When Jim Edgar walked into a dinner hosted by the United Republican Fund (URF) shortly before the general election last year, he could have been entering a lion's den. The URF had been organized a half a century before, independent of the Republican's regular state party. And among the 900 or so members and guests that night were some of Illinois' most influential conservatives. Patrick Buchanan (now carrying the conservative standard as a presidential candidate) had been invited to get the political blood pumping. But here came Edgar, the state GOP's candidate for governor, who had campaigned openly on making a temporary income tax increase permanent. Here was a man with a pro-choice stance on abortion. And here was a man who had beaten the conservatives' own standard-bearer — Steven Baer, the URF's former director — in a bitter primary only months before.

The relationship between regulars and conservatives within the Republican party had reached a nadir during that battle, with Edgar calling Baer a fringe candidate and Baer railing against Edgar's positions on abortion and taxes. In general, conservatives are against abortion. Further, fiscal conservatives are against higher taxes and for controlling government spending. They would downsize government and shift many government services to the private sector. In addition, they call for the elimination of what they believe to be governmental and legal barriers to private business growth. In fact, the fight over ideological purity and party loyalty within the GOP grew so fierce that it roused a feeding instinct within the Democratic camp, which sensed the possibility of picking up disaffected Republican voters for Democratic candidate Neil F. Hartigan, who was nominated without opposition.

Nevertheless, Edgar managed to gain the URF's support before the November election. The dinner, where Baer himself spoke on Edgar's behalf, proved to be a turning point. It wasn't exactly the overnight thaw in relations that it appeared to be, of course. Edgar, Baer and URF leaders had prepared the ground with private meetings ahead of time. Jack Roeser, a key Baer backer and a member of the URF's executive committee, got the group to approve a resolution of support for Edgar as the Republican gubernatorial candidate. Before the dinner, Roeser said, Edgar called him and asked whether he would be booed at the dinner. Roeser said he told Edgar, "No, I don't think they will boo. A lot depends on how you handle it." For his part, Edgar, who would later appoint Roeser (head of Otto Engineering in Carpentersville) to his transition team, credits Roeser with playing a major role in securing URF support for his candidacy.

Republican Secy. of State George H. Ryan, then lieutenant governor, played a key role as peacemaker between the moderate and conservative wings of the party after the primary. As Roeser explained it, "Ryan wanted to heal the breach." According to Roeser, he met with Ryan the day after the primary and told him the Tax Accountability Amendment was a "horse the Republicans could ride all the way to the election, even though a lot of Democrats signed on." The proposed state constitutional amendment would have — among other things — required extraordinary majorities in the General Assembly for any legislation aimed at generating new state revenue. In August 1990 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled the proposal off the ballot. But Roeser said Ryan recognized that Republicans could seize on the issue as a way to reach out to the anti-tax voters and to meld the two elements of the party. Ryan said, "I did my best to get Edgar involved. I figured it wouldn't hurt." Ultimately, Edgar and party regulars argued that the 60 percent vote requirement would give the minority party in the legislature greater say on tax issues. Edgar's pledge to support the principles of the amendment, despite the court's ruling, was a clear bow to the right's anti-tax agenda.

'No. I don't think they will boo. A lot depends on how you handle it'

Edgar left that URF dinner in early October and headed into the general election with the support of the major conservative wing of his party, the first public sign that a rapprochement was growing between the mainstream and the right. Not all Illinois conservatives have been praising Edgar since. Jim Tobin, president of National Taxpayers United of Illinois, for one, has given the new governor low marks on his first year in office, saying Edgar is not as fiscally responsible as he could or should be with taxpayer dollars. Nor does the Edgar administration appear ready — neither, for that matter are Republican party leaders — to adopt wholesale the more extreme economic and social agenda of the right. But on one point Edgar, party officials and URF leaders are in agreement: There is a wanning of relations. Toward the end of his 14-year administration, former Republican

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Gov. James R. Thompson's relationship with conservatives was chilly, if not outright frigid. Conservatives saw Thompson as a big spender who was too willing to raise taxes and too willing to negotiate with the Democratic legislative leadership.

In later years, Thompson's efforts to increase the state income tax upset conservatives. Relations were further strained by the URF's willingness to support "anti-tax" challengers to Thompson-backed legislative incumbents. A subsequent battle over the rights to the "Republican" name sparked a suit which was still pending this past November in Sangamon County. Although 50 years old, the URF incorporated with the state in 1986 as a not-for-profit organization. In 1988 lawmakers approved and Gov. Thompson signed into law a provision requiring any organization to get written permission from the party's state central committee in order to use "Republican" or Democrat" in their incorporated names. The URF and several other groups filed suit in December 1988 against the Secretary of State's Office as the administrator of the Not-for-Profit Incorporation Act. The URF argued that the requirement to ask permission was unconstitutional under the U.S. and Illinois constitutions because it violated due process and an existing contract by its threat to renege on prior permission to use the name granted under the 1986 statute. The state has denied the allegations.

Nevertheless, most conservatives seem almost giddy that the moderately liberal Thompson is gone. As one put it, "a change in administration can provide opportunities." One GOP state senator put the matter more succinctly. "Finally," he said, "we have a real Republican governor." Conservatives believe Edgar's call for caps on property tax increases, his no-new-taxes pledge and his support for the principles of the proposed Tax Accountability Amendment were the result of pressures from the right during the campaign. Whether or not that is true, and whether or not Edgar's more austere approach to governing has been partly forced on him because of the state's bleak finances (Thompson also was considered a fiscal conservative when he first took office), these conservatives choose to remember what they regard as "Big Jim's" excesses — the buildings, the travel bills. For them, Edgar compares favorably.

"It seemed as though Thompson always had 14 people going in front of him carrying incense burners and 14 people following behind saying, "There goes the king,' " said Thomas F. Roeser (no relation to Jack), former vice president for government relations, The Quaker Oats Co., and founder of the Republican Assembly of Illinois, a grass-roots conservative organization. "Edgar is more low-key. He's more of a retail merchant, a small town druggist type. And that cannot be minimized as a conservative trait," said Roeser, who is also a regular commentator on Chicago's public radio and television stations. Roeser, who defines himself as a pragmatist, sees Edgar taking positive "baby steps" that will move the state toward solvency and a more traditional (Republican) approach. "Pleasantly surprised" was the phrase that he and others used most often when assessing conservatives' current impressions of Edgar.

Beyond Edgar's approach to the budget, conservatives point to "hardball" negotiations during the spring legislative session, particularly on legislation to cap increases in property taxes. Chicago Republican state Sen. Walter Dudycz said that while he is disappointed with the limited scope of the local government tax cap, he doesn't fault Edgar. The original legislation called for limits on property tax collections, capping every local unit's annual increase at 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. Any increase over that would require citizen approval through a referendum. The law approved by the legislature during its overtime spring session includes the cap and referenda requirement, but covers only non-home-rule governments in the five collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will). That's GOP territory in the Chicago metropolitan area. Dudcyz, also the main sponsor of the Tax Accountability Amendment, credits Edgar with winning, despite the opposition of the Democratic legislative leadership, not only the cap for the collar counties, but a one-year property assessment freeze for Cook County excluding Chicago. Dudcyz said, "It would have been easy for the governor to shrug his shoulders and give in to [Senate President Philip] Rock and [House Speaker Michael] Madigan and say, 'Well, it's my first year.' Rather than be an apologist, he became proactive and an activist."

Although Edgar remains diametrically opposed to conservatives on two key issues — abortion and the state income tax surcharge — he was "absolutely honorable" in giving fair notice of his positions before the election, according to Joseph Morris, chairman of the Fort Dearborn Group, a cross-section of Illinois conservative leaders who meet regularly to discuss issues. "There isn't a lot of griping," said Morris, also the URF's general counsel and president of the Lincoln Legal Foundation, a conservative public-interest law firm. He points to Edgar's accessibility and his consistency as important considerations for conservatives.

Further, conservatives have made some significant shifts in their own perspective. The URF's new leadership, which took office a year ago, is less ideological, according to conservatives. As a result, the organization appears to be more disposed to reach out to Edgar and to negotiate with a more mainstrean agenda. Peter Gallanis, an attorney and member of the Fort Dearborn Group, credits URF President Denis Healy, Chairman of the Board Kenneth Wright and Executive Vice President Richard Rue with bringing the organization "back to its traditional moorings." Healy is president of Turtle Wax, Wright is a former advertising executive, and Gallanis is the Republican committeeman in Chicago's 43rd Ward.

Baer, many conservatives said, was responsible for the more ideological cast of the URF. He gets plaudits from most conservatives for focusing his campaign on issues which are important to the right, including rollbacks in property taxes, school vouchers and privatization of government services. And at least one conservative called Baer an "unsung hero" for publicly backing Edgar at the URF dinner after the primary, thereby helping to "staunch the flow" of conservative votes to Hartigan, who had positioned himself further to the right than Edgar. Nevertheless, Baer is dismissed by many now as essentially a lone wolf who muffed his chance to add to the conservative voter base. All agree Baer is out of the picture now, and attempts to talk with him were unsuccessful.

As a sign of the new times, representatives of both the URF and the Republican state party point to Healy's position on the party's finance committee. Healy also heads the Illinois Forum, known informally as the $1200 Club. The forum raises $1,200 a

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year from individual contributors for the party and for general Republican campaign operations. Gene Reineke, head of operations for the state GOP, said Healy is the "link" between the two organizations. Both Reineke and the URF's Rue said they are in regular contact, that they have agreed to discuss coordinating campaign efforts in the next election, including state legislative races. The Republicans won the toss on a legislative remap plan, and the GOP has a chance to take control of the state Senate and to cut into Democratic dominance in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Cook County Republican party Chairman Richard A. Siebel, a county board commissioner, said the GOP's opportunity to capture the Senate and make James "Pate" Philip (R-23, Wood Dale) the president would make that body the "driving force" of such conservative goals as reform of workers' compensation and limits on taxes and medical malpractice awards. "The thrust will be to make Illinois a better state to locate business and ... for businesses to stay here," Siebel said. And he said a GOP Senate would give Edgar more freedom to push those goals than Thompson had because, with the exception of two early years during his 14-year reign, Thompson faced a Democrat-controlled legislature.

The benefits to the party of a rapprochement, Rue said, include the votes and dollars of Illinois conservatives

With the chance for Republicans to take control of the Illinois Senate, a unified front in state legislative campaigns takes on added importance for the Republicans. For Reineke, the most significant shift in the URF's strategy is the group's willingness to throw its support behind agreed upon GOP candidates rather than field challengers against what the URF might consider moderate to liberal Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Philip agreed: "I'm more interested in electing more Republicans. I think there's a better rapport with the United Republican Fund. I think relations are warmed up."

The benefits to the party of a rapprochement, Rue said, include the votes and dollars of Illinois conservatives. "We aren't out in the woods eating berries," he said. "Edgar needs the hard-core [conservative] voters. The squeaker election that he experienced made the governor sensitive to that." Electoral strategists estimate that about 30 percent of Republican primary voters in the state can be counted on to support candidates from the right. Baer achieved that base with 33.46 percent of the total Republican primary vote. Edgar said, "You need every vote in an election. Illinois is a pretty evenly divided state." He added that his vote total was "about right for a Republican turnout. ... Baer brought in people above the base" in a Republican primary. Edgar attributes that difference to Baer's pro-life stance. The URF expects to raise and spend at least $2.5 million in this next election. And, Rue said, the votes and dollars will be aimed at bolstering Edgar's stated position of not raising state taxes any further.

While some Illinois conservatives prefer to focus on strategy and work within the framework of what is possible in state politics, others prefer to concentrate their energies on ideas. Even at the theoretical level, however, there are distinctions among Illinois conservatives. While Thomas Roeser, for example, supports cutting the size of government, he would stop short of eliminating public spending for social services altogether. Others would set far more extreme limitations on the scope of government and are less forgiving of Edgar's deviations from their agenda.

Conservatives point to the Heartland Institute as the state's premier think-tank for the more radical conservative view. Roeser said the institute controls the turf on economic policy. But Joseph Bast, who heads the institute, vehemently insists that the organization's research is not aimed strictly at — or conducted solely by — conservatives. Still, he said, the institute has a healthy skepticism upon reliance on government across the board. "So many conservatives are incredibly naive by looking to government to solve problems," he said. While Bast hails Edgar for vetoing comparable worth and family leave legislation, he is less sanguine about Edgar's first state budget than most other conservatives. While Edgar's budget address last March signaled the end of an era of "credit card spending," Bast said the governor didn't follow through. His "brokered agreement" to end the marathon legislative session, he noted, allowed for an actual increase in the budget of 6 percent in all appropriations over last year. According to an analysis done by the Illinois Tax Foundation, the fiscal year 1992 budget approved by lawmakers and signed by Edgar increased spending authority by $1.58 billion. Edgar had proposed cutting the budget by $1 billion. Although there were cuts, appropriations for some programs were increased over last year, including welfare and education. As a result, Bast said, Edgar's budget is no better than Thompson's were. The Republicans have made, he said, a "seamless transition" from Thompson to Edgar.

Bast is also critical of Edgar's support for the project to expand Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center. He and many other conservatives would like to see a halt to public funding of private and quasi-public enterprises. And, Bast and others want the role of the state's economic development agency, the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, scaled back drastically, perhaps to little more than job training. In fact, on November 19, Gov. Edgar announced he is "streamlining" the agency. In a printed statement issued by his office, the governor said: "Some programs have been eliminated. Others have been consolidated. I am convinced the department will accomplish far more with a budget that has been slashed by 22 percent and a staff that has been downsized by more than 100 positions."

Bast would also like to see Edgar embrace educational choice. The Heartland Institute puts this at the top of its agenda, though it is not recommending a specific approach. One type of educational choice would provide public subsidies or vouchers to parents to allow them to choose the schools their children will attend, whether they be private or public. Conservatives are attracted to this idea, a form of privatization of educational services because they believe the free market system would then

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weed out those schools that are not effectively using taxpayer dollars.

Bast says he realizes there is a distinction between the Heartland Institute's research and what is realistic in the political arena. Nevertheless, one conservative state legislator said, "One of these days somebody is going to take Heartland's analyses and form a policy campaign." Indeed, Schaumburg Township Republican Committeeman Donald Totten, a former state lawmaker from Hoffrnan Estates who sponsored legislation as early as 1978 to restrict Illinois government's power to raise taxes, says conservatives should focus on issues first and let the candidacies arise from that platform. (Totten serves on several advisory committees for Cook County GOP Chairman Siebel.) Beyond tax and spending questions, conservatives generally agree that their agenda includes term limits for public officials, and such social issues as parental consent on abortions for minors. And at least one conservative cited a need to cut back on home-rule powers in Illinois. Some conservatives believe home-rule powers granted to certain municipalities under the 1970 Constitution give elected officials too much authority to raise taxes without taxpayers' consent.

With Edgar in the governor's chair, conservatives are clearly hopeful they will get some of their agenda. The future of this nascent relationship between the governor and conservatives may depend on the extent to which Edgar is willing to bend to address the conservative agenda and the extent to which conservatives will be practical in working with other Republicans to advance their cause.

Looking back to the Baer-Edgar primary campaign, Rep. Penny Pullen (R-55, Park Ridge) said the battle began a healing process because it identified grass-roots conservative leaders who could be approached, dealt with and talked to as significant players within the Republican party. It surfaced a lot of talent. And because the Baer campaign exceeded expectations, it won for the conservative wing some long-deserved respect from the party's establishment.

Aldo Botti, the DuPage County Board president and Republican who rode an anti-tax tide into office against establishment GOP incumbent Jack Knuepfer, said, "There's a changing face in the Republican party. ... The result will be [that] we will get new ideas rather than the staid ideas that come from certain leaders in the party."

Showing her resolve as the state's symbol of conservatism Phyllis Schlafly maintained she would still "like to see the Republicans remain the party of tax cuts and lower spending." But, pointing to Edgar's push for a permanent tax increase and President Bush's broken no-new-taxes pledge, she sadly conceded there have been a "few blips on the screen." Even so, she allowed, at least Edgar came to the conservative's dinner.

Peggy Boyer Long, a free-lance journalist, teaches at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, Evanston, and at Columbia College in Chicago. Ray Long is a city and county government reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. Both have been full-time Statehouse correspondents in Springfield.

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