How Did the Illinois GOP Get Like This?

My readers in other states will have gathered from remarks made here, as well as from pieces in the national news, that the Illinois Republican Party is not very... shall we say... robust.

Here's another symptom: The intimidating tone of state Rep. Angelo "Skip" Saviano on Dec. 15 betrayed his frustration with communities that, by the scores, say they want no part of legalized video gambling. The setting was a meeting of an Illinois legislative committee and Saviano had a captive listener, Michael Fries, general counsel to the Illinois Gaming Board.

Saviano: "Some of the stuff you read in the newspapers and in the editorials, we feel that certain Gaming Board members or their designees are talking to them, giving them information, to stall this (rollout of video gambling). And we have an immense amount of pressure on us to get this capital bill up and running. So if you could relay a message. ... Could they just keep their mouths shut and get the job done? Cuz we need, we need this capital bill. We need it for our schools, we need it for everybody else. And for them to keep fueling the fire with the newspapers trying to get communities out of this is, is a crime."

Fries didn't cower: "I personally am not aware of any board member that is, that is doing that."

How did the IL GOP get like this? like the intimidation of Skip Savianno?

History lesson:

In the 50s and early 60s the Illinois GOP had a reputation for corruption. Orville Hodges went to jail. Everyone knew that Gov Stratton and Treas (and DuPage chair) Hoffman were just as corrupt. Carpentier was the most corrupt Sec of State, much more corrupt than George Ryan who inherited the Carpentier wing of the party.

In the legislature, the WEST-SIDE-BLOC Republicans consistently voted with the Dems to support corruption.

US Attorney Ogilvie was prevented by the Eisenhower administration from prosecuting the crooks. That is because Sen Minority Leader Dirksen (IL) protected corruption, as did House Minority Leader Michels (IL).

Ogilvie (and my mentor 2d ward committeeman Bill Robinson) developed a plan to cleanse the Republican party by uniting liberals and conservatives (Merriman voters and Adamowski voters) around good-government.

Ogilvie won for sheriff in 62 and kicked the westside bloc out of the Crook County GOP. He then won for County Board President and then for Governor. He brought into his administration a coterie of both liberals and conservatives who claimed to be good government.

But power corrupts. Ogilvie, being the liberal Republican he was, could not resist increased spending on social programs. Increased spending meant more jobs and contracts. The conservatives rationalized that the means justified the ends. Ogilvie created the income tax.

Ogilvie’s income tax cost him the support of both the conservatives and the liberal (IPI-IPO) outside his patronage army. In order to survive, Ogilvie brought back into the Republican party the WEST-SIDE-BLOC. He gave them total control of the Dept of Transportation (now known as Bill Cellini’s playground) and other departments. (They had always kept control of the Sec of State office. Even today they control the SOS office and not the popular figurehead Jesse White.)

So creation of the income tax by the Republicans created the need to re-create the alliance of the IL GOP with the WEST-SIDE-BLOC. Thompson and Edgar cynically continued that alliance. George Ryan was one of them from the start. When Ryan was Speaker of the House he was their guy.

That alliance was necessary for the IL GOP because both the conservative and liberal anti-corruption base of the original Ogilvie coalition abandonded Ogilvie due to the income tax.

History II. DuPage County Chair Elmer Hoffman was very corrupt. But because he was allegedly conservative (as George Ryan was allegedly conservative) most conservatives supported Hoffman.

That gave an opening for liberal Republicans like my Poli Sci Prof Frank Bellinger to seize the good-government image and promote people like the Fawell’s as being good-government. (Frank Bellinger was committeeman of the biggest and most Republican precicnt in the most Republican County in the US, the Wheaton College precinct. In both primary and general elections his precinct delivered net more Republican votes than the next 5 precincts combined. That makde him powerful.)

Ogilvie and the IL GOP developed a need for that Bellinger-Fawell support in DuPage.

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