Government, Politics, and Higher Education

The governor of Illinois is elected for a term of four years. Jim Edgar, a Republican elected governor in 1990 and 1994, was succeeded by another Republican, George H. Ryan, elected in 1998. In 2002 a Democrat, Rod Blagojevich, was elected to the office; he was reelected in 2006. The state legislature, called the general assembly, consists of a senate with 59 members and a house of representatives with 118 members. Illinois elects 20 representatives and 2 senators to the U.S. Congress and has 22 electoral votes.

Institutions of higher learning in Illinois include the Univ. of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign and Chicago; DePaul Univ., the Univ. of Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, at Chicago; Northwestern Univ., at Evanston; Illinois State Univ., at Normal; and Southern Illinois Univ., at Carbondale and Edwardsville.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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