Stevenson Narrowly Lost to Thompson in 1982 : Illinois Governor Race a Bitter Replay

Catfish are frying. The beer is running out. The band is playing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” And Adlai E. Stevenson III is wending his way through the faithful at an old-fashioned Fulton County Democratic picnic.

The crowd--unemployed miners, unemployed factory workers, farmers, retirees and politicians--are in shirt sleeves and denim. Stevenson is in a tan suit. He’s wearing a necktie. His shoes are those of a businessman. He moves, stiffly, uncomfortably perhaps, from picnic table to picnic table, shaking hands with strangers and attempting small talk.

Stevenson, 56, is running, uphill, for governor of Illinois.

Hundreds of miles to the north, the town of Oregon, Ill., is celebrating its 100th birthday with an old-fashioned small-town parade. Bands, antique cars, an Abraham Lincoln look-alike, clowns and beauty queens move along the tree-lined streets. So does Illinois’ Republican Gov. James R. Thompson.

Jogging Route

The crowd--farmers, butchers, lawyers, factory workers and politicians--wear long-sleeve shirts, jackets and jeans. Thompson’s denims are washed-out and worn through, his sneakers dusty. His Chicago Bears jersey carries Walter Payton’s number, 34. Like an overweight Payton, the governor jogs the parade route, zigging and zagging, shaking hands, sipping a beer, stopping to listen to a complaint.

Thompson, 50, is running to stay on the hilltop, to keep the office he’s held for 10 years.

It is one of the most-watched gubernatorial races in the country, a bitter replay of the 1982 election, which Thompson won by just 5,074 votes out of more than 3.6 million. This year’s match drew national attention last March when two followers of political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. won Democratic nominations to run for lieutenant governor and secretary of state with Stevenson.

Rather than appear at the head of a ticket with two people whom he called “neo-Nazis,” Stevenson renounced his Democratic nomination and formed the Solidarity Party. That cost him valuable summer campaign and fund-raising time while he walked through a political and legal mine field to get his new party organized and, more importantly, recognized and onto the ballot.

‘LaRouchies Killed It’

“It’s been the worst ever for fund raising,” Stevenson says. “The LaRouchies killed it. The primary stopped our fund raising.” Thompson may spend $5 for every $1 spent by Stevenson’s campaign.

The turmoil created by the unexpected LaRouche primary victory also cost Stevenson the edge that most political observers thought he had going into the 1986 contest.

Before the primary, Stevenson was seen as a strong contender. In private, even Thompson, whose 10 years in office is longer than the tenure of any other Illinois governor, was skeptical about his chances for winning an unprecedented fourth term.

Only now, with mere weeks to go before balloting, is Stevenson regaining campaign momentum. He has begun to move up in some newspaper polls and, perhaps equally significant, the number of undecided voters is also growing, coming largely from Thompson’s support base. A similar phenomenon occurred four years ago in the contest that ended in a virtual dead heat.

This time, however, Thompson has the support of most organized labor leaders in the state, whereas some key Democrats in Chicago are reportedly taking a passive stand that could hurt Stevenson.

Different Ticket

His candidacy may also be hurt because Democratic voters will have to punch several places on their ballot to vote for Democrats and then for Stevenson, whose name will appear only on the Solidarity ticket.

Nobody expected the rematch to be pretty or polite--these two politicians despise one another. Their contempt, long expressed in private, is now public.

“He’s running for revenge,” Thompson says of his opponent. “If I was not running for reelection, he wouldn’t be running.”

“He wants power for the sake of power,” Stevenson says. “He looks upon politics as a way station to personal enrichment.”

“He’s accusing me of bribery, and he should take what evidence he has to the U.S. attorney and prosecutors,” Thompson says, his voice quivering. Thompson made his reputation as a crusading, corruption-busting U.S. attorney.

‘Gray Flannel Graft’

But Stevenson has made what he calls “gray flannel graft” a major element of his campaign, reciting a litany of lawyers and investment bankers who once worked for the Thompson Administration and who now do business with the state and make political contributions to the governor.

“If somebody said you were guilty of bribery, wouldn’t you feel a strong personal dislike?” Thompson asks.

Thompson has thrown his own punches. He released 43 pages of Stevenson’s financial records and his 1985 federal income tax return after Stevenson had released only a summary. Looking back, Thompson tells The Times, “that was a silly thing to do.”

The two men argue endlessly over the state of the Illinois economy, with Thompson boasting that the 110 new factories opened in Illinois last year were the most of any state in the nation and that Illinois was second only to California in factory expansion.

But Stevenson cites statistics showing that Illinois has lost more jobs than most of the other states over the last 10 years and charges that the Illinois economy has stagnated under Thompson.

‘Voters Are Smart Enough’

“We’re in a transitional economy,” the governor says. “I think generally voters are smart enough to know when a governor should get credit or blame for the economy.”

In fact, about the only thing the two have in common is their deep-seated beliefs that they belong in the Illinois governor’s mansion.

“I have an incurable case of heredity politics,” says Stevenson, a former U.S. senator, son of a former governor of Illinois and great-grandson of a former U.S. vice president. “We used to talk about when I’d go into politics or how I’d go into politics. But it was never ‘whether’ I’d go into politics. And I’ve always wanted to be governor.”

‘I’m Just Getting Good’

“I enjoy being governor. It’s a good job and I’m just getting good at it,” says Thompson, who, if he wins in November, is likely to see his national stock rise. He is already mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, although he denies that he is interested in that or in a federal judiciary post, something that he is also mentioned for in political circles.

“Why would I want to be vice president? This is a far more challenging job,” says Thompson, who is predicting a victory by a much wider margin than last time.

One unscientific poll suggests that he’s right.

Skokie Federal Savings is offering a “voters choice” certificate of deposit with a 6.3% yield and a quarter percentage bonus for depositors who pick the correct winner of the governor’s race. So far they have sold certificates worth $1.9 million--$1.8 million invested in Thompson.