Two Springfield residents on the staffs of the Illinois comptroller and Illinois Senate president, respectively, won national 2021 Cicero Speechwriting Awards.
Jayette Bolinski, a former State Journal-Register editorial page editor who works for Comptroller Susana Mendoza, a Democrat, won two awards for speeches she wrote for Mendoza in the contest’s “state-of-the institution” and “commemorative” categories. The speeches were titled “Selling Illinois” and “100 years of Women’s Suffrage: The Enduring Power of Showing Up.”
John Patterson, who works for Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, won for a speech he wrote for Harmon in the “government” category titled “Governing During a Pandemic and the Humbling Act of Helping Others.”