STL Post Dispatch Illustrates Rocky History of IL Senate Seat
September 3rd, 2009
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Illinois Class III Senate seat has provided some Class I headlines
By Pat Guaen of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Illinois will soon elect another Class III U.S. senator.
It’s not a rating but the way politicos track a seat’s lineage. It’s how we
know that Sen. Barack Obama had Sen. Everett Dirksen’s old spot, or that Sen. Dick Durbin holds the seat for which debater Stephen Douglas defeated Abraham Lincoln.
Durbin’s a Class II, by the way. Each state has two of three possible classes. There is no official distinction among them. Yet there is something odd about the history of Illinois’ Class III spot. Sometimes even bizarre.
Take William Lorimer, a Republican elected in 1909. Legislatures elected the senators back then, and a state lawmaker claimed Lorimer paid $1,000 for his vote. Fellow senators deplored Lorimer’s “corrupt methods” and in 1913 kicked him out.
In 1926, Frank Smith defeated Sen. William McKinley (namesake of the St.
Louis-Venice bridge) for the GOP nomination and won the seat. Lame duck
McKinley expired before his term, so the governor logically named Smith. But the Senate refused Smith’s appointive credentials, accusing him of campaign fraud. The chamber later refused his elective credentials, too. He resigned in 1928, never having really taken office.
If that Smith was elected without serving, Ralph Smith, of Granite City, served without election. The Republican was named after Dirksen died but failed to hold the seat in a 1970 special election.
For the successor, Sen. Adlai E. Stevenson III, the weird spell began shortly after he stepped down. His 1982 loss to James R. Thompson for governor was by just one-seventh of 1 percent of the vote. In the men’s 1986 rematch, a follower of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche was unexpectedly nominated for lieutenant governor, forcing Stevenson to abandon the Democratic ticket to escape this most-unwelcome running mate. Stevenson’s desperation third-party run fizzled.
Back at the Senate, Belleville’s Alan Dixon seemed safely bound for a third
term in 1992 when his support of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas
backfired. Dixon stood by Thomas despite an allegation of sexual harassment.
That gave primary challenger Carol Moseley Braun a platform while a rich third contender for the Democrats’ nomination, Al Hofeld, used his millions to pummel Dixon on TV. Moseley Braun emerged from nowhere as the nation’s first black female senator.
But her hubris and unapologetic friendship with the brutal dictator of Nigeria soon left even supportive Dems wondering if she was re-electable. She wasn’t.
Enter rich guy Peter Fitzgerald, whose enthusiasm for the job never seemed to match the bankroll he threw at sending Moseley Braun home in 1998. By term’s end, Fitzgerald seemed tired of his Class III toy and simply walked away.
Dashing and monied, Jack Ryan easily won the 2004 GOP nomination. But reporters pried the lid off an old divorce file in which ex-wife (and actress) Jeri Ryan disdained his overtures for public sex in kinky nightclubs. Seared by the improbable ignition of a sex scandal within his marriage, Ryan bolted. Bewildered Republicans turned to a polarizing national figure, Alan Keyes, who brought the odd credential of living in Maryland, not Illinois.
The Democrat who beat Keyes, Barack Obama, left the Senate seat early to become president last year. But what should have been an Illinois triumph became its political nadir, after feds claimed that Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to sell his appointment of Obama’s Senate replacement and plenty of other favors. The charges, still pending, prompted the General Assembly to boot Blagojevich out of office.
One of his final acts was to ignore universal admonitions that he just leave without naming anyone to the Senate spot. He spitefully chose the
near-forgotten Roland Burris, whose critics regarded him as rather clueless in past roles as comptroller and attorney general. During inquisitions about how he got the Senate appointment, Burris behaved, well, cluelessly. A prosecutor considered perjury charges over his testimony about it. Senators hinted of rejecting Burris at the door but instead mostly ignored his presence.
Burris, who had listed less than $1,000 in his campaign fund and more than
$100,000 in debts — and showed 37 percent support in the polls — surprised
nobody in announcing he would not seek election next year.
I’m not entirely sure yet who will. But experience suggests that anyone
connected to that Class III seat will be worth watching.
(photo:WikiCommons)
Illinois Class III Senate seat has provided some Class I headlines
By Pat Guaen of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Illinois will soon elect another Class III U.S. senator.
It’s not a rating but the way politicos track a seat’s lineage. It’s how we know that Sen. Barack Obama had Sen. Everett Dirksen’s old spot, or that Sen. Dick Durbin holds the seat for which debater Stephen Douglas defeated Abraham Lincoln.
Durbin’s a Class II, by the way. Each state has two of three possible classes. There is no official distinction among them. Yet there is something odd about the history of Illinois’ Class III spot. Sometimes even bizarre.
Take William Lorimer, a Republican elected in 1909. Legislatures elected the senators back then, and a state lawmaker claimed Lorimer paid $1,000 for his vote. Fellow senators deplored Lorimer’s “corrupt methods” and in 1913 kicked him out. Read more…
