Adam Andrzejewski

Personal life

Adam Andrzejewski, the eldest of seven children, was born in Herscher, Illinois to John and Janet Andrzejewski. His grandparents Andrew and Theresa Andrzejewski came to the U.S. from Poland in 1928 and settled in Evanston, Illinois. During the Great Depression the Andrzejewski family shared a small apartment and Andrew Andrzejewski worked for over 14 hours a day. His father taught history and political science at Limestone Elementary School for 38 years until he retired in 2008. His father also ran for state representative in 1976, and again in 1978, attempting to unseat the then house majority leader, George Ryan. He lost both bids, however, and Ryan later became the Governor.

His mother, Janet Norris Andrzejewski, a native of Sugar Grove, Illinois, taught primary education for one year, and then stayed at home after the birth of Adam. Her family came to Illinois in 1844 and settled in Blackberry township, Kane County as a land grant family farm. Janet's father, Sgt. Don Norris, fought in the 745th Tank Battalion, First Infantry Division in World War II and earned a Bronze Star. After the war, Don and Marna Norris raised ten children on the family farm and have 79 descendants as of 2016.

As a junior at Herscher High School, Andrzejewski participated in Illinois Boys State, a summer leadership program sponsored by the American Legion, where he was elected Senator in the mock election. After he graduated from Herscher High School in 1987, he attended Northern Illinois University on a varsity debate scholarship where he graduated with a business degree in 1992.

In 2017 Adam and his father attended the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

Career

In October 1997, Adam Andrzejewski co-founded an independent publishing business with his brother, Abram Andrzejewski. The publishing company, HomePages, employed nearly 150 people and had an annual revenue of nearly $20 million. In 2007 Andrzejewski sold his shares to his brother and an investor.

Then, Adam Andrzejewski started a grassroots initiative to enable local counties and school boards to post their check register online.

Campaign for Governor of Illinois

On March 1, 2009, Adam Andrzejewski announced his intent to run for the office of governor in the Illinois gubernatorial election of 2010. Andrzejewski was the first to announce his campaign to run for the office which had previously been held by Rod Blagojevich, who was replaced by Pat Quinn after he was impeached. Andrzejewski was one of seven Republicans to file with the Illinois State Board of Elections to be placed on the ballot, submitting over 14,000 signatures. The other Republican candidates included Bill Brady, Kirk Dillard, Andrew J. McKenna, Jim Ryan, and Bob Schillerstrom.

Andrzejewski’s platform was based on government transparency with a slogan of “Every Dime Online in Real Time” and an aggressive “forensic audit” of all government spending. On 25 January 2010, Andrzejewski received an endorsement at the Union League Club of Chicago from Lech Wałęsa, Solidarity (Polish trade union) founder and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. On 1 February 2010, Andrzejewski was endorsed by talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

On February 2, 2010, Andrzejewski was only defeated by a margin of 40,000 votes in the Republican primary for Governor of Illinois. Andrzejewski did win the 2nd most number of counties during the election.

OpenTheBooks.com organization

After his campaign in 2010, Andrzejewski founded OpenTheBooks, an American nonprofit organization that is devoted to transparency in government with former United States Senator Dr. Tom Coburn as the Honorary Chairman of the organization.

OpenTheBooks has captured over 3.5 billion lines of government spending and is the largest private repository of public spending in the world with a database containing all disclosed federal spending including: salaries, contracts, grants, direct payments, and farm subsidies. The group conducts investigations of government spending and issues oversight reports. Government agencies investigated include the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States. In 2013, the OpenTheBooks.com Mobile App went live on iOS and Android and received the Best Political App by the Web Marketing Association.

Notable works and achievements

Andrzejewski is a regular contributor for Forbes. He has also contributed several times to the The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Andrzejewski was featured on an episode of John Stossel's-Innovation Nation to discus the OpenTheBooks mobile app, website, and data and how it helps people hold elected officials accountable and bureaucrats.