SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — As a Republican candidate for governor, Richard Irvin has promoted himself as a no-nonsense, law-and-order candidate who as a onetime prosecutor put “gangsters, drug dealers and wife beaters” in jail.
Irvin was a prosecutor in Cook and Kane counties from 1998, shortly after getting his law license, until 2003. But he then worked for almost 15 years as a criminal defense attorney, specializing in defending people accused of the same types of crime he rails against in his campaign ads.
Shortly before becoming mayor of Aurora in 2017 and stepping away from his law practice, for example, he represented a man accused of attacking a police officer. He’s also represented clients accused of kidnapping, domestic violence and sexual assault.
