Brendan Houlihan
Brendan Francis Houlihan, born in 1963 or 1964, is an American politician who served as the Commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review for the 1st District from December 2006 to December 2010. A Democrat from Palos Heights, Illinois, he holds a Bachelor of Science in finance from Northern Illinois University and studied at the Appraisal Institute of Chicago.
Houlihan began his career in finance, working as a price reporter for the Chicago Options Exchange and as a runner for the Chicago Board of Trade for the Chicago Corporation.
In 2006, as a first-time candidate, he ran for the 1st District seat on the Cook County Board of Review. He had limited support from state and county Democratic leaders but received endorsements from the Chicago Federation of Labor and local party figures. He won the election, defeating incumbent Republican Maureen Murphy in a year favorable to Democrats, aided by late campaign funding. His victory made the Board of Review wholly Democratic for the first time since its current structure was established in 1998.
Early in his term, Houlihan and fellow board member Larry Rogers Jr. moved to fire deputy chief commissioner Thomas Jaconetty. He also criticized the 2008 Cook County 1% sales tax.
In 2010, Houlihan lost reelection to Republican Dan Patlak. He later ran unsuccessfully for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District in 2014, served as a Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and in 2019 ran for Moraine Valley Community College board but finished sixth in a field of eight.
Houlihan lives in Palos Heights, Illinois.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:31 (CET).