They`re back.
Gov. James Thompson and former U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson have resumed their marathon rivalry that ended in a controversial photo finish in 1982. For the first time since Ninian Edwards and Tommy Sloo Jr. sprinted toward the first Illinois gubernatorial election in 1826, the Main Event in the Land of Lincoln is a return engagement.
Thompson, 50, the only Illinois governor to win three consecutive terms, is seeking to extend his tenure as the state`s longest-reigning chief executive by winning a record fourth turn in office.
Stevenson, 55, the son and namesake of a popular governor and two-time Democratic presidential nominee, is running on a third-party label, the Illinois Solidarity Party, because he refused to run with two political extremists who captured nominations on the statewide Democratic ticket.
Despite the stunning handicap to his campaign when followers of political eccentric Lyndon LaRouche were nominated as Democrats, pundits and politicians alike have refused to dismiss Stevenson`s chances. They remember Stevenson`s strong finish four years ago, despite polls that said he`d be a landslide victim, and they note polls now that show Republican Thompson with barely more than 50 percent of the vote.
In a power struggle that has grown increasingly bitter, Thompson and Stevenson have escalated their attacks on each other, often to their own detriment.
Thompson has described Stevenson as a mudslinger, labor baiter, elitist, quitter and a Chicken Little. ”I wouldn`t have a beer with him,” Thompson said last week when asked about his animosity toward his challenger. ”He`s sort of aloof and arrogant.”
For his part, Stevenson has characterized Thompson as a liar, ”a big blubbering whale,” pathetic, a con artist, incompetent, captive of special-interest groups and a person who has ”never had an ennobling thought.”
Stevenson, who complained in 1982 that Thompson was portraying him as a wimp has sought to build a tougher image by describing himself as an ex-marine and reminding audiences that Thompson avoided military service because of a medical deferment and suggesting that Thompson is a sissy because he collects antiques.
”Both reporters and my press staff expect me to sit like a mummy while he tap dances all over my head,” Thompson lamented last week during an appearance on WMAQ-TV`s ”Chicago News Conference.” ”I can`t just sit there and take it all of the time.”
Stevenson said in an interview: ”I don`t like getting involved in personalities. But I`m just responding to his attacks. I`m not going to let them pass. I`m going to hold him accountable.”
Last week, Stevenson embarrassed Thompson by obtaining and making public the draft of the governor`s own cost-control study that suggested how state government could save $223 million. Thompson later in the week responded to criticism, including some from Stevenson, of cuts made in the funding for mental health services and made a second round of budget restorations.
On Thursday, Thompson and Stevenson are scheduled to have breakfast and then take off the gloves for the first of three debates. Because Thompson and Stevenson are experienced debaters and their 1982 encounters were inconclusive, neither side is expecting the debates to have much impact on the November outcome.
Their first confrontation ended in the long count, the closest gubernatorial election in more than 150 years. Despite a 17-point lead in election eve polls, Thompson barely survived, edging out Stevenson by 5,074 votes out of more than 3.6 million cast.
As a result of Stevenson`s decision to go it alone on the Illinois Solidarity Party, the 1986 election is the first Illinois gubernatorial contest in 160 years without a Democratic nominee for governor. The Illinois Democratic Party is officially supporting Stevenson`s candidacy. But last month, Thompson became the first Republican candidate for governor to win the endorsement of the predominantly Democratic AFL-CIO, the state`s largest labor federation.
While Thompson is leading Stevenson by a margin of 15 percentage points in a series of recent public opinion polls, both candidates have said they expect the race to tighten. ”It`s going to get a lot closer,” said Cook County Republican chairman Donald Totten.
As in 1982, Thompson has a huge advantage in financial resources. Thompson now has more than $2 million in his campaign warchest, while Stevenson has $125,000. Vice President George Bush is expected to bring in an additional $200,000 for Thompson this week at a fundraiser in Peoria.
Stevenson and a wealthy supporter have provided most of the money for the challenger`s campaign treasury. The former U.S. senator and state treasurer has donated $150,000 of his own money and Chicago millionaire Richard Dennis has contributed $300,000, the largest political donation in Illinois history. Aides to Stevenson said that Dennis has pledged to double Stevenson`s contributions. Thompson has denounced Stevenson and Dennis as ”two millionaires trying to buy the governor`s mansion.”
Among the unknowns that could prove to be a major factor in the Thompson- Stevenson rematch is whether the courts will overturn last week`s ruling by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and place the nonpartisan mayoral referendum on the November ballot.
Another factor will probably be Thompson`s longevity. Even among many of his supporters, there is a feeling that 10 years as the state`s chief executive may be long enough. A recent statewide survey indicated that nearly half of Illinois residents think that Thompson`s time is past.
”The longevity issue is a problem for Thompson,” said U.S. Rep. William Lipinski (D., Ill.). ”I think that Stevenson is going to be the next governor.”
Stevenson, though, has what may prove to be an even weightier liability:
the inability to capitalize on straight-ticket Democratic votes. Four years ago, Stevenson received about 400,000 straight-ticket votes from Democratic stalwarts. Strategists in both major political parties are predicting that Stevenson`s detachment from the regular Democratic ticket could cost him more than 100,000 votes.
Former Gov. Richard Ogilvie, a Chicago Republican and keen student of statewide politics, predicts that Thompson will win the rematch with Stevenson but that it won`t be a runaway. Ogilvie suggested that the nonpartisan mayoral referendum was the most serious threat to Thompson`s political future.
Thompson and Stevenson have denounced the nonpartisan referendum as an effort by Mayor Harold Washington`s political opponents to change the rules in the middle of the game to thwart Washington`s re-election in 1987. Thompson`s strategists have acknowledged their concern that the referendum could generate such a huge Democratic turnout in Chicago that Stevenson could dramatically narrow the gap. For the same reason, some of Stevenson`s strategists are hopeful that the referendum will be back on the ballot.
Few local political figures were surprised, then, when James Nolan, the GOP commissioner of the three-member election board, reversed his position last week and voted to strike the measure from the general election ballot. Thompson was accused of pressuring Nolan.
”I think Thompson lost the election when he pulled Nolan off,” said Cook County Democratic Chairman Edward Vrdolyak. ”I`m going to actively work against him. If he hadn`t pulled the plug on the referendum I think there wouldn`t have been the strong feelings (against Thompson) in the ethnic communities that there are now.”
Thompson is hoping to cut in half Stevenson`s 300,000-vote winning margin in Cook County by making gains among ethnic voters. Gregory Baise, Thompson`s campaign manager, said the Republican governor is planning to actively solicit Democratic votes and will be meeting with regular Democratic party leaders in an effort to woo their support.
Backers of the nonpartisan mayoral referendum had hoped to enlist Thompson`s support for the measure and some of them echoed Vrdolyak`s disappointment that Thompson may have killed the referendum. ”Thompson could have won our ward,” said a prominent Southwest Side Democrat, who asked not to be identified, ”but he`s not going to do as well now.”
Recent polls have indicated, though, that Thompson is running stronger in Chicago than in 1982, when he received just 26 percent of the city vote, but that his support may have slipped Downstate, where he compiled his winning margin over Stevenson. Thompson, who carried just two Chicago wards in 1982, is hopeful of winning a dozen white ethnic wards this fall. Stevenson has been buoyed by Downstate audiences and is optimistic that he will run stronger there than in his earlier match with Thompson.
Last summer, some of the state`s more prominent Democratic leaders were quietly maneuvering to force Stevenson out of the race. But after installing William Filan, a respected Chicago political operative, as his campaign manager in July, Stevenson`s fortunes began to improve. Under Filan`s direction, Stevenson qualified in August for the November ballot with three times the required number of 25,000 signatures.
”There`s no question that getting on the ballot removed a lot of doubts about the campaign,” Stevenson said. ”That was the turning point.”
Just last week, Stevenson announced that U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, Washington, Vrdolyak and U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, four of the state`s most influential Democrats, had agreed to be co-chairmen of his campaign.
Thompson, though, remained confident, noting in an interview that he is running well ahead of his 1982 pace when a Labor Day poll taken by The Tribune showed him leading Stevenson by 7 percent. The Republican governor observed that a Democratic-sponsored poll released last week showed him leading Stevenson by 15 percent. ”If I would win by the margin on election day, you`d have to call it a landslide,” he said.
