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LETTERS
Conservatives have been successful
I've felt less like an angel than a skunk at a picnic in fighting the entrenched liberals, especially so in the case of the education establishment. But all that persistence has paid off in recent years. We conservatives have had a lot of victories nationally and especially in Illinois. The author of the article, Jim Merriner, comes from the Chicago media, last stop at the Sun-Times, where, in my opinion, he was fairer than most. But he still shares the Chicago major media myopia about conservatives. We are supposed to be a reclusive breed of zealots who won't settle for anything but total victory on our terms as we throw out of office all those terrible Republicans who aren't conservative enough. Even on that basis we haven't done badly. But, like good missionaries, we are happy when we get conversions to our conservative ways from those already in office. Consider these recent victories: In 1990 we swallowed hard and helped elect the previously unsatisfactory Jim Edgar as governor on the basis that we needed a Republican governor to get control of district reapportionment. Edgar even put me on his transition team in gratitude (for all the good that did). We got reapportionment. In 1992, we elected a bunch of good conservatives, especially to the [state] Senate, but also to the House. In the '92 primaries, the conservatives did the impossible, defeating the Senate minority leader with a conservative activist for Congress in the 16th District. That feat was considered impossible because Congressman Donald Manzullo's opponent had the whole Republican Party behind him in a district made to order for him. Gov. Edgar and other party-line stalwarts campaigned against Manzullo in the primary. Manzullo won big with 56 percent of the vote and went on to unseat the only incumbent Democrat defeated in Illinois that year. Chalk up a big win for the conservatives. In 1992, we elected a bunch of young Turks. They became key players in swinging the legislature to the right, achieving dominance in Springfield. In 1994, the nation and the state were swept with a conservative tidal wave. Pate Philip became Senate president, Lee Daniels, speaker of the House. These were men we could work with, and we succeeded in getting better legislation for family and business values.
Merriner made a big point about the infighting among conservatives. There was some truth to that, but not so much any more. Unbelievably, when I ran for governor in the '94 primary, I was opposed by some conservatives I thought were my friends. Especially painful was Steve Baer's opposition. This was the man whom I supported with $110,000 and a lot of skin and work when he ran in 1990. The Illinois director of the Christian Coalition and some others also opposed my candidacy, as did Larry Horist of the United Republican Fund. But all those individuals have lost influence because of their betrayal of values. More recently, that same narrow bunch further insulated themselves from the majority of conservatives by insulting those who settled for a practical parental notification bill. The result has been that we now have a new director of the Christian Coalition who cooperates with other groups. The same goes for the Illinois Family Institute. We are getting practical results from unity achieved by a new umbrella group that we started called the Illinois Conservative Roundtable. Turf wars are eliminated by electing a new chairman from a different group at each meeting. No one can issue press releases. Everyone, and no one, owns this group; cooperation and fellowship are the result. Similarly, the Education Roundtable was formed to unite behind education vouchers. Agreement was reached on a simple bill. This bill has passed in the Illinois Issues April 1996 ¦ 43 Senate, and may pass the House soon. That's a lot of unity! Merriner didn't find all the money contributed by the "angels" because much of it isn't in the D2 campaign report. J. Patrick Rooney, for instance, has put more than $1 million into a private education voucher plan in Indianapolis. Alex Magnus helped Jim Tobin defeat the billion dollar circulator [Chicago Loop trolley]. Much of my own contributions that he missed have gone into other campaigns in and out of the state, and also to charitable organizations such as the Right to Work Foundation. Merriner depicts Steve Baer as a man of influence in conservative circles, but he couldn't get enough signatures to get on the ballot in the last election. His lonely band is the source of what divisiveness remains.
From my viewpoint, Merriner got his conclusions turned about. There is unity among the large majority of conservatives representing tax relief, education, tort reform, right-to-life and gun issues. The Family Taxpayers' Foundation is heavily supported by me, but unreported; the spending is dedicated to educating voters on conservative issues, especially vouchers [for schools]. Also, The Family Taxpayers' Network is a political committee that provides technical help to conservative candidates. These are unifying organizations that together with the Illinois Conservative Roundtable are bringing together conservative groups to good effect.
Jack Roeser
Chicago's Blue Bag program is Costly
There is no evidence that the program is saving Chicago money. Furthermore, Waste Management Vice President William Rodgers' position that this program is "simple" is highly questionable. Chicagoans will spend approximately $50 million this year on Blue Bag operating and disposal costs. Additionally, we have begun payments on $54 million in capital costs. And what are we paying for? A 6 percent recycling rate, very low compared to the 25 percent goal. On top of that, participating households must provide their own blue bags. They are asked to put their blue bags full of recyclables in with regular garbage, where the bags and garbage will be crushed together only to be sorted back out at our multimillion dollar facilities. Issuing households a reusable bin for source-separated recycling would be simpler by any definition of the word.
Anne Irving 44 ¦ April 1996 Illinois Issues |
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Sam S. Manivong, Illinois Periodicals Online Coordinator |
