Statehouse clout: Emil Jones Jr., president of Illinois senate, is one of the nation's most powerful politicians

Ebony, April, 2005 by Tracey Robinson-English

EMIL JONES JR., Illinois senate president, is one of the nation's most powerful politicians. As the second African-American to head the state senate, the Chicago-based Democrat, who recently won a second term, has tremendous influence over a $54 billion state budget.

Jones, 69, a street-smart political veteran with a gravelly voice, also uses his considerable influence to make sweeping changes in state government to give more to the disadvantaged and social pro grams such as public education that have been traditionally underserved. "My role is to make sure every child has access to education," says Jones between answering phone calls and handing off requests to his staff. "I'm in a position to improve the quality of life for people. I'm opening doors."

Jones ranks as one of the top four state political leaders in Illinois and is the only African-American senate president nationwide. "He's always impressed me as someone from the old school, who work ed the inside game, but remains committed to the agenda for the disenfranchised and the poor," says newly elected U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). "He is a strong proponent of Black business and has been a longtime champion of the underdog. People who know him say he is in politics for the right reasons."

Obama, who calls Jones his "political godfather," credits the senior statesman for paving the way for the then relatively unknown Obama to step to the center of the political stage. Jones says he "wept like it was my own child" when Obama delivered his electrifying speech last summer at the Democratic National Convention.

Jones' knack for spotting sharp talent is something he's been quietly demonstrating most of his political career. He surrounds himself with a relatively young staff of business, legal and political professionals from top schools. "I am not only here to serve now, but to prepare others to take the baton in the future," he says.

Since his early involvement in local Democratic politics, Jones has made good use of gentle arm-twisting, old-style back pats, rubbing elbows with downstate rural legislators and doing his homework to move his agenda of helping the poor and disadvantaged. Surviving political life hasn't always been smooth sailing, but Jones mastered the art of the wheeler-dealer over the past 40 years to firmly take the helm of his current post. His motto: "Know your opponent and be solidly prepared."

"You can't pull the wool over his eyes," says Chicago Sun-Times columnist Stella Foster. "Emil is very smart and one of the most unpretentious men I have ever met."

Under Jones' leadership as senate president, the Illinois General Assembly in 2004 passed a budget that increased education funding by $389 million in Illinois public schools. Jones pressed for and won a minimum-wage increase, pay equity for women, health-care programs for the poor, more state contracts for minority-owned businesses and legal reforms on capital crimes.

Jones also believes the state should do more to help impoverished and disenfranchised minority communities, even to the point of using funds from legalized gambling to fund education and promote economic development. Despite strong opposition, Jones pushed through legislation to provide a percentage of revenues from a new gaming license in Illinois to go to inner-city Chicago State University rather than the more prestigious University of Illinois downstate.

He is also responsible for targeting enviable funding to Chicago State for capital improvements, scholarships and technology programs, including a new library. The school is also building a convocation center, named for Jones and his late wife, Patricia Jones.

"Senator Jones has made it possible for incredible opportunities for students at Chicago State University," says President Elnora D. Daniel. "He has brought economic resources totaling $200 million to the university that have long been overlooked. Our students are now in position to better compete in technology and other fields the same as students do from other state-supported institutions."

Few politicians match the senate president's commitment of more than $100 million in funding to support public works projects, social services agencies, nonprofit groups, the Chicago Park District and the City Colleges of Chicago, says Cliff Kelly, a radio commentator and former Chicago alderman. "Jones not only is good government," Kelly says, "he is effective government. He has the capacity to identify the right issues, hold on to them and push them through. As a leader of the Democratic Party, he's been able to do great things for our community that his conservative Republican predecessor never did."

One of eight children raised by a stern truck-driver father and a homemaker mother, Jones says he grew up impoverished in the Morgan Park community on Chicago's South Side. "You have to understand, I was a poor, dark child with no real opportunities," he says. "Nothing was given to you. Everything was designed for you to fail. There were no Black heroes for us to look up to."