1. John Alden Fritchey IV was born on March 2,1964 and is a former Democratic Cook County Commissioner of the Cook County Board of Commissioners who represented the 12th district in Chicago from 2010 until 2018 and was a Democratic State Representative in the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 11th District in Chicago from 1997 to 2010.
John Fritchey additionally served as the elected Democratic Committeeman for Chicago's 32nd Ward from 2008 to 2012.
John Fritchey has additionally supported the Chicago Special Olympics as a repeated participant in the annual Polar Plunge.
John Fritchey presently serves on the Board of Directors of Chicago Gateway Green, a non-profit, public-private partnership dedicated to the greening and beautification of Chicago's expressways, gateways and neighborhoods through landscape enhancement, litter and graffiti removal and the installation of public art.
John Fritchey was born at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana.
John Fritchey's father, John Alden Fritchey III, was a United States Air Force Vietnam veteran and a native of Olney, Illinois, home to three generations of his family, while his mother emigrated from Oujda, Morocco.
John Fritchey then earned his bachelor's degree in Economics in 1986 from the University of Michigan before returning to Chicago to earn his JD degree from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 1989.
John Fritchey is an attorney in private practice John Fritchey taught as an Adjunct Lecturer in Political Science at Northwestern University.
John Fritchey is a lobbyist registered with the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago.
On February 18,2021, WBEZ reported that John Fritchey was one of 246 applicants for ten associate judgeships with the Cook County Circuit Court.
In 1996, John Fritchey was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives at age 32 becoming the first Moroccan-American elected official in the State of Illinois and likely the first Moroccan-American elected official in the Country.
In 2003, John Fritchey worked with then-State Senator Barack Obama to pass the most comprehensive ethics bill in the history of Illinois.
John Fritchey was a champion of many issues, from ethics reform to consumer protection to health care to fairer taxes who consistently showed that he was not afraid to buck party leadership and stand up for his constituents and all of Illinois.
John Fritchey additionally helped pass legislation that strengthened environmental preservation laws, expanded protected wilderness areas, and increased investment in renewable energy.
In 2003, John Fritchey was one of a select group to receive this honor for a second time.
John Fritchey was Chairman of the Consumer Protection Committee from 1999 to 2002.
John Fritchey was one of many candidates who ran for former US Representative Rahm Emanuel's seat in 2009 Illinois's 5th congressional district special election.
In 2010, John Fritchey left the Illinois General Assembly in order to run for a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, formerly held by Forrest Claypool.
John Fritchey was endorsed by both Claypool and Congressman Mike Quigley.
John Fritchey won the election with 75 percent of the vote.
John Fritchey left the office upon the swearing-in of his successor, attorney and successful 2018 Democratic primary challenger Bridget Degnen.