Thomas H. Geoghegan is a candidate for Congress in the special election to replace Rahm Emanuel in Illinois' 5th congressional district. A Chicago labor lawyer and author, Tom is a graduate of Harvard Law School (1975) and Harvard College (1971).

As a lawyer he has successfully brought class actions to recover lost pension benefits and health insurance arising from plant closings. Both in federal court and in arbitrations, he has represented many different local unions, including nurses, truck drivers, steelworkers and railroad workers.

He has worked for rank and file groups like the Teamsters for a Democratic Union to require greater rank and file democracy. He has often represented women and older workers in suits for sex and age discrimination. He was one of the original members of the National Employment Lawyers Association.

In addition to his work in the pension, labor and civil rights area, he has done other public interest legal work. Recently, he helped conclude a case to require a charitable hospital to provide free or reduced care for the uninsured. He has other litigation to require hospitals to provide charity care. He has also brought suits to open up the political process – for example, in a suit several years ago seeking early election voting or broader absentee balloting. He is currently involved in a case to require the State of Illinois to enforce laws against payday lenders.

He is author of /Which Side Are You On? Trying To Be For Labor When It's Flat On Its Back/ (1991, Farrar Straus and Giroux). In 1991, it was nominated as one of the five best non-fiction works by the National Book Critics Circle. /Which Side Are You On?/ was republished in 2004 by the New Press in an updated edition describing the current state of the labor movement in America. His other books include /The Secret Lives of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life/ (1999, Pantheon) and /In America's Court: How A Civil Lawyer Who Likes to Settle Stumbled Into A Criminal Trial/ (2002, New Press). He has contributed to /The Nation, In These Times, The New Republic, The Financial Times,/ the /New York Times/ op-ed page, and other publications on such subjects as labor, the economy, and law. He has appeared on CNN, CBS Sunday Morning News, and the Lehrer News Hour. He was a Fellow at the American Academy of Berlin in Spring 2004. He has been a columnist for /The American Prospect/. His most recent book is /See You in Court: How the Right Made America a Lawsuit Nation/ (2007, New Press), which will appear in paperback in January 2009.

Blog Entries by Tom Geoghegan

My State of the Union

1 Comments | Posted February 25, 2009 | 12:04 PM (EST)


Two months ago, I entered this race declaring we are in the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Every day more and more people lose their jobs, health care, and homes. We are witnessing not the unraveling of a few years of excess, but the insolvency of many of...

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Big endorsement for Geoghegan

Posted February 4, 2009 | 10:26 AM (EST)


From Julie Sweet and Kathy, Tom Geoghegan for Congress:

Today, acclaimed journalist and political activist Don Rose publicly declared his support for Tom Geoghegan for Congress. Rose calls Geoghegan "a truly remarkable progressive running with a life-long record of writings and actual deeds that put him head and shoulders...

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Landmark Settlement for Uninsured

2 Comments | Posted January 29, 2009 | 01:34 PM (EST)


A note from Campaign Manager, Julie Sweet:


If you didn't know it already, Tom Geoghegan isn't your ordinary candidate in the IL-5 special election. He doesn't just check the progressive boxes on issue questionnaires and repeat the catchiest rhetoric. Tom has been actually fighting for these interests for...

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TONIGHT: Netroots Event in DC!

Posted January 26, 2009 | 02:50 PM (EST)


Dear Friends,

This is Tom Geoghegan, running in the March 3 special election to replace Rahm Emanuel in the House. I'm in DC today and our campaign is having an event for the Netroots:

TONIGHT – 5:45pm to 7:45pm
Local 16 - Upstairs private room
...

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My Interview With William Greider

3 Comments | Posted January 22, 2009 | 02:38 PM (EST)


Each day, news about the economy is darker. We're losing more jobs, our financial system is in meltdown, and people are losing their homes. I entered this race to confront this crisis. I'm not a career politician. But, I have fought for working people my entire life. I am not...

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I'm Running for Congress in IL-5

36 Comments | Posted January 6, 2009 | 11:39 AM (EST)


I'm running for Congress in the Fifth District of Illinois.

As a Chicago lawyer for thirty years, I have fought for working people in the Fifth District and throughout the city. I have represented unions as well as people with no unions to protect them. In plant closings...

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