DONA P. GERSON & MAXINE LANGE
Dona Gerson is a member of the Evanston Zoning Board of Appeals, and Maxine Lange is an Evanston alderman.

Congressional winners

Upstate: Mikva wins by a nose in 10th District

ADVANTAGES of incumbency are well known — name recognition, access to the media, franking privileges, accomplishments — and nationally 95 per cent of the incumbents who sought reelection made it. In the Chicago metropolitan area every incumbent won reelection, but that hardly begins to tell the story for the 10th District Democratic Congressman Abner J. Mikva.

The strong Republican top of the ticket, the middle-class tax revolt and the national shift to the right were ominous signs for Mikva in the affluent, well-educated, ticket-splitting district in suburban Chicago. But Mikva defeated Republican John E. Porter by 1,190 out of 178,000 votes, and that's nothing to be sneezed at in the 10th. In 1976, Gerald R. Ford carried the district by 49,000 votes.

Mikva made an unsuccessful congressional bid in 1972, won in 1974 and was reelected by a minimal but memorable 201 votes in 1976. While straight Republican ballots outnumber straight Democratic ballots 2-to-l, the majority of voters in the 10th takes issues and politics seriously, remember to vote, and pick and choose their candidates.

Targeted as a "winnable" district by the Republicans, a six-man primary fight led to the candidacy of three-term state representative Porter, who,coincidentally, lives one block from Mikva. Unknown in most of the district, Porter needed name recognition and credibility which he sought with a media campaign and face-to-face debates. A week before the election Porter claimed a 16-point rise in his privately conducted polls placed him within three points of Mikva.

Radio and TV campaign

Porter pinpointed his key issues as excessive government spending, overregulation, burdensome taxation and limited growth and hammered them home with a $100,000-plus media campaign. The message repeated in magazine ads, on radio and TV implied that Mikva was too liberal and out of tune with the 10th District. Porter's literature said he was "for all of us."

Mikva countered by citing his good rating by the National Taxpayers Union and his credentials as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Mikva's theme, "He makes a difference," implied he was an effective and experienced congressman. Radio and TV ads, including one by actor Henry Fonda, cited Mikva's organizational endorsements.

No newcomer to political battles, Mikva represented a Chicago district for five terms in the General Assembly followed by two terms in Congress. When the 1971 Congressional remap left him without a seat, Mikva moved to the newly mapped 10th District.

Since his 1974 election, Mikva's national recognition, support of gun control, advocacy of strict noise control at O'Hare Airport, outstanding constituent services and accessibility gave him a broad base of support for reelection.

Precinct organization

But, the most important element of the campaign may have been precinct organization.

Porter worked through the existing Republican township organizations. His campaign manager Jack Hotaling said that the cooperation with the Republican organizations was "the best coordination of any campaign in recent history." However, the goal of one person in each precinct was not reached. With 11 paid staff and 2,000 volunteers, Porter attained 80 per cent coverage of the 546 precincts.

Mikva established his own precinct organization. Six paid staff, 30 student interns (paid $150 per month), plus 6,000 volunteers worked to register, canvass and bring out Mikva voters on election day. The Porter staff spoke admiringly of Mikva's organization, calling it "probably the best 'field organization' of any candidate in the nation."

With a history of narrow margins, both Mikva and Porter paid attention to each vote. In April 1978, Mikva's first staff member was assigned to identify college bound Mikva supporters so they could be registered and receive absentee ballot applications before they left for campus. Mikva coordinators urged each 10th District resident on 65 college campuses to vote for"Ab." Porter's campaign had coordinators on three campuses and made significant gains on Northwestern's Evanston campus.

An astounding 8,000 ballots, more than half of all the absentee votes in Cook County, were cast in the 10th District. Mikva campaign manager Bob Perkins estimates that 65 per cent of these went for Mikva due mainly to the efforts on college campuses.

Both candidates courted thousands of potential votes on Northwestern University's Evanston campus. After the votes were counted, it was clear that Porter made significant gains in these precincts.

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Former President Ford, Sen. Robert Dole, House Minority Leader John Rhodes and N.Y. Rep. Jack Kemp campaigned for Porter. Vice President Mondale, Sen. Ted Kennedy, House Speaker Tip O'Neill and others stumped for Mikva. In the final days an appearance by President Jimmy Carter sparked thousands of Mikva volunteers.

The outcome

When asked why the election came out the way it did in a year that focused on economic issues, Porter replied that he "failed to get all voters to the polls -- practical politics determined the results. " Mikva responded, "What people want is someone they trust and believe in, even if they disagree on some of the issues, someone whose judgment they respect. They want constancy."

It was a long, expensive (Mikva $360,000, Porter $408,000) campaign between two tough candidates. With a 1978 margin of less than 1 per cent, no one would be surprised at a rematch in 1980.

Except for Mikva, the upstate congressional winners all had fat margins of victory. Democrat Bennett Stewart, slated after Metcalfe's death, won the 1st District race, and all incumbent congressmen won easily with the following percentage of the vote: Bennett Stewart, 1st District (D., Chicago), 60 per cent; Morgan F. Murphy, 2nd District (D., Chicago), 86; Martin A. Russo, 3rd District (D., South Holland), 64; Edward J. Derwinski, 4th District (R., Flossmoor), 67; John G. Fary, 5th District (D., Chicago), 84; Henry J. Hyde, 6th District (R., Park Ridge), 67; Cardiss Collins, 7th District (D., Chicago), 87; Daniel D. Rostenkowski, 8th District (D., Chicago) 86; Sidney R. Yates, 9th District (D., Chicago), 75; Frank Annunzio, llth District (D., Chicago), 73, and Philip M. Crane, 12th District (R., Mount Prospect), 80. 

16/ January 1979 / Illinois Issues