Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon arrives in Springfield with a legacy, accessiblility and a banjo
POLITICS | Holly Dillemuth
The year was 1969 and Sheila Simon remembers fidgeting in her seat as her father, the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, was sworn in as lieutenant governor of Illinois. Nearly eight years old at the time, Sheila Simon was “one of those squirmy kids who wouldn’t sit still,” she told a crowd of nearly 5,800 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center Jan. 10. Minutes before, she was sworn in to the same office by retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Ann McMorrow, one of the first female assistant state’s attorneys for Cook County along with Sheila Simon’s mother, the late Jeanne Hurley Simon, who was later a state representative.
Growing up in a household of public servants “was just a part of life,” she says. Her father and mother met in the General Assembly in the late 1950s, and were married for nearly 40 years. She would often tag along to political events with her parents, who, she says, would make fun of her for how she would mimic politicians’ speeches and hand gestures.
“Even though I didn’t understand all of it,” she says.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who succeeded the late Paul Simon as senator, says his first job was in the office of lieutenant governor as his legal counsel when her father held the position.
“I’ve known her since she was five years old. I’m her biggest fan and I’m just so happy … for her and our state.” Durbin says the late Paul Simon “would just love it” that his daughter entered the office he held.
“She really has her father’s political DNA.
She is just like him, genuine and personable and hard working. She’s gonna go far,” he says.
Durbin joked that he could not have predicted from seeing her as a child that Simon would enter into elective office. “She was a perfectly normal kid,” he says.
Simon, a former law professor, lawyer and city council member in Carbondale, plans to use her platform to enhance education and domestic violence prevention, with the goal of making the office “accessible” to the public.
“I think people need to feel that they have access to the folks that they have elected. I’m happy to be a starting point for people who have never talked to a politician before, because everyone ought to feel like they have access,” Simon says.
The Carbondale native will have offices in Chicago, Springfield and Carbondale, which she hopes will add more public access to government, something many valued in her late father. She says she received a wealth of good