Loleta Didrickson

Who is Loleta Didrickson?

Loleta A. Didrickson is the former Illinois Comptroller.

Didrickson was elected Comptroller in 1994, succeeding Democrat Dawn Clark Netsch, who was the Democratic nominee for Governor. Her Democratic opponent was State Senator Earlean Collins. Before being elected Comptroller, Didrickson served for three years, under Governor Jim Edgar, as the Director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security, before which she served eight years in the Illinois House of Representatives.

In 1998, Didrickson was a candidate for United States Senate, and was strongly supported in this bid by former Governor Edgar and former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, the latter serving as her national campaign chairman. In a heated primary, however, she was defeated by a more-conservative candidate, State Senator Peter Fitzgerald, who went on that year to defeat incumbent U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun. Didrickson was succeeded as Comptroller by Democrat Dan Hynes.