Dan Cronin

Daniel J. Cronin (born November 7, 1959) is an American politician and attorney who served as county board chairman of DuPage County, Illinois from December 2010 until December 2022.

Cronin was born on November 7, 1959, in Elmhurst, Illinois.

His parents, Richard Cronin and Claire Cronin (Cusack), had nine children: five sons and four daughters.

The family lived across the street from York Community High School.

Cronin graduated from Immaculate Conception Grade School and Fenwick High School.

Cronin earned a bachelor of arts degree from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Cronin spent his early legal career as counsel for the Illinois House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987, then as a prosecutor in DuPage County from 1987 to 1989.

From 1985 to 1987, he served as legal counsel to Lee A. Daniels, minority leader of the Illinois House of Representatives, where Cronin helped oversee the movement of legislation presented on the House floor.

From 1987 through 1989, Cronin worked as a prosecutor in DuPage County, serving under Jim Ryan, the county state's attorney.

Cronin was elected to the House of Representatives in 1990, after defeating Republican incumbent Gene L. Hoffman on an anti-tax and anti-abortion platform.

He supported cutbacks to taxes and government spending, and earned a reputation as a conservative Republican.

A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1991 through 2010.

Cronin was born in Elmhurst, Illinois.

He received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and later graduated from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Since 1991, he has worked in private practice.

He comes from a family that has been politically prominent in DuPage.

His father, a sports physician who ran his practice and owned a medical office building in Elmhurst, provided financing and support for Dan's campaigns.

In 1991, he began to practice law at Cronin & Ruggiero, where he specialized in criminal law, family law, and real estate.

The couple became engaged in October 1991 and married in May 1992.

He then ran for the Senate during the 1992 elections.

Recent redistricting pitted Cronin against Ted Leverenz, an incumbent Democratic senator, in what was considered one of the "liveliest and most bitter contests" of the election season.

Cronin won the election.

He became chairman of the Senate's education committee, where he sponsored or debated several bills concerning reforms of Chicago Public Schools.

He also sponsored legislation that restricted Medicaid funding for abortions, but the bill was vetoed by Governor George Ryan.

He was also associated with Kemp & Capanna Ltd. In 1993, he transferred to Power & Cronin, based in Oak Brook.

He eventually became a senior partner at that law firm.

Dan is married to Juliann Ashley Cronin, owner of A&H Lithoprint, a lithography company in Broadview.

Juliann is also a part-time yoga instructor.

Dan's brother, an attorney, managed campaigns for Republican candidates at the state and county levels in 1994, then ran unsuccessfully for DuPage state's attorney during the 1996 elections.

His sister, an accountant, previously served as city treasurer of Elmhurst and later as a member of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission; she was elected to the DuPage County Board in 2022.

He worked alongside Joe Birkett, who would eventually become state's attorney in 1996 and Appellate Court judge in 2010.

After becoming chairman of the DuPage County Board in 2010, Cronin launched initiatives to consolidate units of local government in the county.

Cronin was re-elected to a second term in 2014.

His accomplishments included reducing the county's sales tax by 0.25 percentage points.

While running for his third term in 2018, he faced a strong challenge from Democratic candidate Lynn LaPlante, and narrowly won re-election.

Following the 2018 elections, DuPage was no longer a Republican stronghold, and Cronin lamented increased political infighting on the board.

His reforms included merging the county's election commission into the county clerk's office in 2019, with the approval of voters during a non-binding countywide referendum.

In 2020, Democrats won a majority of the seats on the board for the first time since the 1930s.

He submitted budgets for fiscal years 2022 and 2023 – his last as chairman – which kept property tax rates unchanged and took advantage of surpluses from rising sales tax revenues.

Cronin decided not to run for re-election at the end of his term in 2022; he was succeeded by Democratic state representative Deb Conroy.