By CHARLES WHEELER III

A FEW years back, there was a popular television game show called "To Tell the Truth" on which a celebrity panel would try to pick out folks with some small claim to fame from a passel of imposters. In the coming months, Illinois voters might suspect they're seeing a variation of the long-departed TV favorite as they watch Gov. James R. Thompson try for an unprecedented fourth term.

Unlike the television original, the 1986 version, a co-production of Thompson and his Democratic challenger, Adlai E. Stevenson III, won't ask game show buffs to choose which of three pretenders is the one who's earned an asterisk in the record book of life. Instead, voters will have to decide which of the contrasting images depicted by the rival candidates describes the real Jim Thompson. Looking at the seeming paradoxes in the governor's nine-year tenure suggests that it could be a challenging contest.

Consider, for example, his performance on two of the year's must publicized issues, the Gary Dotson case and the salmonella epidemic.

When the Prisoner Review Board heard Dotson's plea for clemency after his one-time accuser, Cathleen Crowell Webb, denied the rape for which he was imprisoned ever happened, Thompson personally attended the hearings and grilled the witnesses. Displaying the prosecutorial skills that first projected him into the public spotlight, Thompson projected an image of a forceful executive, well-versed in both the law and the facts of the case to perhaps hundred of thousands of television viewers.

Although pollsters later detected some public distaste for the governor's thoroughness in questioning Webb about the clinical details of the case, his decision to commute Dotson's sentence to time served was seen as politically popular.

A different image of the governor emerged from a Democratic-led legislative inquiry into how well administration health officials reacted to the worst salmonella epidemic in the nation's history, which eventually afflicted some 17,000 people.

During the hearings, health officials admitted the dairy ultimately fingered as the source of the contaminated milk was allowed to remain in operation for more than a week after first coming under suspicion. The probe spotlighted the fact that during the height of the epidemic, Thompson's public health chief jetted off to a Mexican vacation, and that more than a week went by before the governor learned that his chief was not ramrodding the investigation of the outbreak. The image of Thompson painted by the salmonella episode was that of an executive out of touch, perhaps even uncaring.

Would the real Jim Thompson please stand up?

In like fashion, the gubernatorial combatants have begun to sketch contrasting views of the incumbent's record on such key issues as schools, jobs and taxes. Here's an early sampling:

• When he signed the sweeping educational reforms that were the crowning achievement of last spring's legislative session, Thompson declared Illinois had "moved to the head of the class" in upgrading public schools. An accompanying $3.1 billion education budget embodied the largest school aid increase in state history, including almost $100 million to help underwrite the cost of reform. On the other hand, the governor's critics note, the state's share of the total bill for all public elementary and secondary education has declined during Thompson's stewardship. "Why have we written one of the worst records of state support for schools over the past nine years?'' asked Stevenson when he formally declared his candidacy.

• Thompson soon will be off to the Orient in hopes of convincing Korean and Japanese businessmen to invest in Illinois, the sort of effort that a year ago prompted a business group to name him the state's No. 1 salesman.

There have been rewards more tangible than such mythical honors, most notably the decision by Chrysler Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors to locate a new $500 million automobile assembly plant near Normal, adding to the state economy some 2,500 technical and assembly-line jobs, many paying $8 an hour or more.

Still, Illinois remains dogged by nagging high unemployment, and Stevenson has said he's willing to give Thompson credit for the 2,500 Chrysler-Mitsubishi jobs if the governor also will accept the blame for the 289,000 manufacturing jobs the state lost during the last five years.

• When Atty. Gen. Neil F. Hartigan urged a $25-per-person tax break by doubling the state individual income tax exemption to $2,000, Thompson coupled his contention that it could not be afforded with the observation that his administration already had provided more tax relief than any other in the Illinois history. Underscoring the point, the governor signed legislation that promises to curb drastically the run-away growth of the state utilities tax by pegging the taxman's bite to the quantity of energy used, rather than its price. Of course, as Democrats like to point out, Thompson also authored the largest tax increase in state history following his reelection four years ago. Since then, he's pushed to passage new taxes on soft drinks and interstate telephone calls and higher levies on cigarettes and private used car sales.

Perhaps such contrasts are inevitable after a decade in office; indeed, an argument could be made that the most potent threat to Thompson's chances may be posed by his longevity. But it's just such conflicting images the voters will ponder during Campaign '86, when they're asked to decide which is the real Jim Thompson.

2/January 1986/lIlinois Issues

Thank you, Readers, for celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Illinois Issues with us.

If you couldn't make it to the official party in Chicago, we'd like to share these snapshots with you.

Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Public Library's Cultural Center was the setting for Illinois Issues' 10th
Anniversary Celebration in September. In the photo above are, from left, Stanley O. Ikenberry, president of
the University of Illinois; Jayne Thompson, wife of the governor; Gov. James R. Thompson (one of the 10
Top lllinoisans presented his Readers' Choice Award that evening); Durward Long, president of Sangamon
State University; Nina T. Shepherd, president of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees; and Nina
Long, wife of President Long.

4/January 1986/IIIinois Issues

January 1986/Illinois Sssues/5