Walker, Ogilvie, and Kerner used different techniques in dealing with legislature

Kerner faced toughest foe, Sen. Arrington. Ogilvie's first year a triumph — until the honeymoon turned sour. Walker abandons aioof stance and courts lawmakers' support

THE GOVERNORSHIP of Daniel Walker has faced many obstacles, but few as difficult as the General Assembly. Walker's stock with legislators was near rock-bottom when he took office two years ago, but a zealous courtship by the Governor yet may win him a degree of legislative loyalty seldom seen at the pinnacle of Illinois government.

The General Assembly has a crucial impact, sooner or later, on any administration. Yet thus far Walker has done surprisingly well in obtaining national attention despite poor relations with the legislature. This has served, understandably, to whet optimistic speculation by the Walker team over what might be accomplished if it had more friends in the two houses. Therefore, aloofness and other traditional gubernatorial attitudes toward the legislative branch have been tossed out the window by Walker in his effort to overcome the open hostility with which many lawmakers in both parties regarded his anti-establishment campaign for Governor.

Little risk for Walker
Walker's effort over many months reached a peak in the weeks before the November election when he personally appealed through costly television commercials for the election of certain Democratic candidates to the General Assembly. The action, required little risk on Walker's part. Like everyone else he knew that the State electorate was expected to turn over control of both houses to Democrats, a luxury that no Democratic chief executive had enjoyed since the party won both chambers when Democrat Henry Horner was Governor in the late 1930's.

Walker's predecessor. Republican Richard B. Ogilvie, entered office with the G.O.P. in command in each house. This was a key factor in Ogilvie's spectacular success in obtaining almost everything he wanted from the legislature during the first months of his term in 1969. The General Assembly was not again to give Ogilvie near as much. His honeymoon with the two chambers had turned sour by his second year in office. Nevertheless, historians surely will note that for a time an Illinois Governor showed that he could work with the legislative branch to propel government in radical new directions.

Look back at Democratic predecessors
To better comprehend the legislative dealings of Ogilvie and Walker, one ought to look back to the days of Ogilvie's Democratic predecessors. Otto Kerner, unlike Walker, was not a target of open disrespect for legislators in his own party. However, Kerner, the. Democrat who occupied the Governor's chair for more than seven years in the 1960's, endured frustrating encounters with legislators that still defy easy analysis. Although he won legislative approval for a number of his programs, including an upgrading of the State's mental health system, Kerner — whose political demeanor was always cool and detached — seldom battled publicly for his proposals.

Like many Governors, Kerner admittedly had little knowledge of legislative workings when he took office in 1961. His aides insisted, though, that he became much more adept at maneuvering with lawmakers in his record second term than first. Still, his troubles with Republican legislative leaders, his most consistent critics, never ceased. He rarely answered in public their charges, which time and again sought to portray him as a Governor lacking in the fundamental knowledge of revenue and other sub-

Illinois Issues/February 1975/51