A View from the Suburbs

GOP casts Al Salvi as just another right-wing annoyance

By MADELEINE DOUBEK

Al Salvi says he decided three different times to skip running for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. Then he got a call from New Jersey Congressman Christopher H. Smith, who reminded him that the mushier, moderate GOP-controlled Senate likely would kill most of the bills and "Contract With America" items House Republicans passed during their first year in decades as a majority.

Smith told him he was praying Salvi would run so Republicans would have a choice in their March primary. "It was a very critical moment for me," the 35-year-old Salvi recalls. "I came home, talked to my wife, and we decided I'm going to run." And so, by mid-September Salvi of Wauconda was moving toward foregoing a third-term Illinois House bid in order to wage an intrasuburban battle against the more demonstrative Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra of Park Ridge.

The Republican Party establishment moved quickly this fall to solidify the notion that Salvi will be just another annoyance from the right in the mold of past governor candidates Steve Baer of suburban Riverside and Jack Roeser of Barrington.

Salvi still has much work ahead to prove them wrong. But already he has had a direct effect on the texture of the Republican race to replace retiring Sen. Paul Simon.

In a veiled attempt to shore up his conservative credentials, the 52-year-old Kustra hired conservative stalwart Donald L. Totten of Schaumburg as his campaign manager. (The resilient Totten, a one-time Cook County GOP chair, last managed the primary campaign of Attorney General Jim Ryan against Metra Chairman Jeff Ladd.) And Kustra, the man who once considered a career behind a microphone and a radio control panel, seems to be testing new frequencies.

He was told that the Republicans should have a choice in the March primary race for the U.S. Senate

The man who melded with moderate GOP Gov. Jim Edgar finally entered the contest formally last month by telling Prairie State supporters that, among other things, he wants to "maintain control of our borders, which today leak like a sieve," and encourage people living here to speak English.

He failed to get the kind of fund-raising head start Republicans expected and spent the summer telling United Republican Fund members and others that he also can support most of the Christian Coalition's so-called Contract With The American Family.

Privately, Republican officeholders and operatives whispered they were irritated with the lack of energy and organization Kustra showed for a race he has planned for nearly a year.

Kustra's Senate campaign "wallowed" through the summer, one said.

"His support is a mile wide but an inch deep," said another. "He doesn't have much of an issues profile."

None of the complaints about Kustra may mean much by the March primary unless Salvi is able to build some visible support and credibility with the oft-fickle media.

So, if Kustra does not have an issues profile, what does Salvi have?

A reputation as something of a right-wing opportunist who has withheld his support on critical House GOP issues, including civil law restructuring and workers compensation changes.

"My job is not to come down here and do what I'm told to do. My job is to read the proposals and do what I think is right and fair," the representative says.

An attorney himself, Salvi has a brother Patrick who is a personal injury lawyer and former president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. Another brother, Tom, is a physician who urged a vote for a law to limit injury awards.

Salvi may have irritated GOP leadership by holding out on those issues, but he can make a compelling case that he will be more than just another Roeser or Baer.

He says he is willing to spend up to $1

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million of his own money on the primary and has been working consistently to build support among the 17 percent of independent voters in the state who backed Texas businessman Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race.

'People want somebody who believes in something, someone who stirs things up'

Salvi's campaign manager previously directed the strategy for Congressman Donald Manzullo, the conservative who surprised former state Sen. Jack Schaffer in 1992.

And Salvi has championed some issues that defy easy categorization. He is ardently opposed to abortion and led the failed charge in the House for a pilot school voucher program last spring.

But he also has been an outspoken voice for the privatization of prison construction. And he won passage of bills to spur more transracial adoptions and to allow victims of drug dealers to file civil suits.

Salvi is well aware Kustra's supporters will attempt to paste him with the labels "extremist" and "right-winger." Though he repeatedly claims Kustra has a liberal record on tax issues, Salvi insists that "it's not liberal vs. conservative. It's those who want to get something done vs. careerists."

Kustra will retain the loyalty of the party's officeholders, but if Salvi can duck the extremist tag and spend his money wisely, he has a strong chance at a respectable showing.

"I'm different from Steve Baer and the others because I'm an officeholder," Salvi says. "People want somebody who believes in something — someone who stirs things up, not just getting along to go along. That's been my specialty. I've been strong on the issues even when it wasn't politically expedient. I think people want that. I'm taking a gamble that they do."

Madeleine Doubek is political editor of the Daily Herald, a suburban metro newspaper based in Arlington Heights.

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