Stevenson Finds Misfortune Dogging Candidacy

Ever since Adlai E. Stevenson III discovered disciples of ultraconservative Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. unexpectedly clinging to his coattails after the Illinois primary last March, his campaign for governor has been bedeviled.

Mishaps, mistakes and misstatements have become so common that some fellow Democrats are calling Stevenson “sadly Adlai.”

“This is not where I planned (the campaign) to be at all,” he admits with remarkably good humor.

The veteran politician hopes to get his sidetracked gubernatorial bid chugging Aug. 4, when he files petitions with state elections officials to create a new political party named Solidarity. That will offer Stevenson a ballot home away from the LaRouche candidates, who will remain on the Democratic ticket in the November general election.

Stevenson remains a tenacious campaigner, but he has much to overcome in his effort to unseat Republican Gov. James R. Thompson, who after 10 years in office is running for a fourth consecutive term. (His first term lasted only two years because of a change in the state constitution.)

“Stevenson has developed a loser image,” writes Chicago Sun-Times political editor Basil Talbott Jr. “It follows him like a cloud. Stevenson is suffering from the Jerry Ford syndrome, the President who became known for accidents.”

Cast on His Foot

This week Stevenson is campaigning with a cast on his left foot. He says he does not know how he broke it. The break came shortly after he recovered from a back injury suffered when he was thrown from a horse on his northern Illinois grain and cattle farm. Now he jokes that his running mate for lieutenant governor, former Judge Michael J. Howlett Jr., may someday be “just a hoof beat away from the governorship.”

A variety of embarrassments have hurt Stevenson as much as his injuries. For example:

--When he recently showed up to address the state American Legion convention he found that the organization had adjourned more than an hour before his scheduled talk. The Legion apologized for the oversight. Stevenson, a Korean War veteran and a Legion member, declined a second opportunity to speak.

--Stevenson bought a Toyota truck for his farm. That did not please the United Auto Workers. “If I had known I was running then I wouldn’t have done it,” he told them. “I regret it now.” The union, which endorsed him in his 1982 gubernatorial bid, voted to remain neutral this year.

--When he ran unsuccessfully for governor against Thompson four years ago, Stevenson resigned from a private Chicago club that barred women from membership. He had to do the same thing in this campaign. He quit the Metropolitan Club in Washington because it excluded women.

--Chicago Tribune columnists ridiculed Stevenson because he told the St. Louis Globe-Democrat: “When I entered Congress in 1970, it was functioning. When I left, it was paralyzed. I decided to retire--to end this paralysis.”

--Columnists also poked fun at Stevenson for telling interviewers about his passion for hunting wild turkeys. “You get up at 4 in the morning. Go out so you are in position at daybreak and wait for the gobblers to start gobbling. And then you cluck-cluck, try to woo them. I pretend I am a female turkey. I try to lure a gobbler to me.”

“Jim Thompson hunts antiques. I hunt turkeys. I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” Stevenson protests now. He says he believes he is the target of a deliberate campaign by Republicans, unfriendly Democrats and the LaRouche camp to discredit him. (A number of anecdotes gathered for this article from political sources did indeed turn out to be either false or significantly distorted when they were checked.)

Stevenson’s campaign is also plagued by disarray in the state Democratic Party and by intraparty fights between white and black Democrats in Chicago. It suffered another blow last week when it was disclosed that the Illinois AFL-CIO not only will not endorse Stevenson but may even endorse Thompson.

Setbacks began with Stevenson’s victory in the primary--and victories at the same time for LaRouche followers Mark Fairchild and Janice Hart, who captured the Democratic nominations for lieutenant governor and secretary of state. Party leaders were stunned.

Stevenson branded Hart and Fairchild “neo-Nazis” and “bizarre extremists” who charge, among other things, that England’s Queen Elizabeth II heads an international drug ring. Refusing to appear on the Democratic ticket with the LaRouche candidates, he resigned from the ballot, tried unsuccessfully to run as an independent and then began working to form a third party. Legal hurdles, tangles of election red tape and the effort needed to collect signatures have also set back the campaign.

Setback in Fund Raising

“There’s no question about it, we lost steam after the primary,” says Stevenson. “People needed assurance that I would be on the ballot.” The delay has hurt fund raising. Stevenson has collected about $900,000, including $105,000 he personally put into the campaign. Thompson’s war chest is reported to be more than three times as big.

“Money is a serious problem,” says Stevenson. “I hope and expect we’ll be more successful now that these large procedural hurdles have been overcome.” He plans fund-raising events next month in California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., and New York.

The new Solidarity Party will have only three serious candidates: Stevenson, Howlett for lieutenant governor and suburban Chicago official Jane N. Spirgel for secretary of state. Political unknowns will occupy the remaining seven ballot positions that must be filled to comply with state law. Stevenson hopes they will not draw voter attention.

Stevenson and Howlett have two potent names in Illinois Democratic politics. Stevenson is a two-term former U.S. senator, the son of a two-time presidential candidate and the great-grandson of a former U.S. vice president. In 1964, in a rare court-ordered at-large state Legislature election, Stevenson outpolled 233 other candidates. In 1966 he was elected state treasurer, the only Democrat to win in a Republican sweep of state offices.

Howlett’s father was popular in Democratic politics for decades and served in a variety of positions including secretary of state. Spirgel is the sole Democrat on the county board in suburban Dupage, a Republican stronghold.

Before the primary, a Chicago Tribune poll showed Stevenson narrowly leading Thompson. A July poll by the Rockford Register Star showed Thompson leading Stevenson 50% to 30%--about where the two candidates were at this time four years ago.

Stevenson lost in 1982 by just 5,074 votes out of more than 3.6 million cast in the closest election in Illinois history. This rerun is a grudge match between two politicians who, in private, voice contempt for each other that transcends normal political dislikes.

Despite all the obstacles, setbacks and misfortune, nobody is writing off the Stevenson campaign.

“Adlai is a contrarian,” says Rep. Richard J. Durbin. “He does the opposite of what people expect him to do. He may not have raised much money but he’s had a wealth of publicity,” adds the Springfield Democrat.

“He hasn’t lost the election yet,” concedes Sun-Times political editor Talbott.

“Gutsy,” is what the Chicago Tribune called Stevenson last week in an editorial praising him for being “a candidate who stands up under pummeling . . . and keeps campaigning.”

“But we’re just getting started,” says Stevenson, “and we’ve got plenty of time left.”

Times staff writer Bob Secter in Washington also contributed to this article.