Peter Charles Granata (October 28, 1898 – September 29, 1973) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Born in

Chicago, Illinois 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 ...

, Granata attended the public and high schools of his native city. He graduated from Bryant and Stratton Business College in Chicago in 1912. He engaged in the coal business beginning in 1917. Granata was chief clerk to the prosecutor of the city of Chicago in 1926-1928 and chief deputy coroner from 1928-1930. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1930, Granata presented credentials as a Republican Member-elect to the Seventy-second Congress and served from March 3, 1931, to April 5, 1932, when he was succeeded by Stanley H. Kunz, who successfully contested the election. Granata had originally won the race by more than 1,000 votes, but Kunz successfully argued that, either by fraud or mistake, he was denied the votes of thousands of "straight ticket" ballots. Congress reviewed the ballots and found that Kunz been denied more than 2,300 votes; he was declared the winner. Granata ran again in 1932 and lost to

Leo Kocialkowski Leo Paul Kocialkowski (August 16, 1882 – September 27, 1958) was an American politician who served five terms as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1933 to 1943. Biography Kocialkowski was born in Chicago, Illinois, the so ...

, who had defeated Kunz in the Democratic primary. Granata returned to the coal and oil business in Chicago until May 1933, when he enjoyed a political comeback and won a seat 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 ...

, where he would serve for 40 years, until his death. He would also serve as assistant director of finance of the State of Illinois from 1941-1943, and as vice president of a glass company in Chicago in 1948. He was a resident of Chicago until his death there on September 29, 1973, and was interred in Mount Carmel Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Granata, Peter Charles 1898 births 1973 deaths Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives Businesspeople from Chicago Politicians from Chicago Bryant and Stratton College alumni 20th-century American businesspeople Members of the United States House of Representatives removed by contest 20th-century members of the Illinois General Assembly 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives