In the midst of a political Charybdis, Martin Kovarik resigned as deputy to State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka to become chairman of her campaign organization. In early December, Topinka hocked her house to guarantee a loan for Kovarik to pay off the IRS for nearly $54,000 in back taxes, a problem Kovarik says stems from a divorce settlement. Kovarik was unable to get an earlier bank loan to pay the taxes.

Topinka appointed Jim Stapleton, a 26-year veteran of the treasurer's office, to Kovarik's post. Patricia Curtis kept her job as inspector general of the state's mental health department. Gov. Jim Edgar signed legislation that expands the inspector's duties and prevented the office from expiring. She will have power to respond to complaints of abuse at more than 400 private facilities for the mentally ill and disabled. Curtis will report to the department director rather than to the governor. The office is set to expire January 1, 2000.

The State Universities Retirement System of Illinois board has named James M. Hacking executive director. He replaces interim director Robert Mandeville, who served in the position following the resignation last April of Dennis Spice. Spice resigned under fire from legislators following a state audit that questioned spending allowances, bonuses and such perks as country club memberships. Another audit, released in late December by Auditor General William G. Holland, found that SURS reimbursed Spice and three other employees for more than $10,000 in political contributions. Another $1,280 in contributions was charged to a SURS credit card.

Hacking was executive director of the Minneapolis Employees Retirement Fund.

Gov. Jim Edgar has announced the 1996 Laureates of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the state's highest award. The recipients are Willard Boyd, president of the Field Museum of Natural History; Stanley Ikenberry, former president of the University of Illinois; Jeane Kirkpatrick, former ambassador to the United Nations; Sid Luckman, former quarterback for the Chicago Bears; and Alan Schriesheim, director of the Argonne National Laboratory.

The academy was established 31 years ago to recognize people who have brought honor to the state by their individual achievements. Edgar, as president of the academy, will present the honorees with Order of Lincoln medallions at a ceremony April 20 at Northwestern University in Evanston. Recipients are required to attend the ceremony. Kirkpatrick was named last year but was unable to attend due to her husband's sudden illness. She was invited to attend again this year, a notable first in the academy's history.

A Christian County elementary school teacher has been chosen by the National Science Foundation on behalf of the White House as one of 216 teachers nationwide to receive the 1995 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. Nancy Ann Bertauski, a math teacher at West Elementary School in Taylorville, will receive the nation's highest honor for kindergarten through 12th grade math and science teachers at ceremonies in Washington, D.C., in May.

Howard Goldberg (above), physics professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was named the U.S. Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Washington, D.C.

Goldberg is the first Illinois professor to win the award in the category of research and doctoral institutions. He won a $5,000 cash prize from the foundation.

32 * January 1996 Illinois Issues

The Nature Conservancy of Illinois has presented its highest award, the Cyrus Mark Conservation Award, to Richard Miller, district conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service in Anna.

Miller has worked in Union County in southern Illinois, a hilly and highly erodible area of the Cache River watershed, where sedimentation from soil erosion is one of the top threats to the wetlands. Effectively using government farm conservation programs, Miller has worked with local farmers to reduce erosion by more than half since 1986. Miller has also been instrumental in the development of the Cache River Watershed Resource Plan, a landowner-generated initiative that addresses some of the resource problems in the Cache River basin.

Harriet Wilson Ellis received the Public Service Award presented by the Legal Aid Bureau of [Chicago] Metropolitan Family Services. She is the first non-lawyer to receive the award. Ellis, director of development and acquisitions for the new National Equal Justice Library, was honored for her efforts over 25 years to improve the public's understanding of legal representation of the poor as a means to advance justice. She began work in 1970 with the American Bar Association as the public information liaison for the association's legal services division.

As the 1996 election cycle begins, 1,147 optimistic citizens have filed for a place on the ballot of the March 19th primary.

In the congressional races the Republicans think they can gain the Senate seat held for 12 years by Paul Simon, and both parties are targeting House districts that may give one party or the other a majority in the delegation. Illinois' 20 congressional districts are now split evenly between the two parties.

The Democrats think they can unseat one-term Republican Rep. Michael Flanagan in the 5th District, a seat Dan Rostenkowski owned for decades and lost in the last election following allegations of misconduct connected to the House post office scandal.

In the 18th District that has voted Republican for the last half-century, Democrat Michael Curran, who gave up his state legislative seat for the 100th District to make a losing bid for mayor of Springfield, will try to unseat first-term Rep. Ray LaHood.

The most candidates have filed for the open seat in the 20th District, which is being vacated by Rep. Richard Durbin after 13 years so that he can run for Simon's Senate seat. Three Democrats and seven Republicans will be on the ballot in that race.

A slight twist to the race in the 7th District is Simon's endorsement of Cook County Commissioner Danny Davis. Simon has had a long-standing policy of withholding primary endorsements, though early on he endorsed Richard Durbin. The 7th District, which covers the near South and West sides of Chicago and the near west suburbs, has been represented by Cardiss Collins since 1973. She is retiring. Other candidates for the seat are Chicago aldermen Percy Giles, Ed Smith and Dorothy Tillman, and Cook County Commissioner Bobbie Steele.

The only other race that may offer some surprises is the 2nd, which Jesse Jackson Jr. just won in a special election following the resignation of former Rep. Mel Reynolds. No one expects a Republican takeover, but the rookie congressman may find next year's race, in the words of Yogi Berra, "deja vu all over again" in the Democratic primary if Senate Minority Leader Emil Jones Jr. challenges him in a rematch.

In the Senate race, Ron Gibbs of Chicago filed for the Democratic primary. Six Democrats and five Republicans are on the ballot.

Illinois Human Rights Commission

•The Rev. Clyde Brooks of Mt. Prospect, chairman and CEO of Mere Corp. Reappointed:
•Manuel Barbosa of Elgin.
•Mary J. Hallstrom of Evanston.
•Jane H. Rader of Cobden.
•Isiah Thomas of Calumet Park.
•Vivian D. Stewart Tyler of Chicago.
Members are paid $31,616 a year. Barbosa, an attorney with Barbosa and Gil Law Firm, was reappointed chairman. He will receive a salary of $35,129 a year.

State Mining Board

•C. Michael Whitten of Hillsboro, longwall operator at Monterey Coal Co.
Reappointed:
•Thomas J. Austin of Herrin.
•Richard W. Mottershaw of Carlinville.
•Robert Weatherford of Pinckneyville.
•Perry E. Whitley Jr. of Crossville.
•J. Scott Williams of West Frankfort.
All members of the board are paid $10,537 annually.

Illinois Gaming Board

•Byron G. Cudmore of Springfield, partner at Hinshaw and Culbertson Law Firm. The post pays expenses plus $300 per diem.

Lottery Control Board

•Paul M. Tomazzoli of Hillsboro, stationary engineer with the secretary of state's office.
•Mary Ann Koppel of Skokie.
•David A. Zaransky of Northbrook.
Members are paid expenses plus $100 per diem.

Capital Development Board

•Raymond Mota of Lake Forest, president of Mota Construction Company Inc.

Illinois Issues January 1996 * 33

PEOPLE

John Glynn of Carrollton has announced his candidacy for the 20th Congressional District. Glynn, who owns a real estate appraising business, ran for the General Assembly in 1988, but was defeated by incumbent Rep. Tom Ryder of Jerseyville. Glynn has vowed to serve only 10 years if elected to Congress. "Look at what has happened when a congressional seat opened up. Voters have more choices than they've had in years," says Glynn.

Sam Cahnman, a Springfield attorney, also filed for the 20th District in the Democratic primary. Cahnman and Glynn will face state Rep. Jay Hoffman in the March election.

The Illinois Violence Prevention Authority was created by legislation passed last spring in order to coordinate violence prevention efforts statewide. A new license plate, featuring a white dove of peace, will fund the new authority, along with money from private, state or federal sources for violence prevention. For each $88 license sold, $25 will go to the authority.

Four members are appointed by the director of the state Department of Public Health and four by the attorney general. The other eight members are directors or designees of state agencies, including Aging, Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Children and Family Services, Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, Public Aid, the State Board of Education, the State Police and the Criminal Justice Information Authority. The four members appointed by Dr. John R. Lumpkin, state public health director, are:

•Leonard E. Hawthorne of Alton, principal of Lewis and dark School in Godfrey.
•Raymond F. McCaskey of Palatine, president and chief executive officer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois.
•Sandra F. Olson, M.D., a Chicago neurologist and president-elect of the Illinois State Medical Society.
•Barbara Shaw of Chicago, executive director, Illinois Council for the Prevention of Violence.

The four members appointed by Attorney General Jim Ryan are:
•George Graves, chief, Downers Grove Police Department.
•Polly Poskin, executive director, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Abuse.
•Charles Reynard, McLean County state's attorney.
•Vickie Smith, executive director, Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Lynn M. Egan was appointed by the Supreme Court to fill the Cook County Circuit Court vacancy created by Chief Judge Harry G. Comerford's retirement. She was sworn in by her father, 1st District Appellate Court Justice Edward J. Egan.

Martha A. Mills was appointed to the Cook County Circuit Court vacancy created by Judge Robert D. Ericsson's retirement. Mills is a partner in the law firm of Smith, Williams and Lodge.

Former Chicago Aid Anthony C. Laurino, the father of state Rep. William J. Laurino, was charged with placing at least 35 people, many of them relatives and friends, in ghost jobs that over two decades cost taxpayers $1.5 million for wages and benefits to employees who did little or no work.

John R. Davis, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, assumes the duties of regional political director for the association as of January 1. For all states east of the Mississippi, he will oversee the federation's support for candidates of both parties who are small business owners or are sympathetic to small business interests. Davis will move to Washington, D.C., in January. Dave Voepel will assume Davis' duties for the federation in Springfield.

Three new members have joined the Illinois Issues board. They are Darcy Davidsmeyer, manager of state government relations at Motorola; Veronica Lynch, vice president of government affairs at Waste Management of Illinois; and Dawn Clark Netsch, professor of law emeritus at Northwestern University in Evanston and former state comptroller.

34 * January 1996 Illinois Issues