Jim Edgar, the two-term Republican governor who guided Illinois through much of the 1990s with a low-key yet intense persona and a meticulous focus on fiscal matters aimed at preparing the state for the 21st century, died Sunday. He was 79.<\/p>\n
Edgar died in Springfield, where he had been hospitalized due to an adverse reaction to treatment for the pancreatic cancer<\/a> that he had been diagnosed with in January, friends and associates said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is with heavy hearts we share the news that our beloved husband, father and grandfather Jim Edgar passed away this morning in Springfield from complications related to treatment for pancreatic cancer,\u201d family members said in a statement. \u201cWe are deeply grateful for the love, support and kindness so many have shown to Jim and our family over these last several months.\u201d<\/p>\n Arguably one of the most popular governors<\/a> in the state\u2019s history, Edgar \u2014 who was born in the small town of Vinita, Oklahoma, but raised in Charleston, Illinois \u2014 provided stable governance<\/a> through his reserved tone. It was a sharp contrast to his immediate predecessor, James R. Thompson<\/a>, a Republican who was a constant campaigner and served a record 14 years with a grandiose, free-wheeling personality bent toward spending, building and dealmaking.<\/p>\n Illinois\u2019 governor from 1991 to 1999, Edgar after leaving office kept his word that his formal political career was over<\/a>. He became a senior fellow at the University of Illinois\u2019 Institute of Government and Public Affairs and declined efforts by fellow Republicans to be drafted as the state party chairman, make another run for governor and, twice, to run for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n Still, he remained a political elder statesman and was called on for counsel by leaders in both parties, though in the past decade-plus, the GOP he once headed drifted considerably farther<\/a> to the right as Illinois Republicans embraced Donald Trump\u2019s two terms. <\/p>\n \u201cWe reached out,\u2019\u2019 Edgar said in an emotion-laden speech on Aug. 20, 1997, when he announced he would not seek a third term as governor or enter the U.S. Senate race. \u201cWe have listened. We have responded \u2014 more than any administration in the history of this state. And because of that, Illinois is a better state, and we\u2019re prepared for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n While many Republicans nationally had expected Edgar to make a U.S. Senate bid, he expressed concerns about the affordability of raising his family in Washington, D.C. He also was clearly more interested in serving in the executive branch than the legislative.<\/p>\n Edgar entered the governor\u2019s office amid a recession, and his time as Illinois\u2019 chief executive marked a brief era of relative fiscal restraint. But balancing the budget while dealing with spiraling health care costs for the poor and overdue state bills \u2014 and carrying out his desire to increase funding for elementary and secondary education \u2014 was later made easier by a post-recession economic recovery.<\/p>\n His perfect coiffure was almost a symbol of the attention he gave to governmental minutiae during a career in which he alternated between being a bureaucrat and a politician.<\/p>\n He battled with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who said the downstate politician didn\u2019t understand Chicago. Critics dubbed him \u201cGovernor No\u201d and contended he had no vision for the state.<\/p>\n But as part of the oral history project of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum in 2010, Edgar criticized politicians who used the word \u201cvision,\u201d saying it was \u201coverrated\u201d and that he had yet to see \u201cany vision that\u2019s worked.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a governor has to do, and especially needs to do in Illinois \u2014 when I came in, and it needs now \u2014 you got to manage. If you can\u2019t manage, a vision doesn\u2019t do you any good. You got to manage,\u201d Edgar said.<\/p>\n Edgar\u2019s two successors<\/a> wound up going to prison<\/a>, which, he later observed, probably only enhanced his standing with the electorate.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, the most important (thing) was what did the public think? The public\u2019s pretty good in the end. The numbers I saw, the studies I\u2019ve seen, the public thought things worked pretty well. They thought it then. I think in retrospect they think maybe even better now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n His comments came as state government reeled following the impeachment<\/a> of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who subsequently went to prison for corruption. Blagojevich had pledged reforms as Edgar\u2019s successor, Republican Gov. George Ryan<\/a>, was under federal investigation and ultimately imprisoned for corruption.<\/p>\n Edgar\u2019s fiscal conservativism and moderate stance on social issues, including his support for abortion rights, for years made him the template for a successful statewide Republican candidate. But in recent years, that template has been ignored by many hopefuls who wound up going down in defeat. Edgar himself said he doubted he could win a primary in the Trump-era<\/a> of far-right GOP ideology.<\/p>\n Edgar\u2019s governmental career spanned three decades in Springfield as he rose through the ranks from legislative aide to state legislator, to governor\u2019s staff and eventually to statewide office. Following a successful decade as secretary of state, Edgar won his first term as governor in 1990, defeating Democratic Attorney General Neil Hartigan 51% to 48%.<\/p>\n He fulfilled a politically risky campaign promise to make permanent a temporary increase in the state\u2019s income tax for education. He also engaged in severe budget slashing, exhorting lawmakers to tear up the state\u2019s \u201ccredit card\u201d after years of passing pork-barrel projects.<\/p>\n Four years later, he defeated Democratic state Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch<\/a> in one of the state\u2019s largest electoral landslides, capturing 64% of the vote, winning by more than 900,000 ballots and taking 101 of the state\u2019s 102 counties, including Cook County. Netsch<\/a> narrowly won tiny Gallatin County in downstate Illinois.<\/p>\n Edgar took pride in accomplishments as governor that included imposing fiscal discipline and job cuts, easing regulations that vastly expanded adoptions, providing health care to children from poor families, creating welfare-to-work programs, encouraging economic development and investing in and expanding natural resources.<\/p>\n During a brief two-year period of one-party Republican leadership of the governor\u2019s office and the legislature in the mid-1990s, Edgar oversaw fiscal and management reforms for the Chicago Public Schools that gave control of the system to Daley, an achievement Edgar once called a \u201ccrown jewel.\u201d<\/p>\n