Former Sen. Charles Percy (R., Ill.) said Thursday that Chicago businessman William Farley would be an ”exceptional” Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1986, but he also touted Democratic incumbent Alan Dixon.
The top Republican candidate to face Dixon would ”certainly be Bill Farley, if you`re going to pick an industrialist,” Percy said in a meeting with reporters in the Chicago office of the Institute for International Education, which recently named Percy its chairman.
”I rather favor people from industry and business going into politics. There are too few who have that background in political life,” Percy said.
”If he`d be willing to make that kind of sacrifice, he`d be an exceptional man.”
Farley, 42, who recently expressed interest in the Senate race, has become a controversial figure in Chicago business circles as a newcomer who quickly built Farley Industries Inc. into a highly leveraged conglomerate of manufacturing companies. Farley Industries announced Wednesday that it would purchase Northwest Industries for more than $1 billion.
Farley`s political interest has drawn comparisons to Percy, who became the chief executive officer of Bell & Howell Co. at age 29 and was elected to the Senate in 1966.
But Percy, 65, stopped short of an endorsement of Farley. He also said former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would be ”an outstanding candidate” but questioned whether Rumsfeld is seriously interested in the race. Rumsfeld is chief executive officer of G.D. Searle & Co., Skokie.
Dixon also got high marks from Percy, indicating that the former three-term Republican senator would not vigorously oppose the Democrat`s bid for re- election.
”Alan Dixon was an outstanding colleague for me to work with,” Percy said. ”We had a very close and fine relationship. There was never a partisan thought between our staffs at any time, or between Alan and myself.”
Dixon was criticized last fall by some Democrats for not campaigning more heartily on behalf of Paul Simon in his successful bid to unseat Percy.
Percy said he ”could not say anything negative about Alan Dixon.”
After the press conference, Percy met with Chicago business leaders and officers of the Institute for International Education, which administers Fulbright scholarships and other foreign exchange programs. Percy, who recently formed Charles Percy & Associates, an international trade firm, was named chairman of the institute in March.
Noting that he had been elected unanimously by the 50 board members of the institute, Percy joked that he ”did slightly better than I did in November,” when he lost to Simon by 75,000 votes.
Percy, known as a globe-trotter while in the Senate, sported two wristwatches. On his left wrist was the time in Washington, and on his right was the time in New Delhi, where he was to fly later in the day on a trade mission for the Reagan administration.
