DuPage County politics is virtually all Republican, but the party is no philosophical monolith. DuPage County is also the most prosperous, most homogeneous and most envied county in the state for its growing wealth and power. But there is political strife in this wealthy county. Earlier this year anticipation was mounting for a political showdown between the rival GOP camps preparing for the March '94 Republican primary for the chairmanship of the DuPage County Board. However, on July 20, the incumbent board chairman and party maverick Aldo Botti declared that he would not seek a second term. While Botti's announcement probably means a greatly diminished political battle, it does not alter the fact of the wide and evergrowing gap within DuPage County's GOP ranks.

Politically DuPage is a one-party county. No Democrat (as officially identified on a ballot) holds any elective office in DuPage County. The DuPage County Republican party chairman is state Senate President James "Pate" Philip (23, Wood Dale), who is known locally for "not taking any prisoners." Also prominent in DuPage Republican circles is Illinois House Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels (46, Elmhurst). Unlike Philip, Daniels holds no major GOP party post in DuPage County, and while personally popular in party circles, he is clearly no threat to Philip.

Until 1990 when Botti was elected, a third person gave DuPage County a ruling Republican troika: Jack Kneupfer. A former state senator, Kneupfer was elected DuPage County Board chairman in 1978 (county board chairmen in DuPage are elected countywide and not by the votes of other county board members). Kneupfer with support from Philip and a docile Republican county board ran DuPage locally for over 10 years.

Although a huge county, DuPage has only nine town-

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ships which makes the position of township Republican party chairman very important and powerful. Kneupfer and Philip used these posts similar to the way former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley used the post of Democratic ward committeeman in Chicago's political machine. Jobs and campaign funds were centralized through the party. The only threat to the dominant party in its control of government — Democrats in Chicago and Republicans in DuPage County — would be a freak primary contest not a general election.

In 1990 seemingly serene DuPage County GOP politics exploded when Hinsdale lawyer and political neophyte Aldo Botti announced his candidacy to run against Kneupfer for county board chairman. Botti claimed Kneupfer had become "stale, less responsive and arrogant" during his long reign as board chairman. More importantly Botti hit a smoldering hot button issue — taxes — a topic that had been submerged and undiscussed due to the GOP's dominance in the county.

Botti promised to "ax taxes." Like a modern day Dr. No, Botti told DuPage GOP primary voters that he would say "no" to increased county real estate taxes, "no" to building a county convention center and "no" to new spending for DuPage County airport expansion. Even though DuPage is one of the wealthiest counties in the state, many of its homeowning residents are economically stretched, two-income families, working very hard to maintain their middle-class status. Botti's appeal to fed-up and frightened taxpayers overwhelmed voter loyalty to the dominant Republican organization.

The 1990 GOP primary results for county board chairman were remarkable. Botti trounced Kneupfer, and even more surprising, longshot candidate Judith Crane Ross, a sitting county board member, also out-polled the seemingly impregnable board chairman to finish second in the primary. (For vote detail, see table 2.)

Botti won all nine townships while capturing 45 percent of the GOP primary vote. Kneupfer was able to finish ahead of Ross in only two townships (Addison and Naperville) and ended his political career by garnering less than one-fourth of the total vote.

Botti's upset win rocked DuPage County GOP regulars, setting up a factional war within DuPage County government and its dominant Republican party. Instead of receiving an olive branch from the surprise winner, longtime Republican officials were shocked by Botti's refusal to tone down his views about the party's philosophy and the alleged "arrogance and unresponsiveness" of its leader Pate Philip. That November Botti won an easy victory over a hapless Democrat in the general election.

Since taking office in December 1990 Botti has been at loggerheads with other DuPage Republicans, including many of his county board members, most other elected DuPage local and state government officials and most important of all — Pate Philip. The specifics of their many skirmishes are less important than the philosophical and political underpinnings that are at the root of the conflict.

While all these DuPage Republicans would call themselves conservatives, Philip and his DuPage County Republican regulars are "political conservatives." They are not anti-government; they believe in patronage and organization politics; and most important they want to bring home the bacon (goods, services, jobs and dollars) to DuPage County. Like new breed Chicago Democrats of the 1920s, the DuPage Republican regulars see politics as an avenue to power, prestige and economic success. Philip, Daniels and others dream about increasing DuPage political power statewide, electing some of their own to statewide office (something which has not happened in recent memory), and being key players in negotiating big time projects anywhere in the state.

This conservatism practiced by the DuPage GOP regulars is actually "investment politics"; they want a return in rewards for their constituents, their party and themselves. They do not like spending excesses, but if there is state government spending, they want DuPage County to get at least its share.

Botti and his "band" of Republican followers are "philosophical conservatives." They dislike government, they frown on patronage and public sector jobs, and they are not too keen on party politics, especially applied to organizational loyalty and discipline. They do not want to bring home the bacon to DuPage County (they do not even like the pig). To them politics is a duty or more correctly a chore. Thus, they distrust full-time legislators, preferring instead a leaner and if possible more invisible government. They dream of

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running government like a business while at the same time imposing term limitations on existing elected officials and enacting deep tax and spending cuts to help their true hero — the taxpayer.

The move against Botti crystalized earlier this year when a group of DuPage Republican leaders had an informal get-together at Ki's restaurant in Glen Ellyn. All nine regular GOP township committeemen were in attendance. Discussion centered on the March '94 GOP primary and the board chairman contest. Several committeemen griped that Botti had run as an outsider in 1990 and that after more than two years in office he remained an outsider. Moreover, they complained, he had become uncompromisingly arrogant in his dealings with the regular GOP.

Personal attacks on Botti aside, there was general agreement that under his administration, county patronage or jobs were tough to obtain, and that Botti would never stop battling the regulars until he had won a majority of his brand of Republican county board members. In 1992 Botti was only partially successful in getting his type of Republican nominated in several contested county board races. (Nomination in the Republican primary assures election in DuPage County.) It was evident at the meeting at Ki's that many of these DuPage GOP leaders were simply not used to political competition; they longed for the days when peace and power would be restored under the regular party banner.

A sample ballot was passed out at Ki's with the names of all potential board candidates including Botti. The vote tally showed the clear favorite was Gayle Franzen, the current chairman of the Regional Transportation Authority and formerly a director of the Illinois Department of Corrections and an executive director of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. At the same meeting it was announced that Pate Philip had called Franzen "his guy." Enough said.

Thus, the battle was joined. On one side was Gayle Franzen, a long-time government operative, a protege of former Gov. Jim Thompson and an investment banker involved in public bond sales (not the best occupation for a fledgling DuPage County Republican politician). On the other side was Al Botti, a businessman who railed against government operatives, government spending and those individuals who make a living off politics.

Franzen struck first. In mid-June he announced his candidacy for DuPage County Board chairman and established a campaign office in Glen Ellyn. Franzen declared that it was "time to end the politics of confrontation and gridlock and start getting things done in this county." Franzen attacked Botti's unwillingness to sit down and discuss DuPage County's problems with its delegations to Springfield and Washington, D.C. He also tried to defuse the notion that he was running only because he was Philip's hand-picked candidate.

One week later Franzen tried to squelch another potential primary problem — the DuPage Airport Authority. The airport is a hot potato in DuPage County politics. The airport authority controls a 2,800-acre airport that has undergone a $166 million expansion (of which $100 million came from DuPage County taxpayers). It has spent $10 million on a terminal building, $55 million on runways and $14 million on a golf course — all without voter consent. It is also controlled by Philip's allies who consistently outvote the Botti appointees on the authority board. Franzen, trying

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Botti Philip Franzen

to separate himself from this explosive issue, announced forthrightly that it was time for the county "to take back control of the Airport Authority when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars." Personality and specific issues aside, the widest gap between Franzen and Botti remained their deep disagreement on what government should and could do. Franzen is clearly a DuPage County political conservative. In an exclusive interview he said, "DuPage needs to get back more of the dollars it sends to Springfield and Washington, D.C." Franzen claims he knows how "to work inside government while Botti does not even talk to state legislators or other elected officials." Franzen accused Botti of being more interested in personal political battles than making sure DuPage has a seat at the table. The articulate Franzen believes DuPage County needs less government and more leadership to regain the respect and position it formerly had.

Obviously some of Franzen's comments were political puffery. Philip and Daniels sit at the head of the table in Springfield on any discussion about state programs and legislation affecting DuPage County. Still the importance of Franzen's remarks and the guts of his campaign is that he wants the DuPage County Board chairman to become a player.

What about Botti? In an interview for Illinois Issues in early July, he laid out his views with the passion of a man who was tired of the battle but not the war. Botti said then, "The DuPage County Republican party has deviated from its original intent ... in fact they are becoming a tax and spend party." He retold stories of the obstacles that the so-called "Anti-Botties" had placed in front of him to hinder his performance — especially in the area of his appointment power. "From the beginning of my term as board chairman," Botti argued, "I wanted to take this office out of politics and bring in a county administrator from the outside."

His faith and commitment to "philosophical conservatism" energized Botti's rhetorical fervor. Botti proclaimed, "I do not believe that politics should be a livelihood because it creates a political nobility or an elite. Few of these people put the public before themselves as they surround themselves with an army of their own groupies. In fact some act like feudal lords." He then suggested that the only way to rid the public sector of these "pinstripe politicians" is through term limitations. "I told the DuPage central committee," Botti said with his voice rising, "I am not a prostitute and that I would never back off term limitations." At the end of the interview he admitted his opponents would pull out all the stops to prevent his renomination, and the question he was pondering at the moment was whether the fight was worth it. Evidently it wasn't.

Two weeks after the interview (and about one month after Franzen declared himself a candidate), Botti shocked many DuPage pols by announcing he would not run for reelection. Instead he told his followers that he would become chairman of Illinois Term Limits, a statewide grass-roots organization which wants to place a referendum on the November 1994 ballot, seeking voter approval on limiting the terms of state senators and state representatives.

The next chairman of the DuPage County Board will most likely be Franzen. As of mid-August the only other announced candidate is county board member Robert Schroeder of Naperville. Schroeder seems to have little support and money to challenge Franzen. Some die-hard Botti loyalists have said they will never support a "Pate puppet" (Franzen) and that they will attempt to persuade Judith Crane Ross, the second-place finisher in the 1990 primary, to run again.

Botti's refusal to seek reelection shows the philosophical and personal side to the political split among DuPage County conservatives. By taking the lead for term limitations in Illinois, Botti aligns himself squarely with philosophical conservatives in DuPage and across the state and nation. Helping the Illinois effort will be U.S. Term Limits, a national political consulting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., and founded in January 1992. Its executive director is Paul Jacob, a former Chicagoan who claims his people have been active in all 14 states that have already passed term limits. "Aldo Botti," Jacob believes, will lead the change in Illinois for term limits because he has the people skills to make it happen." Though neither Botti nor Jacob will admit it, term limits might be the only way they could break the backs of longtime professional politicians in Illinois and in other states. Obviously one of those pols would be Pate Philip.

Even if Franzen wins for the GOP regulars, the anti-politician/anti-government rhetoric will not go away in DuPage Republican politics. The philosophical and political split among conservative Republicans could become a collar county phenomenon with political neophytes challenging big name party stalwarts in the party primaries. The irony is that the Democratic party so long dominant in Chicago has been experiencing that same internal competition. Republican collar county officeholders would do well to remember the immortal words of the great pre-World War I German general Count Alfred Von Schlieffen: "Keep the right strong." 

Paul M. Green is director of the Institute for Public Policy and Administration, Governors State University, University Park.

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