When Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Oak Brook sought help with a change in federal maritime law to get a leg up on a partly foreign-owned competitor, Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois took a pass.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin agreed to help out.
Fitzgerald also declined to go to bat for John Deere Co., when the Moline-based farm machinery giant asked for help in obtaining government loan guarantees to secure a major overseas sale.
But Durbin summoned the president of the U.S. Export-Import Bank to his office to make a personal pitch on behalf of the company.
Illinois’ U.S. Senators have taken on roles that defy stereotype.
The liberal Durbin, the son of a stevedore and a longtime ally of organized labor, increasingly is seen by many Illinois business leaders as the go-to man to represent their interests in the Senate. The conservative Fitzgerald, the heir to a banking fortune who trained as a financial services attorney at a Loop law firm, has angered some in the state’s business community by showing a willingness to buck their interests occasionally.
That unexpected dynamic appears to be paying handsome dividends for Durbin, who is pulling in contributions from Illinois businesses and has amassed a commanding $4.7 million campaign war chest to support his re-election battle this fall against Republican challenger James Durkin.
The impact on Fitzgerald is harder to read. He faces re-election in 2004, and some business leaders have already begun searching for a Republican more sympathetic to their concerns to challenge him in the primary.
On the other hand, Fitzgerald has cultivated an image as a political maverick who refuses to be seen as a puppet of any special interest. His refusal to automatically carry legislative water for Illinois firms could only underscore his independence at a time when big business is under fire for accounting and other irregularities.
“It’s ironic,” said Gregory Baise, president of the Illinois Manufacturers Association, “but many business leaders today would rather find a candidate to beat Peter Fitzgerald in two years than support the Republican candidate running against Dick Durbin.”
Although Baise and Fitzgerald have had conflicts in the past, the on-the-record statement is an extraordinary comment for the head of a major business organization to make about a sitting U.S. senator. Many corporate lobbyists and business executives echo the sentiment, although mostly in private.
“Dick Durbin has come a long way to proving that he wants to be a partner with Illinois businesses and work for jobs in Illinois. Business people tell me it’s very difficult to get in to see Peter Fitzgerald, and it’s as if he won’t give them the time of day,” said Douglas Whitley, president of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and former president of Ameritech Illinois.
No issue has contributed more to the sentiments than the lengthy, ongoing legislative feud between the two senators over expanding O’Hare International Airport.
O’Hare `litmus test’
Durbin champions the airport expansion, which many Chicago-area executives consider crucial to the region’s prosperity. But Fitzgerald is an unrelenting opponent who has pledged to expansion foes that he will do everything in his power to block Congress from cementing into law a deal reached last year between the city and state to build new runways.
Jeff Mays, president of the Illinois Business Roundtable, which represents the state’s largest corporations, said airport expansion support has become a political litmus test for many top executives, particularly in the Chicago area.
The business community is by no means a monolith, and there are plenty of executives in Illinois who are pleased with Fitzgerald and less than wild about Durbin. After all, Durbin is at heart a champion of populist consumer and pro-labor legislation, while Fitzgerald is more in tune with corporate America’s views favoring tax cuts and tort reform.
“The best way to help business is the promotion of policies that promote low taxes, free trade, an educated work force and stable and vibrant capital markets,” said Fitzgerald, adding that he rates high on the voting scorecards of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and similar business lobbies.
Still, the two have very different political styles that have swayed attitudes among many executives.
Durbin adheres to a long, bipartisan tradition of pragmatism in Illinois politics and aggressively advocates home-state interests.
“If you try to find a business in Illinois that hasn’t been given a helping hand when they’ve asked my office for one, I’d be surprised,” Durbin said. “The bottom line is, if I don’t do it, who will? They need a voice in the Senate.”
Fitzgerald, on the other hand, has attacked what he considers cozy relations between the state’s business and political elite.
He is an acolyte of the free market who is more wary than Durbin of using his office to intervene on behalf of individual companies or industries.
In the case of Deere, Fitzgerald said he refused to support the company’s application for federal trade financing because he had concerns about the creditworthiness of the transaction, which is still awaiting U.S. Export-Import Bank approval. The government-sponsored bank’s records show Fitzgerald has never written to support a loan. Durbin has lobbied on behalf of several Illinois companies.
Fitzgerald said he declined to support Great Lakes Dredge & Dock in its effort to change maritime law because he believed it would restrict competition and raise taxpayers’ costs for dredging ports. Durbin argues that the change in law is needed to protect the Illinois firm from predatory pricing orchestrated by an overseas competitor.
Pragmatist vs. idealist
Critics say Fitzgerald has a tendency to moralize and see situations in black and white, which can rankle business leaders accustomed to a respectful hearing of their views.
“The book on Fitzgerald is that he’s so independent and so self-righteous that he thinks he’s always right and people find him difficult to approach,” Whitley said.
The kind of assistance Durbin regularly provides for Illinois companies has ranged from adding funds in the defense budget for weapons systems manufactured in the state to lobbying regulators on decisions that affect home-state companies.
Durbin also has broken with the labor movement on some national legislation of special significance to Illinois businesses, including free-trade agreements that benefit agricultural producers and many manufacturers that depend on exports.
Business lobbyists add that the Democratic senator is in a better position to assist them. He is a member on the influential Senate Appropriations Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal spending.
Ironically, although Fitzgerald is in the same political party as U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Durbin has a much better relationship with the House leader. Durbin and Hastert often work in tandem on behalf of local causes, an alliance that enhances the effectiveness of both.
In contrast, Fitzgerald’s determination to play the role of the political outsider diminishes his influence in the clubby atmosphere of the Senate.
