Toi Hutchinson was appointed to the Illinois State Senate in January 2009 following the election of former Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Toi currently serves on the following Senate committees:

• Agriculture and Conservation
• Labor
• Local Government
• State Government and Veteran Affairs (V.C)
• Transportation

The 40th District is a unique area that includes four distinct counties made up of people from all walks of life.  It is both rural and urban, it has pockets of wealth buttressed by communities of great need, densely populated communities as well as towns where houses are three miles apart.  The 40th District is a microcosm of the state.

Toi believes that she represents a host of constituencies that reflect the diversity of the district itself.  She is a wife, mother, student, business owner, public servant, and lifelong Democrat.  More importantly, Toi prides herself on being pro-choice, pro-family, pro-labor and, most of all, pro-equality.  Toi is especially proud of her vice chairmanship of the State Government and Veterans Affairs committee.   Both of her grandfathers, served in the armed forces.   Clarence Smithson, Toi’s maternal grandfather, served during the Korean conflict in the Army and her paternal grandfather E. Scoville Walker, served in WWII as a United States Marine.

Experience to Benefit the Community
Toi knows the issues facing the 40th District well.  She served two terms as Village Clerk for the Village of Olympia Fields, and was Chief of Staff for Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson from 2005 – 2006.  Following this, Toi gained additional experience lobbying on behalf of the State alliance of YMCA’s.  This invaluable experience taught her the mechanics of Springfield, including negotiating issues through committees and watching how disparate opinions and opposing views are resolved through the ebb and flow of the legislative process.

In addition, Toi has over 15 years of experience in grassroots community organizing and nonprofit development.  Her past and present civic involvement includes service on the Executive and Political Action Committees of the South Suburban NAACP; Community Liaison and Vice President of Diversity, Inc.; the Government Affairs Council of the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce; Vice Chair of the Olympia Fields Planning Commission; and a host of other community boards and commissions. In addition, in 2004 Toi became a Harvard Kennedy School of Government Executive Management Fellow, for the Women and Leadership program.

Close Ties to the Community
Toi was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1973 to Scoville and Janice Walker. Unfortunately, Toi’s parents decided to divorce and her mother made the decision to move her daughters to Country Club Hills, Illinois to live with her parents Clarence and Abbie Smithson in 1982.  Toi attended Infant Jesus of Prague elementary school in Flossmoor and Rich Central High School in Olympia Fields.  The political bug bit Toi early as she was voted class president of her freshman and sophomore classes and then president of Student Council senior year.   Toi attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with supporting course work in Psychology.  In 2004 Toi ran for Bloom Township Supervisor.  While she narrowly lost that race, she learned first hand the joys and hardships of campaigning and meeting people at their front door to talk about issues that concerned them.  The day after that race, she went to work for then Senator Debbie Halvorson in Chicago Heights.  Not one to rest on her laurels and always interested in new challenges, Toi was in her second year of law school at Northern Illinois University College of Law at the time of her appointment, and is currently on a leave of absence from that institution.  Luckily, she had completed Constitutional Law 1 and 2 before she walked into the historic impeachment trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Toi and her husband of 14 years Paul, a Senior Systems Engineer at a large insurance firm, live in Olympia Fields.  They have three children – Paul, Jr. age 13, a budding track star and gifted and talented artist, Camryn, age 11, a talented dancer specializing in tap, jazz and ballet, and Ryan, age 9 , an avid bike rider, video game specialist, and budding stand up comic.