Roskam says family first
Politics have been integrally connected to just about every stage of Peter Roskam's life, even helping him find love.
Roskam, who displayed an aptitude for politics during his elementary days at Ben Franklin Elementary School in Glen Ellyn, still brings a report about Illinois that he wrote in fourth-grade, when he visits suburban schools.
At Glenbard West High School, the varsity gymnast also served as president of the student senate.
After graduating from the University of Illinois and Chicago-Kent College of Law, Roskam spent a year teaching American history in the U.S. Virgin Islands, before heading to Washington, D.C., to work as an aide for Republican Congressmen Henry Hyde of Illinois and Tom DeLay of Texas.
It was in Washington that Roskam met his wife Elizabeth, a University of Michigan graduate who was working on political campaigns for Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Their first kiss was at the Lincoln Memorial.
Today, Elizabeth is a stay-at-home mother to their four children — daughters Gracey and Frankie, and sons A.J. and Steven.
She's also one of her husband's closest political advisers, says Al Salvi, Roskam's former law partner and statehouse colleague.
Yet, she stays clearly behind the scenes. Elizabeth has never given an interview to the press, according to Roskam's communications staff, and a request was declined for this story.
Still, she has been a noted presence by her husband's side.
At a 2006 fundraiser with Laura Bush in Addison, Elizabeth stole the show. She told stories about the couple's history and talked up Peter as a family man, saying he displayed infinite patience teaching their then 16-year-old daughter Gracey how to drive. She even fit in a few political jabs at Roskam's opponent, Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates.
Roskam often affectionately describes her as “the real right wing conservative in the Roskam household.”
Family, Roskam has made it clear, is his first priority.
“I thought I had a handle on my priorities before Elizabeth and I lost our oldest son to stillbirth,” then state Sen. Roskam said during an interview with Daily Herald columnist, Naperville Pastor Greg Asimakoupoulos, in 2002. “Following that terrible event, my priorities crystallized in ways I never thought possible. ... I take my role as a state Senator very seriously. But in the larger scope of things I know it's (in) another house that my influence will be most keenly felt. After all, my wife and kids are the constituents I will be serving long after my days in Springfield are a distant memory.”