Two hours before he faced a room packed with nearly 200 friends, supporters and relatives, Gov. Jim Edgar finally decided that in the end, he simply wanted to go out on top.
By uttering the words “I will not be a candidate in the upcoming election,” Edgar on Wednesday set off a political chain reaction of massive proportions among Republicans who now hold all major statewide elected offices and caused spillover effects on the 1998 Democratic ticket.
Though the decision will have an immediate impact on the futures of many other politicians, Edgar made it, finally, for his own reasons.
A bout with heart problems and bypass surgery a few years ago “made me realize that there were lots of things in life I’d like to do,” the governor said.
He never had been eager to seek a third term as governor and since July had cooled to the idea of running for the U.S. Senate.
But Edgar maintained Wednesday that he did not rule out any option as he and his wife, Brenda, continued to discuss what to do with their lives.
Edgar said he wanted to make clear that his wife “did not encourage me to get out,” despite her concern that public life was taking a toll on his health.
Brenda Edgar has been the governor’s closest political confidant. But she said she had thought since January that her husband would run for the Senate. She said she would have supported him had he made the race.
“I was very surprised of the choice,” she said.
Now, after weeks filled with questions, the only one remaining for Edgar in closing out a 30-year public career–ranging from legislative staffer, lawmaker, gubernatorial lobbyist, secretary of state and governor–is what he will do when he retires in January 1999.
He leaves behind the only life he has known without concrete prospects for the future.
“I don’t have a job,” he said. “I have no real wealth.”
But the 51-year-old Republican, among the most popular of Illinois’ politicians, said he wouldn’t go quietly in the remaining 16 months of his term. He implored GOP legislative leaders to pass school-funding reform as his legacy, a wish they have previously denied.
Immediately after his speech, Edgar embraced the prospect of a Ryan-Ryan team atop the Republican ticket next year, saying he supported Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan for the party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate and Secretary of State George Ryan to replace him as governor.
Just as quickly, Jim Ryan announced the formation of an exploratory committee to examine a bid for the Senate seat held by Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun. And George Ryan, who has long wanted to be governor, said he would announce his decision next Wednesday. The two Ryans are not related.
Sounding nervous and strained at times, Edgar borrowed heavily from other speeches made throughout his gubernatorial career to recount the goals he had set–and met–in his administration.
“I knew, and I’m even more convinced now, that not all wisdom resides in Washington, Springfield and Chicago,” Edgar said. “So we have reached out. We have listened. We have responded–more than any administration in the history of this state. And because of that, Illinois is a better state and we’re better prepared for the future.”
Edgar, who brought a reserved style of leadership to Illinois after 14 years of the colorful Gov. James R. Thompson, reeled off a businesslike litany of accomplishments: imposing fiscal discipline and job cuts; expanding welfare-to-work programs; encouraging economic development; investing in natural resources; and money and management reforms for the Chicago Public Schools.
“I will be forever grateful to the people of this state for giving me this rare, precious opportunity and helping me to achieve what we have achieved during the ’90s,” Edgar said.
“You did help me win. You did help me to govern. And with your help, I believe we have accomplished–and will continue to accomplish–great things for Illinois.”
But he maintained that there was still “important unfinished business.” Topping that list is the school-funding reform that Republican leaders in the General Assembly rejected during the spring session.
“Our system of funding schools remains fundamentally unfair,” Edgar said, vowing to continue pushing for a dramatic overhaul in the way Illinois’ property-tax-dependent schools are funded.
Edgar’s school-funding remarks were directed to the front row of the Executive Mansion ballroom, where Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale) and House GOP leader Lee Daniels of Elmhurst were seated.
Philip, who led the fight against Edgar’s $1.6 billion plan to boost income taxes, increase money for schools and cut property taxes, was conciliatory after Edgar spoke.
“I think we’re going to miss Jim Edgar. I think that when you reflect on his two terms that he’s done a very good job. The state has never been in better financial condition than we are today,” he said.
And while Philip has told his constituents that he will not support a major income-tax increase such as the one Edgar proposed for schools, he said the governor’s plan was “not dead.”
But Daniels, who lined up GOP opposition to Edgar’s proposal in the House, made it clear that he continues to view a statewide tax increase as a threat to his efforts to retake control of the House next year.
“The vast majority of Republicans do not favor an income-tax increase,” Daniels said. “And they point very strongly to the successes of the Edgar administration and the state’s economy as the very reason why we do not need an income-tax increase.”
Edgar said he would be open to a more modest plan. But he said he doubted if major changes in school funding could be done without a tax increase.
“I’m still governor for 16 months. Now, I’ll probably have to repeat that several times to people to remind them,” he said.
It will be about four years before Edgar can start drawing his state pension of more than $80,000 a year. He has shrugged off or laughed at some of the jobs others have proposed for him, including a university presidency or a job in the horse-racing industry.
“I figure I have 16 months to mull that over,” he said. “I don’t intend to just retire to Florida and build a condo or something like that. Brenda’s worried that I’m going to hang out at racetracks.”
Edgar said he would not convert to personal use his $3.5 million campaign fund, but instead was planning to use the money to support GOP candidates and to assist social causes supported by his wife, especially children’s issues.
He left little room for a return to politics.
“It’s probably not going to be any better than this as far as our ability to be successful in government and politics,” he said. “So, if you stick around here, probably you’re going to go downhill.
“I always thought, `I’m going out on top.’ Some people in politics stay too long, and sometimes if you don’t go out on top, they throw you out.”
With all of the state’s top offices and control of the General Assembly up for grabs in the 1998 elections, Edgar’s decision has for months been the most closely watched matter in Illinois politics.
Among those most affected were Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls John Schmidt, a Chicago attorney; Glenn Poshard, a Downstate congressman; and former state Atty. Gen. Roland Burris.
But watching Edgar closest of all was outgoing U.S. Atty. Jim Burns, whose decision whether to run for governor hinges in part on whether Edgar would run for re-election.
Despite widespread speculation about what he might do, Edgar never let on. His decision remained a secret until he revealed it Wednesday.
“This has been extremely difficult, just getting the words out of my mouth,” he said.
Edgar acknowledged as he took office in January 1991, following Thompson’s record 14-year reign, that he believed he should serve only eight years. But he admitted that he was at times intrigued by a challenge to Moseley-Braun.
And, he conceded, repeated publicity about the recent convictions of a major campaign contributor in a Public Aid scandal made him think about a third term as governor.
“All I can say is that it did give me pause to run again. Just because of how you guys played it,” Edgar said of the fraud and bribery convictions involving Management Services of Illinois Inc. “But I decided I’m not going to let how the media play an issue determine what I’m going to do the next five years.”
On Tuesday night, leaning toward leaving public life but still having bouts of indecision, Edgar convened a small group of five aides. He rehearsed three speeches prepared for any scenario by his former press secretary and close friend Michael Lawrence. By the end, the aides and Edgar were in tears.
At a noon family luncheon Wednesday, his wife asked the governor which speech he was going to deliver. He still did not know.
But an hour later, he and his wife agreed on the retirement speech.
