With the Courage to Purge

What a mess! Required by constitutional amendment to redraw Illinois' political districts, the state legislature fussed and fought, finally had the only redistricting bill that it did pass vetoed by Democratic Governor Otto Kerner. Result: this year candidates for all 177 seats in the Illinois assembly must run in a statewide, at-large election. Moreover, a Republican-Democratic agreement since regularized by law prohibits either party from nominating more than 118 candidates--amounting precisely to a two-thirds assembly majority.

Confusing? Worse than that. Chaotic. But in that chaos, former Bell & Howell Board Chairman Charles Percy, 44, the G.O.P. nominee for Governor against Kerner, saw opportunity. He reached for it in a fashion that should disprove the notion that youthful, well-scrubbed, idealistic Chuck Percy is more an Eagle Scout than a tough politician.

The West Side Bloc. The situation was this: for years, the balance of power in the closely divided Illinois assembly has been held by a handful of nominal Republicans, most of them coming from Cook County and, for the sake of reelection, more than willing to play footsie with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's Democratic machine. It was with the help of this group that in 1961 the assembly, although it had a narrow Republican majority, nonetheless elected a Democratic speaker. The so-called "West Side bloc" also gave the state Republican Party a bad image by standing steadfastly against such reforms as antigambling legislation.

Since the Illinois ballot will be on paper, not machines, and since it will be long and complicated, there is every chance that a vast majority of citizens will save themselves trouble by voting straight tickets. Thus Percy spotted a chance not only to enhance his own candidacy but to end up as Governor with a genuine Republican assembly by cleansing the G.O.P. slate of West Side bloc leaders. And that is what he set out to do. "We have a special problem in Illinois that beclouds our reputation and helps keep Republicans at home," he said. "I mean the West Side bloc.

Here are men holding important positions within our party who always stand against any law that will fight organized crime effectively or that will enable us to reform our election laws to help prevent vote fraud."

Better to Belong To. Marked for purge were six men, including Assembly Majority Leader "Bingo Bill" Murphy and Assembly Appropriations Committee Chairman Peter Granata. Put on Percy's slate were such men as Dwight Eisenhower's brother Earl, 66, the public relations director of a suburban Chicago newspaper chain, which insisted that he resign his job to make the race; onetime Chicago Daily News Reporter and Scandal Sleuth George Thiem, and former TV Weatherman Clint Youle.

At last week's state convention, held in the Springfield Elks Club, Percy resolutely pushed through his purge, staring coldly into space when Murphy came to whisper in his ear. The six purgees bellowed their protests from the convention podium. Cried Granata: "Where have you ever witnessed such dictatorship and bossism as you are witnessing today, except in Russia?" Purgee Robert Austin, noting that all those on Percy's blacklist were Catholics, claimed the whole thing was anti-Catholic. One "Babe" McAvoy pointed a finger at Percy and said: "If you are elected, you will have a Georgia chain gang legislature and you'll be the man holding the whip."

All the while, Chuck Percy sat smiling benignly. He had the votes and he knew it. Of the first 28 delegates to vote, 27 went for Percy's slate, whereupon two of the purgees withdrew and the rest were plainly finished. In his victory, Percy may have suffered some slight attrition around Cook County. But the Illinois G.O.P. was plainly a better party to belong to.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.