Despite his demeanor as a small-town lawyer, Dallas Ingemunson was a longtime powerhouse in Illinois Republican politics, acting as a mentor to top GOP politicians and stepping in as state party chairman during a time of political strife, earning him the title of Illinois Republican chairman emeritus.
Ingemunson, 85, a former longtime Kendall County state’s attorney and county GOP chairman, died Sunday at an assisted living center in Oswego. A cause of death was not disclosed.
In 1986, Ingemunson engineered the election to Congress of a little known state representative who went on to become U.S. House speaker, only to watch Dennis Hastert’s reputation unravel when it came to light he had sexually abused children decades earlier.
Ingemunson said he was blindsided by complaints of sexual abuse against Hastert, a former high school wrestling coach and teacher, that surfaced as part of a federal prosecution involving hush-money payments to a onetime student he abused. Hastert ultimately served 13 months in prison for violating federal banking laws.
“I never asked him, but I never had any reason to do so. I’ve known him … since he’s been in Yorkville, I’ve known all his friends. There’s never been any suspicion of any problems,” Ingemunson said in an interview with WBBM-Ch. 2 when asked if he had properly vetted Hastert as a congressional candidate in 1981.
“It’s baffled me entirely. I have no idea. I mean, I would think that if there had been something happening around Yorkville, I would have heard some hint of it. I’ve never heard a word,” he said in the interview, conducted in 2015 when Hastert was charged.
At the time, Ingemunson’s success in getting Hastert the 1986 Republican congressional nomination to fill a vacancy in the west suburban 14th Congressional District was viewed as a regional coup against larger political organizations in the district. It was an example of Ingemunson’s political strategy of meticulously outworking and outmaneuvering potential opponents.
Ingemunson also served as a political mentor to Tom Cross of Oswego. A former assistant in Ingemunson’s state’s attorney’s office, Cross was elected to the Illinois House in 1992 and a decade later became the leader of the GOP minority in the chamber, where he served until August 2013.
“Dallas was a true public servant who never failed to help a person with a problem regardless of their status in life,” Cross said.
“He was generous with his tremendous political acumen in helping numerous individuals pursue their political ambitions. He didn’t keep score and helped never expecting or wanting anything in return,” Cross said. “He loved life, his family and friends and anyone who could sing ‘God Bless America.’ I was truly blessed to know him and have him be such a large part of my life.”
In addition to his time as Kendall County GOP chair, Ingemunson held leadership posts with the state Republican Party for many years, serving as its treasurer and often chairing platform hearings.
When Republicans found themselves in need of a state chairman after then-House GOP Leader Lee Daniels stepped down from the party post amid a probe of staff workers doing political work on state time, Ingemunson agreed to take the job on an interim basis.
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A moderate, Ingemunson’s political ideology was reflective of the dominant mainstream Republican beliefs at the time.
Ingemunson was born in Sandwich, graduated from Newark High School and received a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois. He graduated from the DePaul Law School in 1965 and started his law career as an assistant state’s attorney in Kendall County. Following the death of State’s Attorney Robert Ohse, he was named the county’s top prosecutor and was elected six times until he announced his retirement in 1996.
He was a former chair of the Kendall County Plan Commission and was instrumental in the establishment of the local 911 emergency system and the founding of the Kendall County YMCA. On the state level, he was a driving force in creating the State’s Attorney Appellate Prosecutor Office, which provides smaller counties with prosecutors to represent them in the appeals process.
He also founded a local fishing club — he was dubbed its Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler — which made regular trips to a resort in northern Wisconsin, and was an avid Boy Scout volunteer who spent many summer weeks at campouts in Wisconsin.
Ingemunson is survived by his wife, Dodie; three sons, Gregg, Kirk, and Boyd; and 10 grandchildren.
Visitation is scheduled from 3 to 8 p.m. Nov. 14, at Larson-Nelson Funeral Home, 1617 N. Bridge St., Yorkville. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Nov. 15, at the funeral home.