PEOPLE
Edited by Jessica Winski

SHIFTS AT THE TOP Illinois State Police Director Terrance Gainer is the likely pick for a top job with the Washington, D.C., Police Department. Gainer, director since 1991, was chosen by new D.C. Chief Charles Ramsey, a former Chicago Police Department administrator. The two men worked together years ago. Gainer tried for Ramsey's new job, but officials there "were pretty much up front from the start that they wanted an African American," says Mark McDonald, state police spokesman. Jerry Blakemore is the new chairman of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. He replaces Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra, who resigned from the board last month in anticipation of his July move to run Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. Blakemore is the chief executive officer of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, responsible for operations at Comiskey Park in Chicago. He was first appointed to the board in 1992. John J. Case will finish out Gayle Franzen's term as DuPage County board chairman. Franzen resigned in April, seven months ahead of schedule. Case, a board member for the past 12 years, will serve until a new chairman is elected in November. Harold Smith will serve four more years as state Republican chairman. He was unanimously re-elected to that post in April by the party's State Central Committee. Smith has served as chairman since 1993.

HONORS

Northern Illinois University made it official: Gov. Jim Edgar is the education governor. He now has an award in his name to prove it. The university's board of trustees honored Edgar for his dedication to higher education, including his work to ensure capital funding for the state's universities and his creation of independent governing boards to replace boards of regents at each university.

In the future, the Jim Edgar Award for Excellence in Higher Education will be presented to other individuals who have had a positive impact on public higher education in the state. "We felt it only right to honor such dedication and foresight with an award that not only recognizes Gov. Edgar for his contributions, but which will also hold him up as an example for others to follow," George Moser, chairman of the board's Legislation, Audit and External Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

Big shoulders meets big business

Chicago is now among the 4,000 businesses and organizations that make up the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley also was recently elected to the chamber's board of directors. Eleven days after the announcement, the chamber endorsed the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Secretary of State George Ryan. That was the second time in its 80-year history the chamber has favored a statewide candidate. But John Camper, Daley's deputy press secretary, says there is no connection in the timing.

"Obviously, the mayor supports [Democrat] Glenn Poshard personally. I don't think the mayor even cast [a vote] on the endorsement. But the mayor has also always had a high personal regard for George Ryan."

Regarding the city's membership in the chamber, Camper said the move "probably should have been done a long time ago."

The chamber lobbies for Illinois business, focusing on Illinois' tax climate, education, health care mandates and economic development. "The City of Chicago is interested in any opportunity that will create employment, stimulate industry and further commercial growth in our neighborhoods," Daley said in a press release.

Illinois doctors choose a new president

The new president of the Illinois State Medical Society says he's ready to unite doctors against big business. "It's not my agenda," he says. "It's the agenda of the decade." Indeed, managed care reform is the top issue for doctors. And Richard A. Geline, an orthopedic surgeon from Skokie, who has had "one job, one wife, one house and lived in one town," is expected to use his old-fashioned values to hang on to what is right with health care, according to a recent medical society newsletter profile. Geline served on the ISMS board, representing physicians from Cook County.

Miller is leaving the Commerce Commission

Dan Miller is "working on my resume — the first time since 1961." The Illinois Commerce Commission chairman says he was surprised to learn in mid-May he had been replaced. "I have not heard a word from the governor in the four years I've been here. So I've had no read whatsoever about whether I was doing a good job or not." But Miller maintained there was no connection between his removal and controversial remarks he made two years ago about Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole. Miller, who was first appointed to the ICC post in 1994, has been serving on a day-today basis since 1997, when his term expired. He was not reappointed after Senate Republicans expressed anger over his comments about Dole during a radio program.

34 / June 1998 Illinois Issues

Kustra's cash

With about $100,000 in political donations burning a hole in his pocket, Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra has found some worthy recipients, including his former political rival's current campaign opponent.

Kustra, a Republican, donated $20,000 to the Jesse White Tumblers. White, the Cook County recorder of deeds, is the Democratic secretary of state candidate running against Republican Al Salvi. Salvi beat the favored Kustra in a surprise trouncing in the 1996 U.S. Senate primary. Salvi then went on to lose to Springfield Democrat Dick Durbin.

While Kustra and White dismissed the donation as political, Salvi's staff criticized White for mixing money from his tumbling team with that of his campaign. White criticized Salvi for raising "an old issue." He says the attorney general found no wrongdoing.

Before leaving next month to be president of Eastern Kentucky University, Kustra will empty his campaign kitty, giving to, among others, the Illinois Senate Republicans and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, which he co-chairs with former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.

Call me Mr. Professor

The once-powerful chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is going back to college. This time to teach.

Chicagoan Dan Rostenkowski, who represented the city's Northwest Side in Congress before serving a term in prison for defrauding the government, will return to Chicago's Loyola University. This fall he'll become a senior fellow in government and public policy, a typical appointment for guest lecturers, says Elizabeth Wilson, the university's director of media relations.

Rostenkowski took night courses at Loyola, but never received a degree. Still, he treated Loyola like his alma mater and left the university his personal papers, says James Merriner, a longtime political writer whose book, Mr. Chairman: Power in Dan Rostenkowski's America, should be published this spring.

Here's to good friends As he's done throughout his tenure, Gov. Jim Edgar appointed several of his political pals to plum boards and commissions. But this time he managed to ensure job security for friends well past his departure next year. And more appointments are coming "soon," said Edgar spokesman Eric Robinson. Janis Cellini, Edgar's patronage chief and the sister of Republican player William Cellini, was one of more than four dozen people appointed last month to Edgar's "shadow government." Nearly two years ago, Illinois Issues documented that Edgar appointed more than 2,000 members to 225 state boards and commissions between 1991 and 1995. In many cases, those appointed were Edgar's friends or supporters, according to the magazine's computer analysis. Janis Cellini coordinated filling those positions on appointive panels. (See "Patronage Lite," October 1996, page 12.) Cellini was appointed to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, effective January 10,1999. Edgar leaves office and the next governor is sworn in the next day. Cellini will be paid $67,019 a year, about $30,000 less than she makes now. However, the term of the appointment runs through July 1,2004. Other recent appointees: • Thomas Hardy, Edgar's press secretary, was appointed to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority His salary will go from $102,900 to $22,340 for part-time work. • Elena Kezelis, Edgar's legal counsel, was appointed to the Illinois Pollution Control Board. The post pays $83,514 a year. She now makes $99,749. • Michael McCormick, Edgar's senior personal assistant, was appointed chairman of the Illinois State Labor Relations Board. The post pays $74,464. He now makes $77,868. • Terry Harvill, an assistant to the governor, was appointed to the Illinois Commerce Commission. The post pays $83,514. He now makes $50,127. • Shirley Madigan, wife of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, was reappointed to the Illinois Arts Council. The post pays expenses only. Edgar spokesman Robinson defended the governor's choices, saying: "These are individuals who are among the best and the brightest in Illinois. We don't believe they should be disqualified from a position simply because they've spent time working for the governor of Illinois."

OBITS:

Grace Mary Stern

This year, four women are running for statewide posts in November's election. Two women now occupy such offices. But it was Grace Mary Stern who paved the way for female politicians. "She was a pioneer," Democratic Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie says. As Adiai Stevenson Ill's running mate in the 1982 gubernatorial election. Stern became the first Illinois woman to run in the general election for a statewide post. It was a close battle. "Had we had a recount, she could have been the first woman lieutenant governor in the state," Currie says. The Lake County Democrat died May 17 after a long battle with brain cancer. She was 72. She served as a representative from 1985 to 1993, when she was elected to the state Senate for one term. She championed education, the environment and mental health services. "We've got big shoes to fill," says Democratic Rep. Lauren Beth Gash, who, like Stern did, represents a traditionally Republican area. "She had an incredible commitment to good government causes." Stem graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. A Grace Mary Stern Scholarship for women's studies was recently established at Chicago's Roosevelt University.

Illinois Issues June 1998 / 35