Fearing he might become victim to a political doublecross, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert warned Wednesday that the $115 million Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum in Springfield should not be run by patronage hires from outgoing Gov. George Ryan’s administration.
“The Lincoln Library project should be free from politics and patronage,” Hastert said. “In selecting staff, we should seek out the most accomplished academics and Lincoln scholars in the nation.”
Though the Yorkville Republican did not name names, his rebuke was clearly aimed at the governor, who has been a close political ally, and Ryan’s chief of staff, Robert Newtson. Ryan has said Newtson is “eminently qualified” to become the library’s director, even as the governor picked a panel to conduct a nationwide search to fill the post.
Hastert has been perplexed by the political controversy Ryan has created over the library director’s post, particularly since the House speaker came to the governor’s defense in a dispute over the library last year with U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.). Fitzgerald raised the possibility that Ryan would steer up to $50 million in federal construction funds for the project to cronies and attempted a filibuster to force the Senate to demand safeguards to prevent that from happening.
The filibuster failed, but Hastert accused Fitzgerald of “political grandstanding” and making unfair personal attacks on Ryan’s integrity.
Now, amid growing criticism that Ryan may be preparing to turn a showcase institution into a safe haven for his loyalists, Hastert is telegraphing a message to him that he would not appreciate any moves that would justify Fitzgerald’s earlier criticism.
But even as Hastert was stating his belief that an academic should head the facility, Ryan’s efforts to generate support for Newtson intensified.
Gerald Shea, an influential lobbyist who was tapped by the governor to chair the University of Illinois board of trustees, defended Newtson in a letter to the editor that appeared in Wednesday editions of a Springfield newspaper. Shea also wants his university to run the facility rather than the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, the department that the state’s congressional delegation was told would be in charge.
Shea contended “a small group” is trying to “muscle” the facility’s governance under the historic preservation agency and also is “dragging the project into the mud” by sullying Newtson’s involvement.
“The critics charge that Bob Newtson is not qualified to run an institution like the library and museum because he is not a pre-eminent Lincoln scholar,” Shea wrote. But, he continued, the director “will not devote the majority of his or her time to scholarly pursuits, but to the planning, operation and daily work of the institution.”
Ryan’s favored candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood, has refused to comment on whether she believes Newtson is qualified for the job.
Wood, whose fate with voters in the Republican primary in March could depend in part upon her ability to distance herself from the unpopular governor, said the “best and the brightest” person should run the complex but would not say whether Newtson fit that criteria. She said it would be “inappropriate” to give her views while the search for a director is being conducted.
Still, when Wood was asked recently if she believed the facility should become a place to park out-of-work bureaucrats, she replied, “Absolutely not.”
One of Wood’s rivals for the nomination for governor, Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan, was more direct in who shouldn’t get the job and which agency should run the facility.
“I support a nationwide search to find the person with the best credentials, and I doubt that’s Bob Newtson,” said the attorney general, who is no relation to the governor. The attorney general said he also supported the historic preservation agency running the facility rather than the U. of I.
The facility is being funded through a combination of public and private sources, including $50 million in state tax dollars, $10 million from the City of Springfield and up to $50 million from the federal government. The library is scheduled to open late next year, while the museum is set for completion in early 2004.
