BLANK SLATE

Blank Slate

Political parties have given up on the farm club. These days every candidate is a free agent

Analysis by James L. Merriner

King Slating is dead. Long live King, uh . . . what, exactly? What has replaced the system of senior party officials anointing junior party members for elective office?

The progressive decay of Machine politics has been analyzed at length since at least 1972, when the Democratic organization's candidate for Cook County state's attorney was defeated.

18 / June 1997 Illinois Issues

Still, one function of the Machine has passed away largely unexamined — its role in mentoring a successor generation of politicians.

In 1994, Illinois Democrats declined to slate anyone for statewide office. The entire ticket lost in November. The two events are not unrelated. Review anyone's list of potential candidates for governor or U.S. senator in 1998. Almost without exception, they are free agents in this era of media and big-bankroll politics, not proteges of senior officeholders. Illinois politicians used to come up through the ranks. Now it is unclear what constitutes "the ranks."

Former Gov. James R. Thompson (1977-91), who had not held a previous elective office, was a media star when first elected because of his prosecutions of Chicago politicians. Nevertheless, he had at least ascended through the traditional patronage offices of state's attorney and U.S. attorney. And, as governor, Thompson raised a bumper crop of younger politicians, including a string of state and federal prosecutors. Among them:
DuPage County Board Chairman Gayle Franzen, former Cook County State's Attorney Jack O'Malley and even the current governor, Jim Edgar.

Former state representative and Thompson aide Edgar was reclining on the living room couch at his home in Charleston watching a public affairs program one Sunday evening in 1980 when Thompson called to tell him he was the new secretary of state.

Should Edgar leave the governor's office for the private sector or a Senate race next year, he would leave no designated successor. The presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee would be Secretary of State George H. Ryan, certainly not a protege of Edgar and apparently not a mentor to ambitious underlings either.

Ryan is a former speaker of the state House. Indeed, the General Assembly once served the same role for Illinois politicians that West Point serves for Army colonels and generals. A glance at the legislative roster of 40 years ago indicates how the system used to work.

There sat, for example:

• Rep. Alan J. Dixon, later a state senator, treasurer, secretary of state and U.S. senator.

• Rep. Paul Simon, later a state senator, lieutenant governor, congressman and U.S. senator.

• Rep. Samuel H. Shapiro, later a lieutenant governor and governor.

• Sen. Dan Rostenkowski, later a powerful U.S. representative for 36 years.

• Sen. Roland V. Libonati, later a congressman.

Dixon held both of the traditional "grooming" offices on the statewide ticket: treasurer and secretary of state. The secretary of state's job, in particular, served as a springboard to higher office. With 3,635 employees and 136 driver's license facilities scattered across Illinois, the secretary of state acquires a ready-made field organization and opportunities for public exposure.

It seems, though, that state lawmakers have lost interest in angling to get the "down-ballot" treasurer and secretary of state slots. In last year's election, Al Salvi, an obscure two-term Republican state representative from Mundelein, decided he was ready for the Big Show; he made a bid for U.S. Senate. This year, Palatine Republican state Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald has announced his intentions to do the same. Neither saw the need to get the nod from Republican Party leaders.

But then Democrats aren't having much luck at controlling their candidate roster either.

"You're right, the farm club is not there," says Illinois Democratic Chairman Gary J. LaPaille. "What has broken down through the years is any one individual who is truly the leader of the Democratic Party in this state.

"When you did have a Richard J. Daley [mayor of Chicago, 1955-76], you had a mayor who would decide, okay, it's your turn. No, it's not your turn yet. Now it's sort of every man for himself."

Daley himself was a paragon of the struggle up the political ladder. He served as a ward secretary, state repre- sentative, state senator, unsuccessful candidate for sheriff, ward committee- man, state revenue director, county clerk, county Democratic chairman and mayor. Others should wait their turns as well, he believed.

If party hierarchy has broken down, so has the notion of political office as an inherited legacy. Illinois political history is speckled with father-son combinations:

• U.S. Sen. Adiai E. Stevenson III (1971-81), a former state treasurer, son of Gov. Adiai E. Stevenson II (1949- 53) — and the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956 — and a grandson of a former vice president. (For that matter, Gov. Stevenson was slated for the 1952 nomination by President Harry Truman despite his reluctance. The junior Stevenson was slated by Daley despite his anti-Machine expressions.)

• Gov. Otto J. Kerner (1961-68), son-in-law of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak (1931 -33) and son of a judge who was a Cermak pal. Daley slated Kerner for governor and promoted him to a federal appeals judgeship.

• Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of the late mayor, who strives to eschew the "boss" label by not — with few exceptions — endorsing other candidates.

• House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, son of Michael Madigan, a Chicago precinct captain and ward superintendent.

• Rostenkowski, son of Joseph P. Rostenkowski, Chicago ward boss and one of the last of the great saloonkeepers/aldermen.

• The late Benjamin Adamowski, the state's attorney who first hired Thompson and who ran for mayor of Chicago under both the Democratic and Republican banners, son of Max Adamowski. another saloonkeeper/alderman.

• Neil F. Hartigan, former Chicago ward boss, lieutenant governor, attorney general and Democratic nominee for governor in 1990, son of ward boss David Hartigan.

• Ald. Edward M. Burke, Chicago political powerhouse, son of Joseph Burke, ward boss and alderman.

Illinois Issues June 1997 / 19

A rationale for strong political parties

by Jack Van Der Slik

What do Americans take for granted that political parties will supply? At the least, they are expected to offer a list of qualified candidates for a variety of offices, most of which do not pay high salaries.

And political scientists? One of the clearest generalizations on which we agree is that Republicans and Democrats have distinctive and contrasting views about the Scope of government and the desirable direction of public policy. Without knowing all the candidates, people who know their party preference can prudently cast their votes in support of their own views.

Indeed, the American parties, as they evolve, remain the best indicator of the health of our civic culture.

So what is the state of the political party today? Political scientists analyze parties in three ways: the party in the electorate, the party as an organization and the party as represented by its officeholders. All indicators point to decline.

Certainly, the party in the electorate has declined. Fewer people identify as a Republican or Democrat than a generation ago. But this represents a trend across the social spectrum. Americans are less anchored in their religious affiliations. They switch jobs more and move more.

The party as organization has declined, too. That's especially true at the local and state level. County and city parities once were the bedrock of partisan politics. Precinct workers knew their neighborhoods; they gave people a connection to their party identification and the party's election slate. Party insiders could fix political problems and get governmental favors. Thus, party loyalty was rewarded with material and social benefits. Those rewards were especially valuable to immigrants and newcomers.

Now, that center does not hold. Objective hiring standards and traffic engineering have usurped much of the influence of the precinct captain. As a result, county organizations go begging for party workers and money.

State organizations are loose networks of the party faithful from congressional districts and are only marginally connected to the county organizations.

As for the third indicator, the political party in office now rests on personalities. When citizens think of Democrats, they think of Bill Clinton or Richard M. Daley or Michael Madigan. When they think of Republicans, they think of Newt Gingrich or Jim Edgar, James "Pate" Philip or Lee Daniels. Ironically, though, a stronger individual within a party tends to weaken that party overall.

In recent decades, efforts at "reform" have served to weaken political parties further. Candidates are no longer "slated." They are nominated in primaries by voters who can take either the Republican or the Democratic ballot. Such voters' partisan credentials are questionable, but are not subject to challenge. And some reformers would even eliminate the identification of primary voters' partisanship, a step that would make party candidate slates even less coherent. The latest move eliminates the option of voting a straight party ticket.

Such reforms give rise to candidates who are not bound to political parties. Of course, individualistic candidates, like particularistic interest groups, should have the right to challenge incumbents and raise new issues. But our democracy is not lacking in outlets for singular voices. What it lacks is broad-gauged coalition building and policy consensus. Healthy parties contribute to that. Strong parties not only compete at election time, they translate election results into governmental policy. And they help keep citizens connected to the partisans in office. Unlike candidates who drop in and out, the parties keep coming back for approval. Such accountability is enhanced by strong parties.

Jack Van Der Slik is director of the Illinois Legislative Studies Center at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

This list could go on. It illustrates the tradition that politics provided a prime avenue for the sons and grandsons of immigrants to climb into the middle class. Now the sons and daughters of the political middle class tend to opt for positions in the law and other professions rather than the public sector. They have journeyed from the combination neighborhood saloon/insurance office/ward headquarters to niches in downtown high- rise office buildings. They became yuppies, not precinct captains.

And many of the sons who entered politics did so at a young age. They seemed less disposed to mentor successors, perhaps because they wanted no competition during their own careers. Rostenkowski was elected to Congress at age 30; Madigan became a state representative at 28; Burke was appointed ward committeeman at 26.

In any case, a nod from party elders is no longer a passport to election. In the old days, Rostenkowski chaired the senior Daley's slating committee. Hopefuls would approach the committee hat in hand to present their credentials. Rostenkowski would ask two questions: If slated, will you support the entire ticket? If the party sees fit to slate you for a lesser office, will you accept? If both answers were yes, the hopeful's name was submitted to Daley, who then devised local and

20 / June 1997 Illinois Issues

state tickets. The rationale for his choices were often inscrutable, even to party insiders. Daley was apt to run patsies against Republicans with whom he enjoyed good working relationships. Or he would unseat a renegade Democrat in the primary, even if he knew his own candidate was likely to lose the general election.

In 1976, Daley chose Secretary of State Michael J. Howlett in order to deny renomination to independent Democratic Gov. Dan Walker. Daley assigned Rostenkowski to recruit the reluctant Hewlett into the candidacy. Hewlett turned him down. When Rostenkowski reported the refusal back to Daley, the mayor insisted, "He owes it to the party." And so it came to pass. Hewlett was slated and nominated, only to lose to Thompson in the general election.

Regardless of who led the ticket, Daley always took care to balance ethnic and regional considerations in the party lineup. In 1994, the state Democratic Central Committee did not slate because the racial, gender and ethnic considerations were just too problematic.

Besides, the committee could not have made slating stick. In 1986, Hartigan dutifully put on hold his desire to run for governor because the party slated Stevenson. In 1990, other hopefuls made way for Hartigan; it was his turn. But none of the three major candidates in 1994 would agree to drop out if another were slated. For his part, the younger Mayor Daley did not choose among Chicago gubernatorial candidates Roland Bums, the African-American attorney general; Dawn dark Netsch, a state senator; or Richard J. Phelan, president of the Cook County Board.

Phelan and his fellow wealthy Chicago lawyer Al Hofeld exemplify the phenomenon of free-lancers turning personal wealth into prominent media candidacies. But Phelan lost the 1994 primary, and Hofeld lost bids for U.S. senator in 1992 and attorney general in 1994

Chicago raised up Democrats

Historically, it was the Chicago mayor who raised up Democrats, while governors gave out blessings to the GOP rank-and-file from Springfield. That is not the case today.

If personal wealth did not turn the trick, neither did slating — in either party. Dixon was ousted in 1992 by an independent Democrat, now-LJ.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun. Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra, backed by the Republican leadership, lost the 1996 Senate primary to conservative Al Salvi, who had his own sources of campaign funds.

Of course, examples can still be offered to prove the value of personal and political connections. U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood succeeded his longtime mentor. House Republican Leader Bob Michel, in 1994. As a rule, though, the wasting away of party discipline and hierarchy has produced a political free-for-all. Leaders of both parties now are straining to find the combination of slating party regulars and accepting free agents that will deliver a winning ticket.

Chastened by their 1994 debacle, Illinois Democrats endorsed U.S. Rep. Dick Durbin for the U.S. Senate in September 1995 — months earlier than usual. Durbin went on to defeat Salvi in November. This year, Daley and other party leaders moved quickly to thwart primary challenges to Moseley-Braun. LaPaille says, "The experience that we had in '96 will probably be pushing us to endorse in '98 for the state ticket. If I had to guess, the party, probably 95 percent, would say, 'Yes, it worked in '96 with Durbin. Let's do it again.' But that is a long time off."

If Democrats lack "any one individual" in the person of the mayor of Chicago dictating to the party, as LaPaille says, Republicans likewise no longer have a patriarch in the governor's mansion. Historically, mayors raised up Democrats, while governors gave out blessings to the GOP rank- and-file from Springfield. Thompson bequeathed the party a cohort of politicians, but Edgar, for whatever reasons, has not done so. First elected to the legislature at age 30, perhaps he, like Madigan and Burke, did not want to help potential competitors.

Still, Illinois Republican Chairman Harold B. Smith sees the decline and fall of slating as a nonproblem. "We do [candidate recruitment] on a targeted basis," he says. "We look at places, state and local, where we see opportunity .unfolding."

Slating might now be unnecessary, he suggests, because "the way you become qualified to run for office is to run for office. The best training ground is in a campaign as a worker or manager." He says "no decision has been made" about whether Illinois Republicans will slate in 1998.

Dixon, now home in Belleville and "extremely busy" in his private law practice, was asked to reflect on the slating system that brought him up through the ranks. Not all that much has changed, he suggests, considering the endurance of one immutable political constant.

"Ambitious people will rise to the top at all times, in all eras, under all circumstances."

James L. Merriner, a frequent contributor to Illinois Issues, was the political editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Atlanta Constitution. He is completing a biography of Dan Rostenkowski.

Illinois Issues June 1997 / 21

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