He is the only governor that a growing generation of the state`s 11.4 million citizens has known.
James Robert Thompson Jr. added another asterisk Monday behind his name in Illinois history books as he was inaugurated for an unprecedented fourth term as the state`s top public official.
He began his 11th year as the chief executive of the nation`s sixth-largest state. On Tuesday, when Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm steps down, Thompson will become the nation`s senior governor, a title acquired the same way that he plans to steer the state toward the 21st Century–one day at a time.
”Nobody`s going to hand our future to us–not the world, not our country, not our neighbors,” Thompson told an audience of 4,500 after Chief Justice William G. Clark of the Illinois Supreme Court administered his oath of office. ”We`ll have to earn it, starting now, one day at a time.”
Princella B. Lee, a Chicago gospel singer who performed at the ceremony at Thompson`s personal request, awakened the polite but restrained crowd a few seconds later with a rousing and inspirational version of ”One Day at a Time” as the governor beamed.
It was a forward-looking Thompson at Springfield`s Prairie Capital Convention Center podium shortly before noon Monday. Often criticized in the past as a ”hands-off” chief executive who governed from crisis to crisis, Thompson told the crowd that the state can no longer afford to look only to the next legislative session, the next administration or the next election.
”We cannot continue to be manacled by the tyranny of the short-term focus imposed by unrelenting annual budgets and biennial elections,” he said. Although he has worked to erase the regional bickering that has clouded statewide development in the past, it was also a unifying Thompson who sought to expand understanding between Chicago and Downstate, between suburbs and Chicago, sometimes between Chicagoans themselves.
He took office the first time less than a month after the funeral of Mayor Richard J. Daley. While Daley ruled with ironclad dictates, Thompson has been able to forge coalitions and compromises sufficient to see most of his initiatives enacted into law.
”We don`t know enough about one another, and we`re the poorer for it,”
Thompson said Monday. ”Too many of us are content to live in a house divided, with invisible walls that divide us into Chicago, the suburbs and Downstate regions.
”So I will take the lead in giving `a voice to Illinois,` its people, its strengths, its richness and texture. In the coming four years, I am going to undertake the audacious task of changing the way the world sees us.”
Thompson said he took the podium Monday morning ”infused with excitement and the pride of the political accomplishment, fired by enthusiasm and more than a little scared by the whole thing.” He said those were the same emotions he felt 10 years ago.
Now a seasoned and wiser politician and statesman, Thompson, at age 50, is the 37th person to hold the title of governor of Illinois, although officially he is the 39th governor because Gov. Richard Ogelsby served three nonconsecutive terms in the late 19th Century.
Monday`s inauguration was clearly Thompson`s. His hand was on the selection of the entertainers–from the Springfield Symphony Orchestra`s special Sunday concert to Bobby Short`s singing at Monday night`s festive Inaugural Ball.
At the ball, attended by some 4,000 people, Thompson, dressed in a tuxedo, and his wife, Jayne, in a black-and-fuchsia evening gown, started the dancing. Later, Thomspon danced with his 8-year-old daughter, Samantha, to the song, ”I Love You, Samantha.”
The governor spent 30 minutes doing live television news programs before heading back to the dance floor. ”With the exception of the first
(inaugural), because it was the first, this has been the best one,”
Thompson said, while autographing souvenir inaugural programs.
His inaugural speech, though outlined by close aides, was fine-tuned several times by Thompson until the final version was approved Monday morning. His wife and daughter held the family Bible as Thompson was sworn in at 11:45 a.m.
The Thompsons shared the podium for the swearing-in of the state`s other constitutional officers. Lt. Gov. George Ryan, Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan, Secretary of State Jim Edgar, Comptroller Roland Burris and Treasurer Jerome Cosentino also began their new terms in office.
Also taking their oaths for new six-year terms as trustees of the University of Illinois were Nina Shepherd, Judith Ann Calder and Charles Wolff.
Although he offered few specifics during the 15-minute speech, Thompson said the state must begin to build a new program to aid young children as they grow to adulthood. He said prevention of problems, not reaction to them, will be the cornerstone to his human services agenda.
His inaugural address was the first of thre policy speeches Thompson will make in three months. He is expected to provide more details on the initiatives for his new administration in a Feb. 4 State of the State address and in his March 4 budget message to the General Assembly.
Recounting the ”Build Illinois” program he started two years ago to retool the state`s physical infrastructure, Thompson said Monday, ”Today I challenge us to build the infrastructure of every child, every child–their bodies, their minds, their spirits–so that the children of Illinois, all the children, will grow up second to none in the world.”
He also reiterated his belief that Illinois must take a lead in the federal debate over welfare reform.
”Except for a small handful of people who are incapable of supporting themselves, welfare as a way of life, rather than a way station between economic opportunities, must stop,” Thompson said. ”It is hurtful to our economy and world competitiveness, unfair to recipients and unaffordable to taxpayers.”
