Roger Simon, celebrated political columnist in Chicago and nationally, dies at 78

Roger Simon, a celebrated political columnist who worked for the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune, Politico, and other news organizations, died last week.

Simon died Thursday, Sept. 10, of pneumonia, in Washington, D.C., according to a published obituary. He was 78.

Simon was born March 29, 1948, and grew up in Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and worked with the Daily Illini, and went on after graduation to work a stint at the legendary Chicago wire service and journalistic training ground the City News Bureau, published obituaries noted.

At the Chicago Sun-Times, Simon started out as an investigative reported, but was writing a column beginning in 1975 at the age of 27, according to the Sun-Times.

The Sun-Times reported that Simon covered "thorny issues" such as domestic abuse and racism. He was assigned to cover the 1976 presidential campaign for the Sun-Times, and covered every presidential campaign for the next four decades, the newspaper reported.

Simon left the Sun-Times in 1984, and moved to the Washington, D.C., area, the newspaper noted. He served as a staff columnist for The Baltimore Sun from 1984 until 1995.

He wrote about Apartheid South Africa, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the trial of John Wayne Gacy, and the criminal trial of O.J. Simpson, among other topics.

Simon became a White House correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in 1998, and wrote about the scandal involving President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, according to Illini Media. The following year, he joined U.S. News & World Report as chief political correspondent and later political editor.

Simon went on to join Bloomberg News before signing on as the founding chief political columnist for Politico.

In 2009, Simon contracted septicemia, or blood poisoning, and was placed for weeks in an induced coma. He had to have both legs amputated below the knee.

Simon retired from Politico in February 2017, shortly after President Trump took office for his first term.

"I have also been flooded — really, you can read them — with messages on Facebook and Twitter asking me not to retire. Not now. Not, I'm told, when America 'needs you,'" Simon wrote in his last column. "I know, I know: It is preposterous. It is laughable. But not to some. For some, I have been the friend they have never met for more than 40 years."

Simon was also the author of several books. "Show Time: The American Political Circus and the Race for the White House," his account of the 1996 presidential race, became a New York Times bestseller.  

Simon is survived by his wife, longtime Washington Post copy desk chief and former fellow Sun-Times alum Marcia Kramer.

Journalist Simon is not to be confused with another famous Chicagoan named Roger Simon who was the husband of political activist and Lori Lightfoot mayoral campaign finance chair Michael Bauer. He is also not to be confused with novelist, screenwriter, and former PJ Media chief executive officer Roger L. Simon.

Simon's widow, Kramer, is not to be confused with the chief political correspondent for WCBS-TV, Channel 2 in New York City.