Sen. Adlai
Stevenson III
Staking out his role in Illinois and Washington
By MILTON RAKOVE Author of the book Don't Make No Waves...Don't Back No Losers, Rakove is professor of political science at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Campus.
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Sen. Adlai
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WHEN ADLAI Stevenson III ran as a Democratic candidate for the Illinois House of Representatives in 1964 in the at-large election, everyone knew why he was on the ticket. He was heir to a distinguished name in Illinois politics — son of a former governor and two-time presidential candidate who was still the idol of the liberal, intellectual Illinois Democratic constituency; grandson of a former Illinois secretary of state, and great-grandson of a former Illinois congressman and Vice President of the United States. What the Adams family had been to the Republic in its early days, the Stevensons have been to Illinois for nearly a century.
Stevenson did not come to politics only by familial backgroung, however, but rather through a concatenation of heredity, ambition and political circumstance. "I can never remember being interested in any other line of work," he told me in an interview. "I studied government and political theory in college, went into the Marine Corps during the Korean War, and then went to law school. But every action in my life was aimed at a political career."
He was also the beneficiary of political circumstance in 1964. Because the General Assembly and a special commission could not reach agreement on reapportionment, all House candidates, by constitutional mandate, were listed on one ballot for election statewide or at-large instead of by district. Both parties looked for strong candidates to head their lists. The Republicans had slated President Dwight Eisenhower's brother, Earl Eisenhower, to head their ticket of 1.18 at-large candidates for the House. Mayor Richard J. Daley, ever mindful of a good name on the ticket, asked Stevenson to run. Daley, taking no chances, asked Adiai 111 directly. Two years earlier, unbeknownst to young Stevenson, Daley had called the elder Stevenson to ask him, if he had any objection to Adlai III running for Congress in Congressman Sidney Yates' district in 1962 when Yates ran for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Everett Dirksen. The elder Stevenson had rejected the opportunity for his son, thus depriving Adiai 111 of a sure seat in Congress.
Legislator, treasurer
In the 1964 election, Stevenson led the
ticket, coming in first of all 236 legislative candidates, thus establishing himself as a political asset and a formidable
vote getter. But he was not a particularly
effective campaigner. "I always approached campaigns with some diffidence," he said. "I wasn't very good on
my feet. I really felt uncomfortable in
that job of campaigning. It didn't come
naturally. The personal contacts with
people were enjoyable and fairly easy,
but public speaking did not come
naturally to me."
Stevenson's two-year stint in Springfield was an educational experience,
although he was not a particularly
effective legislator. "It was a great
experience for me," he said. "'I loved it. I
November 1977 / Illinois Issues / 21
learned more about politics and government in those two years than in any other two years. It was a humbling experience, and I acquired a great deal of respect out of it for people in politics."
In 1966, Daley slated Stevenson for state treasurer and he won again, the only Democrat to win that year in an off-year state election. In 1968, Stevenson had his first falling out with his political godfather, Daley. The mayor asked him to run for the U.S. Senate against the formidable Dirksen. Stevenson told Daley that he wanted to run for governor of Illinois, and that he could not support President Lyndon John- son's Vietnam policy under any circumstances. "The roof fell in," Stevenson said. "The mayor was really quite upset. I was dumped from the slate."
But Stevenson's independence and vote appeal and Daley's practicality and need were conjoined two years later when Dirksen died suddenly and a special election for his seat was called. Daleydrafted Stevenson. Stevenson defeated Ralph Smith for the seat in 1970 by a plurality of 545,336 and defeated George Burditt in 1974 by a plurality of 726,612.
U.S. senator
He came to the U.S. Senate as a
relatively unknown quantity, son of a
famous father, with a somewhat obscure
background in his six years in Illinois
state government. He did his homework,
worked hard and was, in general,
regarded as a competent but rather
undistinguished member of the world's
most exclusive club. In 1972, he challenged Daley for the chairmanship of
the Illinois delegation to the Democratic
national convention, but was outgeneraled easily by the Chicago machine
boss, even though Daley was later
thrown out of the convention. And in
1976, Daley's attempt to use him as a
front man, that is, as Illinois' favorite
son and stalking-horse for the presidential nomination, fizzled out when
Jimmy Carter locked up the nomination
before the convention. Daley's push to
get Stevenson on the ticket as the vice
presidential candidate also collapsed.
But, despite what appears to be a
relatively undistinguished and unpromising record and future, Stevenson has
clearly begun to stake out an important
role for himself, both at home in Illinois
and in Washington. He has steadily
moved away from his original familial
power base and is gearing his political
career to his own ambitions and abilities
and the realities of contemporary and
future political circumstance.
In Washington, Stevenson has begun
to develop a significant role in the
Senate. He was an early backer of Sen.
Robert C. Byrd (D., W. Va.) in his
successful fight to become majority
leader. He was in the forefront in
recognizing the energy crisis and played
a major role in developing a policy for
dealing with it. He sponsored a study of
the Senate's archaic committee structure and was the major force in developing and pushing through a reorganization of the committee system which is
the most far-reaching reform in many
years. He is chairman of three major
subcommittees and was entrusted by
Byrd with the chairmanship of the new
Senate Ethics Committee, a political hot
potato which will not make him too
popular with many of his colleagues.
And Byrd has also put him on the
important Senate Policy Committee.
Experienced politician
In the Senate, he has no illusions
about the nature of the game and the
ability of the players. "They are a
remarkable group of men," he told me in
the interview. "Tough, shrewd, principled and, with some exceptions, with a
very high order of intelligence. You
never know how skillful they are as
debaters and politicians until you've
crossed them on the Senate floor. And
you have to be careful. Before you know
it, your head is just gone, and you
haven't even felt it." But he is not easily
out maneuvered on his own grounds.
When his reorganization plan was under
heavy criticism from some powerful
committee chairmen, Byrd arranged a
meeting with them, and Stevenson held
his ground fairly well in a three-and-
one-half-hour session.
Illinois Democrat
as long as he supports legislation
which benefits Chicago and does not
interfere in local political situations.
Since those are usually irrelevant to a
senator's problems in Washington, the
arrangement can be easily worked out.
Daley's death and the coming of a
Democratic administration to Washington have created a new situation for
Stevenson and the men who have
inherited the Chicago machine and the
city government. Patronage is the
lifeblood of the Cook County Democratic organization, and there are some
high-level federal appointments which
are subject to senatorial courtesy. From
22 / November 1977 / Illinois Issues
What kind of a senator has Stevenson
been?
Stevenson has steadily
moved away from his
original familial power base
and is gearing his political
career to his own ambitions
and abilities and the realities
of contemporary and future
political circumstance
His new relationship with Byrd and
the Senate leadership is clearly not so
much a turn to the right ideologically, as
it is a maturation of an attitude toward
government which is geared more to
practicality and effectiveness than to
political philosophy. He opposes the
Humphrey-Hawkins full employment
bill and is lukewarm on President
Carter's welfare reform, not so much on
philosophical grounds, but rather as a
hardheaded political analyst who believes that neither program goes to the core of the long-term problems. Stevenson may have studied political theory at
Harvard, but he is now an experienced
politician with over a dozen years of
training in the crucible of Illinois and
national politics.
At home in Illinois politics, his longtime recognition of his value as a vote
getter has led him to continue to
maintain considerable independence of
the leadership of the Chicago Democratic machine. While Daley was alive,
both the mayor and Stevenson recognized the mutuality of interests and the
requirements of the relationship. Daley
needed Stevenson at the top of the ticket
to help carry the all-important local
candidates, and Stevenson needed
Daley's blessing for the high office he
sought. And, under the rules of Democratic machine politics in Illinois, a
liberal or independent senator or congressman can go his own way in Washington
1961-1966, when Paul Douglas was in the Senate and John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were in the White House, Daley made sure he was consulted on all major federal appointments. Until this year there was no conflict between Stevenson and the Chicago machine over such matters, since Republican Sen. Charles Percy exercised appointment prerogatives while Nixon and Ford were in the White House.
His leadership
With Daley's death, and with a
Democratic administration in Washington, Stevenson has served notice to the
party leadership that he means to
exercise his prerogatives. His appointment of Thomas Sullivan to be U.S.
attorney for the Northern District of
Illinois was made without prior approval from the Bismarck Hotel party
headquarters. And Stevenson's-recommendation of Nicholas Bua and Stanley
Roszkowski for the federal bench was
his, not the party's decision.
The appointment of Sullivan, Bua
and Roszkowski, all able men, was an
indication of Stevenson's development
as a politician. Bua, an Italian, and
Roszkowski, a Pole, are members of
two major Chicago area ethnic groups
which have grown increasingly restive
and even hostile to the lack of sensitivity
to their interests on the part of the Irish
dominated Chicago machine. Stevenson got the best of both the political and
governmental worlds with the appointmerits. He served notice that he was
going to exercise his prerogatives, he put
three good men in government and he
played good ethnic politics in anticipation of an 1980 campaign for reelection,
which may present him — for the first
time — with a tough fight. Donald
Rumsfeld is back in Illinois, serving at
present as board chairman of G. D.
Searle and Company. But Rumsfeld, a
lifelong politician, may seek the Republican nomination for Stevenson's seat in
1980 as the next step toward a run for
the presidency himself one day. Rumsfeld would be a formidable opponent,
well-financed, well-organized and highly experienced in both politics and government.
Stevenson's development as a senator and politician is also helping him to free
himself of something which was one of
his greatest assets and yet one of his worst handicaps — his relationship to
his family name and tradition. It is
doubtful if Stevenson could ever have
got off the ground on a political career
without being his father's namesake; his
initial appeal to the electorate was
clearly linked to that relationship. But
he also suffered from the inevitable
comparison. "Since no public figure of
our time measured up to his standards,
especially his eloquence and humor," he
told me, "I never have come off too well
by that kind of comparison." But
Stevenson has come to terms with that, too. "It took awhile to learn to live with
that and be philosophical about it," he
said, "to be my own self and try to
establish my identity in other ways."
It may well be that Adiai Stevenson
III, senator and politician in his own
right and heir to the Stevenson name in
Illinois, may turn out to be, not the
Charles Francis Adams or the Henry
Adams, but rather the John Quincy
Adams of the Stevenson line. And even
if he does not become president or vice
president of these United States, he may
well become a great senator.ž
The 1976-77 edition of the Illinois Issues Annual is now available.
It offers the best articles reprinted from Illinois Issues magazine
during the last year of the Walker administration and the first
months of the Thompson administration. The articles provide
detailed accounts and analyses of the major issues faced by our
state and local governments, ranging from legislators on trial for
bribery to questions on energy and welfare programs. Although
primarily designed for classroom use, the Annual is of great value
to anyone who wants cogent commentary and information on the
problems and processes of state and local government in Illinois.
Here is a sampling of the contents:
"Survival for city managers" by John Rehfuss, political scientist and former city manager.
"How to lobby" by Richard Lockhart, a professional lobbyist.
"Computers and privacy" by Philip Koltun, mathematics professor and lecturer.
"Student trustees: Should they have full voting rights on university boards?" a debate between Lilburn H. Norton, Jr.,
Kankakee Community College president, and Mary McDonough
Brady, former executive director of the Association of Illinois student governments.
SPECIAL FEATURE. The Editors of Illinois Issues magazine
have written a special introductory chapter, "The ABC's of Illinois
Government," which provides a concise outline of the powers of
the governor and other executive officers, the process for passing
a bill in the General Assembly and a description of our three-tiered judiciary.
The price of the 120-page Annual is $3.25 a copy. Orders should be sent to Illinois Issues, 226 Capital Campus, Sangamon State
University, Springfield, IL 62708. The Annual will also be available
through most college bookstores, which can obtain them at the
standard textbook discount.
November 1977 / Illinois Issues / 23
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