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By ROBERT P. HOWARD
Thompson v Stevenson: a long view In a few weeks voters will choose between incumbent Republican James R. Thompson and Adlai E. Stevenson III, former Democratic senator. If Thompson wins and serves a full term, he will have spent more time in the governor's chair than any other Illinoisan. A Stevenson victory would continue a family tradition of state political leadership that already stretches back four generations. Both candidates are the best men their parties have to offer; both have won every race they have entered IN PERHAPS a third of the Illinois primaries, men of competence and character are nominated for governor by both parties, with the result that the state would be served well by either man. Thirty years ago, for example, State Treasurer William G. Stratton, the Republican winner, provided efficient stewardship that no doubt would have been duplicated had the office gone to Sherwood Dixon, the lieutenant governor under Adlai E. Stevenson II. There were other contests — such as that between Gov. Charles S. Deneen and the first Adlai E. Stevenson in 1908 — in which the voters could choose between two good men for governor. Such a year is 1982. Each party nominated its best man for one of the nation's more important off-year elections. Republican James Robert Thompson, 46, a former law professor and federal prosecutor who was born of middle-class parentage on Chicago's west side, is running for an unprecedented third term on a record of having kept state government solvent and orderly during six difficult years. The Democratic challenger, a man of unusual political credentials, is Adlai Ewing Stevenson III, 52 on October 10, the millionaire son of a governor and great-grandson of a vice president who two years ago gave up 10 years' seniority in the U.S. Senate to seek a new career in Illinois. Theirs is not a friendly contest for control of the executive branch of a major state. Each runs as an activist who has confidence in himself and who challenges the policies, promises
In some ways they are similar. Both are Chicago lawyers, political moderates, experienced in state government, intellectually brilliant, well known in and outside Illinois, and to some extent independent of party factionalism. Both have courage and political brains. On the social issues, such as abortion, they are in general agreement. In their attitudes toward finances, they are basically conservative. It is a not untypical campaign in the political center, which reduces the areas of disagreement. But they are opposites in personalities and campaigning styles and on many issues. In a campaign that may turn on impressions made in public debates, it is noteworthy that Stevenson did not inherit his father's eloquence and wit. In small groups and in one-on-one situations, the current Democratic candidate is effective, but no one has called him a rabble-rouser. With charisma in reverse, he can walk through a county fairgrounds without attracting attention and he can bore audiences with dull and rambling speeches. Unlike his ancestors, he is not a raconteur. To him, life is a serious matter and his conservative suits and button-down collars are not intended to compete with Thompson's T-shirts. Stevenson says that he left the Senate because "in government the action is in the executive branch and increasingly in the States." Giving Thompson credit only for inaction, Democratic candidate promises to increase jobs and markets for Illinoisans. Talking a little like Lyndon Johnson, he adds that the legislature needs his guidance. Tall and informal, Thompson is a gregarious master of the politics of personality and excels as a compromiser who has a talent for working out solutions to critical and complicated problems. His major handicap is the economy, the unemployment and high interest rates prevalent while Ronald Reagan, a member of his own party, occupies the White House. In a time of budgetary pressures, he has avoided a statewide tax increase. For five and a half years, investigative reporters have not found a scandal in his administration. Neither man has ever been defeated at the ballot box. Always by big majorities, Stevenson has won statewide elections four times and Thompson twice. Normally that would bring a big turnout at the November 2 election, unless the electorate decides that either man 6 | October 1982 | Illinois Issues would he equally acceptable in coping with the built-in difficulties that will face the slate of Illinois during the next four years. High midterm marks Three years ago, writing for Illinois Issues at the midpoint of Thompson's two terms, this observer gave Thompson high marks for his ability to solve governmental problems through compromise, for hold-the-line economizing that had made tax increases unnecessary, and for close attention to Chicago's difficulties, especially the transit problem, at the expense of his personal following in the suburbs. ("A Thompson Scorecard: Compromise and Fiscal
On balance it is not necessary to reuse the midterm judgment. The times call for economizing rather than innovative programs, and in a rating of recent administrative performances Thompson takes third place only to Stratton (1953-1960) and Richard B. Ogilvie (1969-1972.) He has kept government on an even keel in spite of inflated costs, reduced federal grants and requests that more be spent on meritorious programs for which the budget bureau has not found money. In the defensive position of an incumbent, he is campaigning as a tough executive who in 1977 found the state at the edge of financial ruin and who since then has avoided a statewide general tax increase while maintaining the state's AAA bond rating, which is unusual for an industrial state. He has not always I the cooperation of the legislature in making a series of difficult choices which will have to be repeated during the next four years, regardless of which of the able candidates is elected. At several times in Illinois history and especially since adoption of the legislative cutback amendment two years ago, the executive brach of state government has performed better than the legislative. Two of Thompson's political mistakes — the midnight veto of the legislators' pay raise bill and participation in the plot to elect a Republican president of the Democratic Senate — are traceable to his need to improve his public relations with the legislature, especially the Republicans in the Senate. Those were not the only demerits on the administration's record. One which has received little attention is the injection of politics into the personnel system by requiring that new employees have Republican sponsorship. Since the governor imposed a hiring freeze that has reduced the overall payroll, the patronage office has controlled hiring for agencies and positions that traditionally have been on a merit basis. If Thompson is reelected, it will be in spite of one of the biggest political blunders of the century. Never before did an Illinois governor, as the leader of his party, propose that his wife be given a lifetime $70,300-a-year appointment as a federal district judge. Why he took that action has not been explained. Incidentally, the proposal embarrassed Sen. Charles H. Percy, who nominates federal judges in Illinois. Jayne Carr Thompson, mother of the 4-year-old Samantha, has been restless in the role of official hostess at the Executive Mansion and at one time worked for a Springfield law firm. She withdrew her application for appointment in the Chicago district when word spread that bar association leaders did not consider her qualified for the federal bench. Since then there has been official silence on the matter. Thompsonites do not want to discuss it and Economy greatest challenge Stevenson regards his approaches to the economy as the big challenge of the 1980s. In a one-issue I-can-do-it-better campaign, he bypasses some orthodox Democratic rhetoric while blaming Thompson for the economic troubles being suffered by Illinois citizens. His main thesis is that it is possible for the economy of a state to be maintained at a relatively high position even during a national depression, a proposition which many in addition to the governor regard as dubious. The Democratic candidate, a former member of the U.S. Senate committees on banking and commerce, volunteers to lead a massive effort to reshape and revitalize the economy of Illinois, which he says has been going downhill as long as Thompson has held office. Stevenson largely ignores President Reagan, the favorite whipping boy of Democrats in other states, and says that the decline in business has been worse in Illinois than in other Great Lakes states and worse than the national average. He cites Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Minnesota and California as states that are less depressed than Illinois. In the growth of exports, he says that Illinois has been exceeded by Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Kansas. If he is elected, Stevenson will have a busy four years putting into effect a nine-point program promising comparative prosperity from a more flexible and diversified Illinois economy. Stevenson says there will be new businesses, October 1982 | Illinois Issues | 7 more jobs and competitive products to be marketed, especially abroad. One of the first steps will be appointment of a commission to recruit Many of the Stevenson plans for the business world could be quickly approved in a corporate boardroom or at a chamber of commerce convention. Some bear little resemblance to the standard Humphrey-Kennedy-Mon-dale liberal rhetoric. For example, his campaign literature chides Thompson for spending money on welfare and penitentiaries when it is needed for education and transportation. A plea for less governmental interference with business could have been taken from a vintage Ronald Reagan speech. Position papers on the economy make scant mention of what Stevenson expects from labor, a number of whose leaders have endorsed Thompson to show their displeasure with Stevenson's Senate record. At another point, he promises widespread banking reforms, including branch banking, which for decades has been fought by small town bankers. Best asset is name The first former U.S. senator to run for governor since Ninian Edwards in 1826, Stevenson has a reputation for integrity, a following among independents and the goodwill of many normally Republican businessmen, but his greatest asset is his name. He is the fourth generation of the Stevenson family to distinguish himself in public life. The first Adlai E. Stevenson, the great-grandfather, was a Greenbacker and Democratic congressman from the Bloomington district before President Grover Cleveland appointed him assistant postmaster general. A friendly man, he became a political legend by
In the second generation, Lewis G. Stevenson, who had been a mining executive for the Hearst interests in the Southwest, ran for office only once. He had returned to Illinois and at the start of the Edward F. Dunne administration was appointed parole board chairman. Appointed to fill a vacancy, he then served two years and three months as secretary of state. When he ran for a full term in 1916, a Republican year in Illinois, he led the losing ticket and polled more votes than Gov. Dunne. The second Adlai E. Stevenson, a Chicago lawyer who had held several New Deal appointments at Washington, did not become a candidate until 1948, when he was a landslide winner for governor. The orator who later became United Nations ambassador did as well as could be expected when he twice challenged a war hero, Dwight D. Eisenhower, for the presidency. The fourth generation Stevenson entered politics in 1964 when Democrats needed a prominent name to head their ticket at the at-large election of the Illinois House of Representatives. A Harvard graduate who had been a marine lieutenant in Korea, he was high man in the unusual election. In the lllinois House his specialties were governmental reform and efficiency. When he ran for state treasurer in 1966 he was the only Democrat to carry the state. Then he let it be known that he would run for senator in 1970, even if Mayor Dalley did not approve. As a crowd gathered for the announcement ceremony Daley drove up with the all-important endorsement. In the U.S. Senate he was something of a misfit, solemnly unable to operate on a buddy relationship with colleagues. Like most northern Democrats, he supported President Carter on possibly three-fourths of the rollcalls and voted with the conservative coalition possibly a fifth of the time. As A junior member he took his turn in the thankless chairmanship of the new Ethics Committee. His main assignment was the Commerce Committee, where he headed the subcommittee on international finance and specialized in foreign trade. He raised questions' about the competitiveness of American industry and sponsored a technology innovation act, which became law in 1980. The Senate passed his bill to relax antitrust restrictions on overseas transactions and to set up export companies in which banks could make limited investments. The export companies would do such things as buy and sell oil in the international market and dispose of farm surpluses. Some audiences have trouble with their attention span when Stevenson discusses the balance of trade, but the bills were his answer to Thompson's charge that he was an ineffective senator, with a poor batting average as the sponsor of legislation. Almost two years before his term ended he announced his decision not to run again. He was frankly frustrated and disappointed with his 10 years in Washington, saying: "The seventies 8 | October 1982 | Illinois Issues were hard years for activists in the Senate. I recognize now, in a way I didn't before came here, that Congress does very little. The occasional exception is when it supports a strong president." So he came home to resume his Mayer, Brown and Platt law partnership and to survey the possibility of more political activity. Last winter, when several Democrats of importance manuevered for Mayor Jane Byrne's support in the gubernatorial primary, Stevenson played his cards
It may be presumed, if all goes well in November, that Stevenson sometime would want to run for the presidency, the office twice denied his father. Thre years ago he talked about entering the Democratic primaries against Jimmy Carter, whose domestic and foreign policies he found discouraging. Nothing much happened, and he bowed out of the 1980 situation when Ted Kennedy challenged the president. Stevenson also didn't care for Kennedy, of whose economic policies he was equally critical. The Illinois senator was dissatisfied with all alternatives, including John B. Anderson, the Rockford Republican congressman who didn't go anywhere as an independent candidate for president. He met with Anderson but in the end preserved his status as a birthright Democrat, entitled to the future support of all who admired his father and great-grandfather. If he is elected, Stevenson probably would be the richest governor of Illinois in a half century or more. He and his wife Nancy have revealed that their net worth is slightly more than $5 million. Adjusted gross income for 1981 was $511,859, on which federal and state taxes were $263,418. Income for the year included $91,657 from his law practice. His tax return reflected an unusual capital gain, the sale of Stevenson's stock in the company that published The Pantograph in Bloomington-Normal. Like Frank O. Lowden, who was elected governor in 1916, Stevenson is both a Chicago corporation lawyer and i northern Illinois farmer. Outside Hanover, in the Galena hill country, he owns Oak Ridge Farm, on whose 1,100 acres, mostly pastureland, he raises and feeds cattle. It has been his legal residence for eight years and from it he will vote November 2. 
For any Illinois governor, a third term campaign should not be undertaken lightly. Possibly due to ingratitude, cynicism or boredom, Illinois voters do not place a high value on experience in the state's foremost executive office. Legislatures and appeals courts operate by consensus, but governors have undivided responsibility and their public and private actions, however wise, may be disapproved by segments of the electorate, especially those denied favors or funding. The unavoidable result is that it is easy for governors to lose friends and accumulate enemies in increasing numbers as the years pass. It is pertinent to note that the last two governors could not win second terms. Perhaps the 1970 Constitution should have placed a one-term limit on Illinois governors, for they forget one lesson of political history: Four strong governors tried for third consecutive terms but all were defeated. Another factor is that Illinois, a swing state politically, is prone to sharp reversals of its ballot box favors, and it is not uncommon for a badly defeated party to turn around and win the next election. When Big Jim Thompson remembered his plush pluralities of 1976 and 1978 and decided to try again, perhaps he figured that the people owe him two more years. His first term was a transitional two-year term to comply with the 1970 constitutional convention decision that state officials are to be elected in non-presidential years. The issue of ERA The long squabble over the Equal Rights Amendment illustrates the ease with which the incumbent governor can lose friends and, in this case, be denounced by those he has tried to help! Both Thompson and Stevenson worked for the constitutional amendment. Thompson's talks with individual legislators did not satisfy the National Organization for Women, whose frustrated leaders demanded that he play the role of political dictator and twist the arms of legislative followers of Phyllis Schlafly, who belongs on anyone's list of the 10 most influential persons in Illinois. Until the end, Thompson remained the chief Republican adherent of ERA, which wasn't appreciated by Schlafly, another Republican. In the final crisis Thompson not only did not change votes but would not endorse repeal of the legislature's 60 percent rule for ratification. Furthermore, Speaker George Ryan, who as the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor is Thompson's running mate in the fall campaign, turned out to be Schlafly's leading man in the final goal line stand that blocked ratification. Eleanor Smeal's one-issue NOW forces swore that Ryan would suffer on election day, which means that they won't vote for Thompson, since nominees for governor and lieutenant governor run as a team. The beneficiary is Stevenson, who stayed out of town while Thompson was taking the heat. Schlafly and her followers owe Ryan a big favor, which should help Thompson. The moral of the complex situation, to rephrase an earlier observation, is that at times an incumbent governor can't help but exercise his power to make people unhappy. Women did score points. Stevenson astutely bid for the feminine vote by selecting Grace Mary Stern, the county clerk of Lake County, to run with him October 1982 | Illinois Issues | 3 and against Ryan. She is the first woman nominated for major state office. And it may be noted the Rep. Susan Catania, who has hardly a household name, lost to Ryan but beat Sen. Donald L. Totten, the Reagan leader in Illinois, when she ran for lieutenant governor in the Republican primary. Lifestyle at issue Thompson, the prosecutor of former Gov. Otto Kerner, is well aware of the penalties for official misconduct. Before inauguration he pledged that he would have a scandal-free administration. To that end he made available for public inspection records of the receipt and expenditure of campaign funds, which no previous governor had done. Though the records generated numerous newspaper stories which may have tarnished his image, reporters did not allege that any law had been violated. For example, Thompson's lifestyle became an issue when his records revealed that Samatha's baby sitter had been paid $4 an hour, which seemed like a lot of money to rural people. The governor answered that the sitter was paid from campaign funds only when he attended a political function. Other stories told that the governor had used campaign funds to buy gifts for political associates, which also was not a law violation. Overlooked by the newspapers were two matters of recent history. Twenty years ago, after Stratton left office, he was indicted for income tax evasion after federal agents found that some
In an era of inflation, Thompson is not a rich man. His income for 1981 was reported at $65,453 on an adjusted gross basis, and he has privately complained that it is difficult to live on his $58,000 salary, even though he occupies the Executive Mansion rent free and has some other expenses paid. The governor, who estimated his net worth at $206,961, would have been better off if he had joined a law firm years ago, instead of becoming a law proffessor and public prosecutor. Don't back no losers The campaign for governor was taking off about State Fair time with each man attempting to clarify his position on issues. Stevenson's nine-point campaigns introduced into the Illinois political vocabulary a new word — infrastructure. Referring to the basic foundations of the economy, it encompasses transportation, waste disposal, storm drainage and energy resources. His blueprints for the next four years are somewhat fuzzy as to details, but for infrastructure
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improvements he anticipates that administration would need some taxes. Since highway maintenance and Chicago transit subsidies are within the scope of transportation and since more work is envisioned in other field, tax increases could be of considerable size though the candidate has not been specific. Meanwhile the Stevenson campaign strategy must consider future relations with other Democrat leaders — Jane Byrne, who may face Democratic opposition in the Chicago mayoral election early next year, and with Democratic rivals in the General Assembly. Both candidates recognize the state's revenue problem, particularly for transportation. Thompson, without success, sent a series of highway financing proposals to the legislature, which didn't act because it was more interested in political survival in the reapportionment year. Stevenson,
Meanwhile the campaign goes on. In one of the low points of the campaign this summer, the problem of the tax multiplier surfaced. Adopted long ago as a means of putting real estate taxes on a uniform basis, the property tax multiplier has been placed on the 1983 legislative agenda. Because local assessors undervalue real estate in varying degrees, the state assigns an equalizing multiplier to each county. As a result, many tax bills are increased. Instead of blaming the local assessors for doing a poor job, taxpayers and local officials try to pass the buck to the state. In his campaign, Stevenson inferred that the Thompson administration is to be blamed for the multiplier increases. The governor, tired of explaining that assessments and rates are fixed locally, issued an amendatory veto that would gut the multiplier system. No court action or legislative action is possible until after the election. In this situation, both candidates are open to criticism. Whoever wins the campaign for governor will have an overflowing agenda for his first legislative session. What else of the future? The November winner, if by a real landslide, might get early consideration for the 1984 presidential nomination but the odds are long for either man. If Thompson wins a third term, by early 1985 he will have served as governor longer than any of his predecessors. If Stevenson wins, he makes history and may be expected to fill his father's shoes. For the loser, the consolation prize will be a chance to practice law with a major Chicago firm. That would give Thompson his first opportunity to pursue supersolvency. Win or lose, Stevenson would have more options. Robert P. Howard, retired state capital correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, is author of Illinois: A History of the Prairie State and president of the Illinois State Historical Society. October 1982 | Illinois Issues | 11 |
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Stevenson, whose rating in the polls suddenly jumped, did not need to say anything about nepotism. Some campaign issues spread by word of mouth.
talent and ideas for the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, which is to have vastly increased functions. The positive role he envisions for himself would require that batches of bills be sent to the legislature and promptly enacted. One would provide for creation of export corporations patterned after a Stevenson bill passed by the U.S. Senate in 1980. He would meet with leaders in the fields of business, labor, finance, engineering and education. University presidents would be asked to adjust campus programs to the nine-point program.