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TWO Inauguration and Transition: The Early Days of Ogilvie's Governorship The Inauguration A lot ofthe festivities marking the inauguration of a new governor of Illinois have the trappings of New Orleans's celebration of Mardi Gras-one dance after another, private parties, sometimes even marching bands. Nothing about his inaugural could have been sweeter for Ogilvie, though, than the concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in its ornate old home on Michigan Avenue, architect D. H. Burnham's classical Orchestra Hall. The high and mighty of Chicago society graced this occasion, and the eyes of many of those assembled were turned often toward the box occupied by Ogilvie and his wife Dorothy. Really, it couldn't have gotten much better for Ogilvie. Little if anything on this evening seemed out of his reach. If a fellow ever had an inkling of what it might be like sitting on a throne in Illinois, this was the time. Arthur Fiedler, the maestro of the Boston Pops, was a guest conductor of the CSO that night. He had orchestrated a special program for the occasion. The part that Ogilvie enjoyed most, which would have been surprising to many seated in the four-story-high auditorium, was the orchestra's rendition of "Mack the Knife." The popular recording by Bobby Darin was Ogilvie's favorite song. And Ogilvie had no idea he would hear the tune at the concert.1 It was a warm touch, just one of the many things going his way at the beginning of his governorship in 1969. New governors in Illinois normally start off with a reservoir of goodwill, with the hatchet of partisan strife buried for a period of time known as the governor's honeymoon. For most governors, the honeymoon is too short; for a few, it never ends. The tone of press coverage can also affect the length of the grace period in which a fledgling administration finds itself. Since Ogilvie's meteoric political rise was accompanied by favorable media reporting and editorial page backing, Ogilvie could cautiously count the press as a plus, at least at the beginning. Other factors also appeared at first glance positive for him. Ogilvie's capture 11 12 • INAUGURATION AND TRANSI1lON of the governorship was the climax of a strong comeback by the Republican Party in the Prairie State in the 1960s. For most of that decade, the Grand Old Party had stood in sad shape in Illinois, unlike the two previous decades, when the balance of political power usually favored the GOP. The election of 1964 was the nadir for the Republicans. After the wreckage from Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy was sorted out, the Republicans were left with only one real source of power in state government~their continued control of the Illinois Senate. Of course, this was nothing at which to snicker. The GOP majority in the Senate, dominated by one of the greatest collections of Bourbons in Illinois political annals, was led by a strongman, W. Russell Arrington. This political bantam rooster from Evanston almost single-handedly assured a still potent Republican presence in Springfield during the party's darkest hours of the 1960s. It fell to Arrington to hold it together for the GOP while the party regrouped to capture standing in other areas of Illinois government. Was the GOP on a political mission? If so, it achieved a great deal in the four years following the Goldwater debacle. As Ogilvie sat serenely that inaugural evening listening to the CSO play "Mack the Knife," he knew his party was back in the catbird seat in Illinois politics. In addition to the Republican lock on the Illinois Senate, the House of Representatives had come under GOP control in the 1966 election. Any governor with a long wish list for the General Assembly, like Ogilvie, naturally warmed at the sight of his party in control of both chambers of the legislature. On top of that, having a guy like Arrington still running the Senate, a person Ogilvie truly liked and admired, made it all seem almost too good to be true. The 1968 election also put an old Ogilvie friend, Bill Scott, in the state attorney general's office, another situation that should have augured well for the Ogilvie governorship. The two went back to their days together at ChicagoKent College of Law. Dick and Dorothy Ogilvie, as a young married couple, had no closer acquaintances than Bill Scott and his wife Dorothy, who lived in...

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