James "Pate" Philip (born May 26, 1930), is an American politician from Wood Dale, Illinois.
A longtime Republican member of the Illinois General Assembly, Philip served both the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate including a decade as the President of the Illinois Senate.
He was known as a highly influential politician, both for the projects that he passed and blocked in state government and for his often-blunt comments.
Richard S.
Williamson, Ronald Reagan's chief of intergovernmental affairs who served as Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, deemed Pate "one of the most important Republicans in the Midwest".