A View from Metro East
Sen. Ralph Dunn's departure has the mark of a 'political deal'
DuQUOIN — There's a little office
suite inside the senior citizens'
high-rise down on South Division
Street where the government used to collect rent from the old folks. But since the
housing authority moved its billing
department a while back, that office is
now where one of the old folks collects
rent from the government.
This is how his critics see it, anyway.
A little sign, harvested from a campaign bumper sticker, just says "Dunn."
That's enough, hereabouts, to lead the
occasional visitor to Ralph Dunn, 81, a
Republican who resigned from the state
Senate in September rather than serve out
his term through 1996.
Early resignation is a form of political
loyalty. A resignation means an appointment to fill the vacancy. An appointment
means that somebody who would have
been just a candidate in the next election
becomes an "incumbent," with all the
exposure, party support and access to
money that implies. It also puts a lot of
power into the hands of whoever does the
appointing. This is not a common political trick, but neither is it new.
What sets this instance apart is the
nasty question of whether Dunn sold the
seat to his own party. For Dunn immediately joined the payroll of a Republican
state official, doing nebulous work in that
DuQuoin office at more than twice the
salary of the last guy in the job.
These are tough words about a respected and gentle man known for setting
political affiliations aside in providing
constituent services and a ready voice in
Springfield from the distant fields of corn,
coal and oil in deep southern Illinois. But
it appears to be a tough political deal carried off by one of the state's tough politicians, Senate President James "Pate"
Philip, who wants the GOP to keep an
iron grip on the chamber.
Dunn's 22 years in the General Assembly defied his district's Democratic voting tendencies. Apparently wanting to
minimize the chance of a loss, Philip sent
Chief of Staff Carter Hendren to sit beside
the GOP county chairmen when they
interviewed potential replacements. (It is
the chairmen's prerogative to choose a
temporary replacement.)
Dunn told me he has no doubt that
Dave Luechtefeld, the retired high school
basketball coach from Okawville who got
the appointment, was Philip's choice.
Although Dunn said he had nothing to do
with the selection, he also said that is fine
with him. In fact, he would favor a change
in the law to permit the ranking party
member of either chamber to appoint
temporary replacements without involving the county chairmen.
Dunn weathers this storm, what there
has been of it, with aplomb, quietly pointing out that he is neither a double-dipper
nor a ghost worker. But his $60, 000-a-
year job trying to persuade local governments to join in Republican State
Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka's shared
investment pool does provide a pretty
good deal.
As a senator in leadership, Dunn
earned $48, 771 when he quit. He was eligible to collect 85 percent a year as pension. He could have taken that pension
and still gone to work for Topinka as a
contract employee, but said he had some
qualms about receiving both. Further, by
becoming Topinka's "employee" and
paying into his old pension fund, he will
be able to retire after one year and collect
a pension based on 85 percent of
$60, 000. That's a $10, 000 pension increase for one more year's work.
Dunn, the onetime owner of a trucking
company and Pinckneyville car dealership, is a shrewd businessman who fairly
late in life got stung by some soured real
estate investments in Carbondale. "I
could use the money," he told me, insisting there was never any deal with Philip
or anybody else. He said he resigned of
his own free will because he was tired,
and wanted to stay closer to his ailing
wife, now in a nursing home. "It's legal.
38 / December 1995 / Illinois Issues
It's legitimate. I earn my pay," he said.
But Barbara Brown, a Dunn admirer
despite her plans to run as a Democrat
against Luechtefeld in November, said
she is disillusioned. "There was a tremendous disappointment that, as he left office, it came to this," she said. Brown, who
lives in Chester, teaches political science
at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Another Democratic Senate candidate,
Tony Mayville, a coal miner from DuBois, has complained loudly that Dunn's
resignation was a plain political fix.
Robert Pautler, who drummed up local
investments for Topinka's predecessor,
said the people who did that work for
Democratic Treasurer Patrick Quinn averaged about $28, 000 a year. "The
Republicans want to take care of the old
man," he said. "It stinks." Pautler, retired
from the state, is chairman of the
Randolph County Democratic Party.
But Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for
Philip, said Dunn's decision to retire was strictly his own. While Hendren did sit in
on the interviews, she said, he was not
present when the seven county chairmen
unanimously and independently chose
Luechtefeld.
Speaking for Topinka, James Skilbeck
said Dunn is working hard and "worth
every penny" of his pay, no matter what
the Democrats paid Pautler or what they
think of this arrangement. Skilbeck explained that Dunn and Topinka were buddies from their days together in the legislature, and that Dunn was the perfect
choice because "he knows everybody
down there."
Freshman Sen. Luechtefeld, mean while, supports Dunn's move, but said he
feels splashed with the taint.
The controversy had died down when
my newspaper reported a new twist that
critics say suggests an even higher price
for Dunn's resignation. We found out that
his brother, James Dunn, 74, got a long-
sought, part-time job working in
Republican Secretary of State George
Ryan's drivers license office in Mt.
Vernon exactly one month before Sen.
Dunn announced his resignation.
It was an unrelated coincidence, the
Dunn brothers insisted.
Patrick E. Gauen covers Illinois politics
for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
December 1995 / Illinois Issues/39
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