Politics

Adlai's candidacy

By CHARLES N. WHEELER III

BEFORE the horrified eyes of the nation, the space shuttle Challenger exploded in a giant fireball high over the Atlantic Ocean last January 28, killing its crew of seven in the worst space disaster in U.S. history. Illinois Democrats may be excused if they experienced similar feelings of shock and disbelief after the March 18 primary, for the incredible triumph of two disciples of right-wing extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. tumbled the candidacy of the party's gubernatorial nominee, Adlai E. Stevenson III, into the same void as the space program.

While embarrassing, the nomination of Janice A. Hart for secretary of state was hardly lethal; few political handicappers expected the party's slated choice, Aurelia M. Pucinski, to do better than lose respectably to the Republican incumbent, Jim Edgar.

But the nomination of the other LaRouchie, Mark J. Fairchild, for lieutenant governor over Stevenson's choice, state Sen. George E. Sangmeister of Mokena, may have dealt a deadly blow to Stevenson's chances.

And some Democrats are openly fearful — and Republicans equally hopeful — that the presence of the two fringe-group adherents in Democratic trappings could have the same devastating effects on the party in November as the Watergate scandal visited on Republicans a dozen years ago.

Like the Challenger tragedy, the disaster that struck the Stevenson campaign resulted from the unfortunate interplay of several factors. Neither Sangmeister nor Pucinski were household names outside their home areas; elsewhere, party leaders later suggested, many voters rejected such "furriner" names in favor of the "smoother soundin' " names the LaRouchies bore. Neither Stevenson nor the losers seemed to have campaigned vigorously for the slate, and the state party did little to promote its annointed ones.

In bygone days, of course, Machine might in Cook County would have pulled the slated candidates through handily despite invisible campaigns or displays of ethnic bigotry in benighted backwaters.

This time, however, the fate of the state ticket was of such little concern to the feuding warlords in Beruit by the Lake that neither chose to include the entire slate in their last-minute instructions to voters. Instead, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and his nemesis, Democratic county chairman Edward R. Vrdolyak, stressed local races, and many of their lieutenants and downstate party chieftains did likewise. Any attention given statewide offices went to posts perceived as having "real" contests involving "legitimate" challengers: attorney general and treasurer.

And most of the media wrote off the LaRouchies, assuming that voters' common sense would relegate to distant also-rans folks who believe that Queen Elizabeth is a drug pusher, Henry Kissinger is a KGB agent, and the International Monetary Fund is responsible for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. But with neither party workers nor the press spotlighting the LaRouche slate and its bizarre mental musings, Democratic voters found themselves confronted in their lieutenant governor and secretary of state choices by names that meant nothing. And so they voted by ballot position or by sound, and this lottery of ignorance rewarded Fairchild and Hart.

To his credit, Stevenson acted quickly and correctly in the disaster's aftermath, vowing not to run with his unwanted sidekick. In so doing, he rejected ill-conceived advice from U.S. Sen. Alan J. Dixon, the Democratic ticket-topper, that he remain yoked to Fairchild in the party fold, but pledging to ignore the LaRouche follower if elected. That plan would be attractive only if someone procured a signed affidavit from the Grim Reaper guaranteeing Adlai's good health.

That decided, Stevenson tested a variety of disaster recovery plans, none particularly enticing, most requiring the need to educate the party's straight ticket voters to look elsewhere for Adlai, and all involving added risk for other Democrats.

Drop off the LaRouche-tainted Democratic ticket to head a "true" Democratic slate? Under state law, that would require offering candidates for offices now being sought by Atty. Gen. Neil F. Hartigan, Comptroller Roland W. Burris, and treasurer hopeful Jerry C'osentino, and even nominal candidates pledged to take a dive could siphon disconcerting amounts of votes away from those worthies.

Run as an independent? Statewide Democratic candidates perferred that option, but a state filing deadline of last December would have to be erased, either by legislation or in the courts, and Democratic lawmakers worried that it could inspire a swarm of free-lance legislative candidacies.

Even less promising was hope of discovering some legal technicality to kick Fairchild off the ballot, or overturn the vote count or even rerun the balloting in certain precincts, all ploys that might offend voters' sense of fair play, possibly triggering a backlash against Democratic poor losers.

Besides brainstorming to salvage Stevenson, Democrats also considered how to avoid similar mishaps in the future. The remedies ranged from the exemplary — having candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run in tandem in the primary, too — to the excessive — eliminate the lieutenant governor altogether.

Others pondered whether legislation could be crafted to prevent extremist candidates from infiltrating established party rolls.

Probably the best antidote to ideological pollution is grass-roots voter education, the same time-honored medicine upon which Stevenson now must rely, whichever route he chooses to press his candidacy. Had those responsible for Democratic fortunes paid a little more attention to this most basic of political duties earlier, there would have been no LaRouche explosion on March 18.

2/May 1986/Illinois Issues