Washington

By ROBERT MACKAY

Departing congressmen

PEOPLE who work in the Capitol learn all too quickly that there are members in the U.S. Congress who do not meet the standards most Americans would expect from such high-level public servants. Some are drunks, some rarely show up to represent the people who sent them to Washington, some are just plain stupid and some are such extremists they cannot engage in a rational conversation without resorting to inflammatory political rhetoric.

So, it is disturbing when Congress loses good members, as it did following Illinois' March 16 primary. The Illinois delegation, overall, is a pretty good one. But three incumbents lost their primary election fights and will not be returning to Congress next year. A fourth incumbent reluctantly retired.

The most surprising loss, at least among Capitol Hill workers, was Congressman Tom Railsback, a moderate Republican from Rock Island. Railsback became familiar to most people during the Watergate hearings as the raspy-voiced legislator who asked probing, nonpartisan questions of President Nixon's men. Moreover, Railsback did not vote the straight party-line vote and remained a moderate voice in a party turning farther to the right.

Railsback was unseated by state Sen. Kenneth G. McMillan, a conservative whose agricultural background brought him strong support in the rural areas of the new 17th District. But Railsback's defeat could be attributed as much to an unfavorable set of district lines as to ideology. While the new district is no less Republican than Railsback's old 19th District, about 30 percent of the population is new and nearly all of it is rural counties. McMillan undoubtedly benefited from his background as a livestock farmer and his work for the Illinois Farm Bureau before he became a state legislator. The newly added areas voted decisively for McMillan, with Railsback's only strong showing coming from industrialized Rock Island County, McMillan, supported by the New Right, will face Democrat Lane Evans, a Rock Island lawyer, in the general election. Railsback has not decided yet what he will do next year, although he will probably consider returning to the practice of law. He has not practiced since 1966.

The congressional remap was responsible for the loss of Congressman Ed Derwinski of Palos Heights to fellow Congressman George O'Brien of Joliet in the Republican primary in the new 4th District. Although philosophically compatible, O'Brien finished first chiefly because 60 percent of the voters in the 4th had been part of his old 17th District. O'Brien piled up a 5-1 margin in Will County, where he has been running since 1956. Derwinski could not offset that margin with his showing in the Cook County portions of the district. Derwinski, 55, has served in Congress for 23 years. O'Brien, 64, was first elected to the House in 1972. Derwinski, who is popular in the House for his sense of humor and his penchant for loud clothes, stressed during the campaign he was younger than O'Brien and had more seniority. Derwinski has no definite plans right now. Before entering Congress, he was involved in the savings and loan industry. O'Brien is a heavy favorite to win in the strongly Republican district in the November election.

Neither issues nor district boundaries led to the defeat of Democratic Congressman John Fary in Southwest Chicago's 5th District. Fary is a creature of the Chicago Democratic organization, and the organization simply chose to remove him in favor of a younger man. Fary, 70, did not play as prominent a role in Congress as Railsback or Derwinski. He stayed in the background and voted the party line. He was defeated by Chicago Alderman William Lipinski, who was supported by Cook County State's Atty. Richard M. Daley. Ironically, it was his father, Richard J. Daley, who put Fary in the House seat in 1975. The younger Daley, however, is trying to expand his influence in preparation for a mayoral bid next year. Mayor Jane Byrne, wary of the Daley challenge, was obviously hoping for a Fary win. But he received just over one-third of the vote. Lipinski's primary win is tantamount of election in the Chicago Democratic stronghold. Fary will probably find some job within the organization.

The fourth incumbent who will not be returning next year is Republican Congressman Robert McClory of Waukegan. He reluctantly retired following the remap, because Congressman John Porter of Evanston announced he was moving north to challenge McClory in the new 10th rather than try to take on Democrat Sidney Yates along Chicago's North Shore. The new district is strongly Republican, and Porter should have no trouble being reelected in November. The 74-year-old McClory has no immediate plans for retirement.

A minor surprise in the primary was that voters sent back to Congress Gus Savage, the representative in Chicago's 2nd District who missed half the House votes last year and rarely attended committee hearings.

Illinois lost a few good incumbents. Let their replacements be conscientious public servants who will serve their constituents above all others.

June 1982 | Illinois Issues | 39