Patrick J. Quinn (born December 16, 1948) is an American politician from Illinois.

A career Democrat, he currently serves as the 45th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois and now as the current Governor, because Blagojevik was arrested on charges of corruption. He was elected in 2002 and took office in 2003. The Governor is Rod Blagojevich. However, on December 9, 2008, Blagojevich was taken into federal custody on felony charges of corruption. For the time, Blagojevich remains governor, but if he resigns, pleads guilty, or is convicted, Quinn will take over as Illinois Governor in his absence. Quinn served as the elected Illinois State Treasurer from 1991 to 1995. Prior to state service, Pat Quinn worked in Cook County government. Quinn has two sons, Patrick IV and David, born on April 12, 1983 and December 16, 1984 respectively. Both competed collegiately in track & field specializing in the middle and long distance events.

In 1980, Quinn led the ultimately successful statewide campaign for the Cutback Amendment to the Illinois Constitution, which reduced the size of the Illinois House of Representatives. Before the Cutback Amendment, three state representatives had been elected from each of 59 districts, yielding a total of 177 members. After the amendment, only 118 representatives were elected from single member districts.

Before becoming lieutenant governor, Quinn was a tax attorney. He earned an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and a law degree from Northwestern University. He gained some early fame in the late 1970s by leading an ultimately unsuccessful drive to amend, via a petition drive, the 1970 Illinois Constitution with the “Illinois Initiative”. This amendment would have provided people from Illinois with the same power to enact statutes through the process of referendums that is used in other states, notably California. Though Quinn’s petition drive was successful, his efforts were blocked by the Illinois Supreme Court that ruled that the Illinois Initiative was an “unconstitutional constitutional amendment”, and it was never allowed to be placed before the voters.

After serving one term as State Treasurer, Quinn ran for the office of Secretary of State in 1994, losing in the general election to the incumbent (and future Governor) George H. Ryan.

Quinn sought the office of Lieutenant Governor in 2002, and after winning the Democratic primary in March of that year, he ran together with Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Rod Blagojevich. In Illinois, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor run separately in the primary election, and are then joined together as a ticket in the General Election. Blagojevich and Quinn went on to defeat Attorney General Jim Ryan and State Senator Carl Hawkinson in the general election. He received a second term as lieutenant governor of Illinois. In the Illinois primary election in March 2006, he ran unopposed as a Democrat. In November 2006, he and Governor Rod Blagojevich won re-election to their respective offices. With the election of Senator Barack Obama as President in 2008, Quinn is considered a possible candidate to be appointed to succeed Obama in the U.S. Senate. Quinn maintains a website to highlight his social issues: http://www.standingupforillinois.org/ He focuses on community, environmental, and educational issues