Run for Congress, We Lost, Phew!

Today is Labor Day, Sept.7th. What a glorious morning! About 58degrees cool when I sat down in a lawn chair and began to enjoy the day. Almost makes me wish I had written something more pleasant to read than the below. But alas! at least it is written and we don’t have to discuss it anymore! But I’m looking for some great things to happen in the next few weeks, aren’t you!

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1977-78

What began as an interesting diversion from my regular duties in the early Fall of 1977, wound up being a major portion of about 14-15 hour days for the next 7 months, or so. My boss running for Congress in the Illinois primary of March, 1978 began for me when he said, “We need to go to Washington, DC for a few days to acclimate ourselves for some things we’ll need to know.” Somehow the “we” in the instruction caused me to understand I was involved, but to what extent, I had no idea. Turned out that I was to be his Treasurer. Due to primary monies almost all coming from the candidate’s own pocket and I was running his businesses, it made sense.

Visiting the capital meant the first thing we did was to get the Federal Election Commission rules/regulations in hand. It was not hard to read: it was hard to understand. But, once the first forms were filled out, it was much clearer (reading the instructions was harder than doing the work.) Hmm, must have been written by a Prof. Irwin Corey, or a politician!

The rest of that trip was truly a great visit to our nation’s capital! Not only did we see some landmarks I had not seen but once or twice before, but we walked the halls of the Congressional office buildings meeting several elected officials. The one we wished to have unseated, the one my boss was running against, however was a different story. A 22 year Congressman had a prominent office as to location, but stepping into it showed us why nothing ever got done for our district. 

We had visited 2 or 3 other offices before we went to his and had seen well organized staffs working in conjunction with what the elected official had as an agenda to accomplish. Our congressman’s office was quite a different story. We opened the door to a reception room not much bigger than a tiny bedroom in a starter home. It had a counter that we walked up to and behind the counter sat a young woman (early 20s) with a baby playing on the floor. She was watching a soap opera on a portable tv which was perched on top of the counter—which she didn’t turn off or down while asking us if she could help us. We asked if the congressman was in. To which she replied, “No, he’s at home. He had a back flare up and he has to stay in traction for a few days.” We gave our apologies and left the office. Where was his staff, we wondered; where was his agenda taking him? 

After a few minutes, the boss remembered he needed to call his lawyer, back in Danville. He did, but the lawyer was not in the office so they set a time the lawyer could call him back. At noon, he got the call: his lawyer was back in Southern Illinois playing golf with our congressman! …We pulled his voting record. He had only been on the congressional floor for Roll Call twice the previous year.

Well, well. We had found an opening volley for our campaign agenda—get rid of a do-nothing Congressman! So all the way home we divised how to announce the candidacy and at that press conference, reveal the incumbent’s lack of a voting record, his inefficiency, and his office misleading actual voters from his district! We set the date and began to invite the press, TV stations, radio stations and our party’s dignitaries.

We used the “Rocky” theme for background music because it was an uphill battle ahead: relative unknown candidate against  22 year veteran. It was a good announcement, a good statement of facts and very positive about a win! But, it caused something we didn’t expect.

The incumbent announced the following Monday he would not be running for another term. Thud! He had been an opponent to set an agenda towards, but now he wasn’t going to be there! We had to re-think what to do! And we, the amateurs that we were, had no idea so many other members of OUR party wanted the seat! The big chickens! They wouldn’t come out and fight the old dude who was worthless, but they came out of the woodwork to run in the primary against us!

Before long, 4 more candidates for our party’s nomination appeared on the slate. And so it began, tough battle, tough Winter (worst on record), tough crowds who had no idea for whom to vote. It was 6 months till the primary election day. My part in this was minor, but constant and time consuming—soon all consuming.

I really don’t know how much to tell you about the next six months because it would bore you, I believe. Without detail I will say the biggest disappointment was the county chairpersons. Because there were several candidates, they gave us the “we can’t play favorites in the primary” business when we asked for any help, while giving all the helps they could to their personal favorites!

As time went on, the oddest of consorts and team work against another candidate would crop up, generally a surprise to us—on the one hand, no favorites: on the other, many strange alliances inside the party.

We spent a lot of money. By todays standards, not so much. But by our standards in 1977-78, a lot of money! On the night of the vast defeat, my boss’s wife was asked what she thought of the results. She replied, “I think I just got my husband back.” He was asked if he would run again and he laughed out loud for the first time in six months: “Not on your life!” he said. And that was that.

A few weeks later, I had a job offer to return to Alabama and I took it. Another strange chapter in our lives had just come to a close.

Thanks for reading, the Elder