eyes sparkled with fun. She was down to earth and so very human. I loved her laugh. And she was ever so kind to all. What a fine example for humanity.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:56 pm:
===photo of her dancing with George Ryan and that lost her the election===
The Democrats said it was the George W. Bush video what really done it.
- Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:58 pm:
The days are long and the years are short. 10 years. Hard to believe. I still miss her. You can really see the soul of a politician when you get to meet them eye to eye. I haven’t met one better than her.
- Thad - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 1:59 pm:
I am just a nobody — not some political insider — but I really miss her. I didn’t always vote for her but I deeply respected her. I was lukcy enough to have met her once or twice.
- ModerateGOP - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 2:10 pm:
I think a lot about how things could have ended up so much differently during the Rauner years if JBT was there to help guide him rather than the IPI folks and others that knew nothing about state government.
- NorthsideNoMore - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 2:11 pm:
She was the Best of the Best. Always upbeat and kind. Even when she was stern, you knew there was passion for her opinion and respect for yours. We need more of her ilk again.
- Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 2:15 pm:
She was truly a public servant. Will never forget her in the Senate, she could bring hearing to stop with her dry sense of humor. Sometimes she would just say what everyone was thinking but wouldn’t say about a bill.
She represented the best of Illinois.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 2:21 pm:
Man oh man could the ilgop use somebody like JBT to show them how it should be done.
- Louis G Atsaves - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 2:26 pm:
Thanks to her and her efforts with adopting pets, my wife and I adopted a baby little White Maltese. We named her Judee after Judy! She was good friends to my good friend, the late Senate Adeline Geo-Karis, who casually mentioned to her that we were looking. She must have called me a dozen times until the final adoption!
- The Professor - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 2:40 pm:
I first met Judy back in the mid-seventies, when she was covering the opening of a campaign office for Congressman Ed Derwinski. She was with Jack Kubik, who later became State Representative Jack Kubik. We hit it off. What a lady. Back when the Republican Party was a different party. One thing I will always remember is she would often have a little dog sitting on a chair in the Springfield office. A friend that you can never replace. Those were the days.
- Abdon - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 3:55 pm:
Judy was so much fun to cover as a reporter. Great sense of humor. And she was a caring public servant. Chair of the state GOP making bi-partisanship fashionable. She proudly stood on the stage with Gov. Quinn when he signed marriage equality and offered to serve as a flower girl at same-sex weddings. We need more Judies.
- Grateful Gail - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 4:06 pm:
Wonderful lady!
- West Side the Best Side - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 4:55 pm:
A few years before she died I was getting ready to march in the Brookfield Fourth of July parade with the Brookfield Post 2868 VFW/Auxiliary. JBT was going to be riding in a car or float with some group and before the parade started she was walking along the sidelines greeting marchers and spectators. She gladly posed for pictures with whoever wanted them, including getting on the motorcycle of one of the VFW Riders. That, and the way she dealt with government, viewing her job as a public trust and always acting in the best interests of the public, were just a couple of reasons I always voted for her. She was the last Republican I voted for and most likely the last Republican I’ll ever vote for.
- Occasionally Moderated - Tuesday, Dec 10, 24 @ 7:20 pm:
I truly enjoyed the column and the comments. Her memory is a blessing. We could sure use having her around today.