Benjamin S. Adamowski (November 20, 1906 – March 1, 1982) was a politician and lawyer.

Early life

His father, Max Adamowski, was an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, as well as a

real estate agent Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and age ...

in Logan Square, and

tavern A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that ...

owner. He graduated from

DePaul University Law School DePaul University College of Law is the law school of DePaul University, a private Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 125 full- and part-time faculty members and enrolls more than 500 students in its Juris Doc ...

in 1928.

Career

He served in the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 representativ ...

, representing the 25th District from 1931 through 1941. In the legislature, he distanced himself from the

machine politics In the politics of Representative democracy, representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a hi ...

his father had been aligned with, and aligned himself with liberal reformist governor

Henry Horner Henry Horner (November 30, 1878 – October 6, 1940) was an American politician. Horner served as the 28th Governor of Illinois, serving from January 1933 until his death in October 1940. Horner was noted as the first Jewish governor of Illinois. ...

. In 1940, Adamowski unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the special U.S. Senate election. In 1941, Adamowski left the legislature to serve as the Corporation Counsel of Chicago under Mayor

Martin H. Kennelly Martin Henry Kennelly (August 11, 1887 – November 29, 1961) was an American politician and businessman. He served as the 47th Mayor of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois from April 15, 1947 until April 20, 1955. Kennelly was a member of the United ...

, a role he held for at least three years. He was a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

until 1955, when he was defeated by

Richard J. Daley Richard Joseph Daley (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Chicago from 1955, and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party from 1953, until his death. He has been called "the last of ...

in the Democratic primary for mayor. In later campaigns for State's Attorney and a second bid for mayor against Daley in 1963 he ran as a Republican. He served from 1957 to 1960 as State's Attorney of Cook County. In May 1959, he uncovered a $500,000-a-year ticket-fixing scandal in Chicago Traffic Court, and indicted four court employees on corruption charges.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adamowski, Ben 1906 births 1982 deaths DePaul University College of Law alumni Politicians from Chicago Illinois Democrats Illinois Republicans Members of the Illinois House of Representatives 20th-century members of the Illinois General Assembly Cook County state's attorneys