Matt Martin '02 Named to Chicago's 40-Under-40 List
Matt Martin '02 was named to Chicago's 40-Under-40 List. "I'm proud to be associated with 39 other great Chicagoans," he said. "More importantly, though, I'm privileged to represent a community that cares so deeply about environmental justice, affordable housing, and police reform. I work for you, but I'm also working alongside you. Thank you for inspiring and challenging me to help bring transformational change to our ward and city."
Freshman Alderman Matt Martin beat back a dozen challengers in one of Chicago's most politically engaged wards—home to politicos like former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Governor Rod Blagojevich and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan—to win an open seat on the City Council last year.
As Martin's boss at the time, Madigan recalls asking the young attorney: "Are you sure you really want to be an Alderman?"
"There's a lot of it that some people could look at being mundane, especially someone as smart as Matt," Madigan says. But as the campaign wore on, she'd see him hustling earlier and chatting up voters longer than his challengers. "Matt won because he did the work," she says.
Growing up in Tucson, Ariz., with a single mom, he bought a saxophone in junior high with dreams of being a professional jazz musician.
His father had come from Niger to earn his Ph.D. in the U.S. While Martin and his mother didn't follow him back, Martin contemplated a double major in international studies and music. But after an instructor showed him a list of all the closed music venues in Chicago, and realizing he was "no Wynton Marsalis," Martin changed his game plan and eventually focused on domestic policy.
After graduating from Northwestern University, he became a paralegal, did campaign work at media firm Adelstein Liston and served as body man to attorney and author Tom Geoghegan during another crowded race: to fill Rahm Emanuel's vacant congressional seat in 2009. Then it was off to Harvard Law, Kirkland & Ellis, clerking at the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, then two years in Madigan's office.
Now Martin says he wants to see through one of his keystone projects in the AG's office: reforming the Chicago Police Department. He knows that the City Council has failed repeatedly to clean up the department. But transforming the traditional pothole-filling role of alderman to become a legislator is a work in progress.
"The old way of doing stuff, where you keep criticisms quiet, you focus only on ward stuff and let the mayor drive the boat on citywide policymaking, has been shown not to work," Martin says.
"It's right that that's going away," but it will take time to work out the kinks with a strong-willed mayor and other colleagues. "Talk to me in three years."
Read more at Chicago Business
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Freshman Alderman Matt Martin beat back a dozen challengers in one of Chicago's most politically engaged wards—home to politicos like former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Governor Rod Blagojevich and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan—to win an open seat on the City Council last year.
As Martin's boss at the time, Madigan recalls asking the young attorney: "Are you sure you really want to be an Alderman?"
"There's a lot of it that some people could look at being mundane, especially someone as smart as Matt," Madigan says. But as the campaign wore on, she'd see him hustling earlier and chatting up voters longer than his challengers. "Matt won because he did the work," she says.
Growing up in Tucson, Ariz., with a single mom, he bought a saxophone in junior high with dreams of being a professional jazz musician.
His father had come from Niger to earn his Ph.D. in the U.S. While Martin and his mother didn't follow him back, Martin contemplated a double major in international studies and music. But after an instructor showed him a list of all the closed music venues in Chicago, and realizing he was "no Wynton Marsalis," Martin changed his game plan and eventually focused on domestic policy.
After graduating from Northwestern University, he became a paralegal, did campaign work at media firm Adelstein Liston and served as body man to attorney and author Tom Geoghegan during another crowded race: to fill Rahm Emanuel's vacant congressional seat in 2009. Then it was off to Harvard Law, Kirkland & Ellis, clerking at the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, then two years in Madigan's office.
Now Martin says he wants to see through one of his keystone projects in the AG's office: reforming the Chicago Police Department. He knows that the City Council has failed repeatedly to clean up the department. But transforming the traditional pothole-filling role of alderman to become a legislator is a work in progress.
"The old way of doing stuff, where you keep criticisms quiet, you focus only on ward stuff and let the mayor drive the boat on citywide policymaking, has been shown not to work," Martin says.
"It's right that that's going away," but it will take time to work out the kinks with a strong-willed mayor and other colleagues. "Talk to me in three years."
Read more at Chicago Business
Salpointe Catholic High School
1545 E. Copper St.,
Tucson, AZ 85719
(520) 327-6581
Attendance: (520) 327-1990
Tucson, AZ 85719
(520) 327-6581
Attendance: (520) 327-1990
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