People

PEOPLE
Edited by Rodd Whelpley

QUOTABLE

"It was as if I had shown a crucifix to Dracula."

Illinois' U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown on the reaction he received from Gov. George Ryan's staff about the senator's push to require federal bidding rules for work on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Fitzgerald, who delayed passage of partial federal funding for the project by several days, argued from the floor of the U.S. Senate — paraphrasing here — that Illinois has a long history of using political favoritism in awarding such work.

"Peter is acting more like a senator from a high school class than a senator from Illinois. "

U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood of Peoria to Chicago Tribune reporters Rick Pearson and Ray Long, reflecting tensions between this state's moderate and conservative GOP wings.

Honors
Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Moses W. Harrison II received the Humanitarian Award from the East St. Louis Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for his stance on the Illinois death penalty.
The Rev. Johnny Scott, president of the chapter, noted that the justice was an early critic on constitutional grounds of the state's death penalty and was the first to call for a halt in executions in Illinois. In 1998, in a dissenting opinion in the case of People v. Bull, Chief Justice Harrison wrote that "despite the court's efforts to fashion a death penalty scheme that is just, fair and reliable, the system is not working." (See Illinois Issues, December 1998, page 38.)
Last January, Gov. George Ryan announced a moratorium.
Chief Justice Harrison, born and educated in Collinsville, practiced law there and in East St. Louis. He was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1992.

Illustration courtesy of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
Congress and President Bill Clinton approved $10 million in federal funds for the proposed $115 million Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and authorized up to $50 million in federal expenditures over five years. The action came in the final days of the congressional session, despite objections from Illinois' U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald to using state bidding rules for the project. Groundbreaking for the library is scheduled for February 12. This drawing shows what the entire complex, to be located just northeast of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, will look like when it's completed in 2003.

ABE AND MARY ON TV
PBS sees marriage as a microcosm of the nation

State officials hope a television documentary on the Lincolns will help generate more tourists for Springfield and more private dollars for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The documentary is scheduled to air in February as the nation celebrates Lincoln's 192nd birthday and as groundbreaking begins for the capital city project.

As of mid-October, documentarian David Grubin was finishing the three-part special, "A House Divided: Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln," part of the PBS series "The American Experience." The Lincoln series will air on February 19, 20 and 21.

Brian Reardon, a spokesman for the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, says the documentary will use the Lincoln marriage as a microcosm of the nation during the Civil War years. The department has provided PBS with $750,000 over three fiscal years for sponsorship rights.

Grubin, an Emmy award winner, has produced 60 films, including three PBS documentaries on Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt.

Abe wins again

Abraham Lincoln emerged as the top-rated American president in a recent survey of political scholars conducted by the Chicago Sun-Times and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The scholars praised this state's favorite son, the country's 16th president, for ending slavery and keeping the nation together. Lincoln's predecessor, James Buchanan, headed the list of worst-ranked presidents because his weak leadership made the Civil War inevitable.

Others who rounded off the top five in overall ratings were George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson. FDR was rated most effective among modern presidents and Gerald R. Ford was rated least effective.

Current President Bill Clinton fell in the middle of the pack, earning praise for leadership and criticism for failings in character.

36 November 2000 Illinois Issues www.uis.edu/~ilissues

Sidney R. Yates

Illinois Issues file photograph
Sidney R. Yates, 1993

He was 91 when he died October 5, but it has only been two years since he retired from the U. S. House, having represented his district for a remarkable 48 years.

Sidney R. Yates, who represented the north Chicago/north suburban 9th District, was the oldest and longest-serving House lawmaker when he opted not to run for a seat in the 106th Congress.

He was also considered to be the staunchest supporter of the arts. "He was really a hero to everyone who loved the arts — everyone being the whole country," says U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Yates' successor, who notes that Yates protected the National Endowment for the Arts from conservative efforts to kill it. "Had it not been for Sid Yates, there probably would have been an entirely different outcome."

The Chicago-born son of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants, Yates was educated at the University of Chicago, served 26 months in the Navy and practiced law (including a stint as assistant state attorney general) before he first ran for the U.S. House in 1948.

Yates won that first race for Congress and didn't lose one until 1962, when he decided to challenge U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen unsuccessfully. He ran for the House again in 1964 and never lost again — even against opponents such as the 31-year-old Edwin Eisendrath, who in 1990 argued Yates was getting old and out of touch. Yates trounced his fellow Democrat in the primary and then trounced his Republican opponent by snaring 71 percent of the vote.

Chicago Sun-Times' Washington bureau chief Lynn Sweet wrote in her elegy to Yates that his long career was more "remarkable for his string of accomplishments than its longevity." She adds that he was "a proud liberal, the last of the New Deal Democrats to prowl the House floor. He never deviated." As chairman of Interior appropriations, she writes, "Yates was a protector of museums, the arts and humanities, as well as the national parks, forests and waterways, from the coasts to the Lake Michigan shoreline."

Yates was a major mover in the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Museum and the National Endowment for the Arts. When Republicans gained control of the House in 1994, it cost Yates the chairmanship of the subcommittee that handled endowment appropriations, but according to The New York Times' obituary, Yates retained influence. "In his final months in office, he was still fighting the Republican leadership's efforts to curb the endowment."

In 24 terms, Yates "never wavered from his political principles," Schakowsky says.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years and a son.

www.uis.edu/~ilissues Illinois Issues November 2000 37

Departure
J. Terrence Brunner will hand over the reins of Chicago's Better Government Association at the end of the year.
Brunner, who served as executive director of the private nonpartisan group for 30 years, will continue to serve as special counsel for the organization. In that capacity, he's expected to continue to pursue legal efforts to recover money the BGA alleges was poured into George Ryan's campaign coffers through the licenses-for-bribes scandal.
In past decades, the investigative organization worked with the media to uncover political corruption, including buying a bar with the Chicago Sun-Times, renaming it the Mirage Tavern and documenting bribery schemes by local officials.
A new executive director is expected to be named this month.

Big people on campus

Gene Callahan, who handled government relations for Major League Baseball and was a top aide to several former Democratic state officials, including Paul Simon and Alan Dixon, will now serve on the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees. Callahan, a Springfield resident, will replace George Wilkins, who retired amid controversy over his Indiana residency and his political affiliation. State law limits the number of people from one party who can serve on the board. Wilkins was appointed as a Democrat, then registered to vote as a Republican.

The governor also reappointed Springfield attorney Thomas Lamont and former state Senate President Philip Rock to the Board of Higher Education.

Appointments

Gov. George Ryan named new members to the Illinois Labor Relations Board and the Liquor Control Commission.

Sandra Tristano of Glenview was named to the labor board. Tristano, the wife of Mike Tristano, chief of staff to House Republican Leader Lee Daniels, will be paid $77,230 a year.

Don Adams of Springfield was named chairman of the liquor commission. Adams, the former state Republican Party chairman, will be paid $32,000 a year.

Lillibeth Lopez of Chicago was named to the liquor commission. Lopez, the wife of Democratic state Rep. Edgar Lopez, will be paid $28,000.

Homecoming

Thomas Wolfe to the contrary, former University of Illinois President Stanley O. Ikenberry is coming home. He will leave his post as head of the American Council of Education at the end of June next year and return to the Urbana campus to teach, write and work on educational policy issues. He left the university in 1995 after serving as its president for 16 years. He has been president of the council since 1996.

38 November 2000 Illinois Issues www.uis.edu/~ilissues