After poking fun at the two congressmen who showed up at a recent meeting of the Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District, a comedian ended his post-chicken-dinner program by urging a room full of farmers to vote in this year`s elections.
But turnout won`t be a problem here in the new 19th Congressional District, where two popular Democratic incumbents are facing off in an area that stretches half the length of the state, from the central Illinois factory town of Decatur to the Kentucky border.
The match between the plush campaign chest of U.S. Rep. Terry Bruce of Olney and the populist ”No PAC money” message of U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard of Carterville was set when Republican mapmakers eliminated Poshard`s current far south district.
Poshard has risked being labeled a party-splitter and carpetbagger by moving his home and taking on Bruce. But he`s riding a wave of southern Illinois regionalism that produced 45,000 signatures in September on unsuccessful petitions to preserve the area`s right to have its own congressman.
Bruce has a lot more money, and Poshard will have a hard time warding off an onslaught of TV ads and mailings right before the March 17 primary showing Bruce`s well-known face in the northern, more populated part of the district. But Poshard has taken on the challenger`s cape and is hoping to counter with a huge turnout in southern Illinois. He hopes even Republicans will vote for him because there are few hot races on the area`s GOP ballot.
The choice is not proving easy for party officials, union leaders or common voters in areas such as Piopolis.
”They`re both good men. It`s a shame they have to run against each other,” said Randy Rubenacker, 33, whose family farms 5,000 acres in Hamilton County.
The area is now represented by Bruce, but Rubenacker said he`s leaning toward Poshard, who was born nearby.
Next November, one of the two candidates will face the winner of a GOP primary between Paul Jurgens and Douglas Lee, both from Decatur. The new district is heavily Democratic.
The difference in the two Democrats` style was apparent in their brief addresses to the Hamilton County farmers in late January.
The more congressional-looking Bruce stood and told of food safety legislation he introduced last year and of advances in negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, an international treaty that will affect agricultural markets.
Bruce, 48, was barely two years out of law school when he won a seat in the Illinois Senate in 1970.
He was elected to Congress 14 years later and has since used his post on the Energy and Commerce Committee to promote ethanol use and the interests of the region`s coal and oil producers. He worked on passage of the recent Clean Air Act but says he tried to limit negative impact on Illinois industry and jobs.
While easily winning re-election in his current district, Bruce has amassed a campaign coffer that totaled a formidable $699,486 at the end of 1991, mainly through contributions from political action committees.
The easygoing Poshard then stood and spoke of how his father, who farmed not far from the old brick school where the farmers were meeting, would have shared their annoyance with the government`s effort to declare marginal wetlands off limits.
Poshard, 46, is a former high school government teacher and served as a state senator for four years before winning a seat in Congress in 1988. He serves on the Public Works and Transportation Committee, has fought to protect his region`s coal miners and was instrumental in recent compromises over preserving the Shawnee National Forest.
Poshard has promised to limit himself to 10 years in office, and emphasizes he does not accept PAC contributions, though he did accept them when first running in 1988. His campaign started out with just $20,000 last fall.
Both men are losing the heart of their current districts: Bruce is giving up the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Danville area, while Poshard is losing Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
So the candidates are focusing a good portion of their campaign energy in territory new to both: Decatur, whose 83,885 residents could decide the race. Union endorsements could play a pivotal role there, though United Auto Workers officials say they probably won`t endorse either man, because both have good pro-labor voting records.
In a Democratic primary in the northwestern portion of the state, U.S. Rep. Lane Evans of Rock Island is being challenged by Richard Maynard of Aledo in the sprawling 17th Congressional District. Maynard, a businessman and the Mercer County Democratic chairman, concedes he`s facing an uphill battle against the progressive, 10-year incumbent.
