Arthur Schultz

Arthur Schultz

Arthur "Art" Schultz (July 4, 1933 – November 26, 2011) was an American Republican politician. He was a five-term mayor of Joliet, Illinois, the fourth largest municipality in the state after Chicago, Aurora, and Rockford. He was last elected in April 2007. Prior to his first election, he served in the United States Navy and in the Joliet Police Department.

He finished as the first runner-up in the Joliet City Council election of 1989, but when a sitting councilwoman died a few months after the election he was passed over several times for the nomination. This was controversial as the nomination is customarily given to the runner-up in the most recent election. He returned to elective politics to defeat the mayor who did not nominate him in the subsequent election in 1991.

In his time in office, the Joliet changed from an economy of a prison town with declining population to a fast growing entertainment and tourism economy, focused on riverboat casinos. Residential and commercial construction increased and racing tracks, a baseball stadium, and several civic works developed as a result of the booming economy.