The Heroic and the Notorious: U.S. Senators from Illinois

19. A Moralist in Politics

210 ★ A MORALIST IN POLITICS 19 ★A Moralist in Politics Paul Simon (1985–97) Paul Simon is one of the most durable figures in Illinois political history. With forty years of service as lieutenant governor and in the state legislature and Congress, he held elective office longer than all but two other U.S. senators in the state’s history. (Shelby Cullom was in office for fifty-one years and Alan Dixon for forty-two.) During those forty years, Simon’s service paralleled that of seven different Illinois governors and nine U.S. presidents. Over more than four decades, he ran successfully for office fifteen times—not counting primary elections—and lost only once—in the 1972 Democratic primary for governor. Statistics do not do justice to the Simon story, however. From his first term as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives to his last days in the Senate, Simon built and maintained a reputation for competence, honesty, and independence. These attributes kept him from the inner circle of legislative leadership, but they established him as an effective public servant known for his principles. U.S. Representative Henry Hyde, an Illinois conservative who served with Simon in Springfield and in Washington, D.C., addressed Simon’s reputation in comments in the Washington Post in 211 PAUL SIMON ★ 1987: “You can’t help but like the guy. He first of all is a decent, fine gentleman. He is thoughtful, conscientious and honest” (Peterson 14). Simon worked within the Democratic Party as a social liberal and a fiscal moderate, not always in step with party leadership and often confounding critics. His advocacy of an open, accountable, pay-as-you-go government, and his concern for social conditions, all familiar to Illinois constituents, received national attention in 1988 during his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination. Much of Simon’s appeal to a friendly press and approving statewide constituency was his appearance as more than a professional officeholder, which of course, he was. He also worked as a weekly newspaper owner and editor and earned a reputation as courageous under fire. Simon was the author or coauthor of twenty-three books, ranging from scholarly nonfiction about Abraham Lincoln to setting out his ideas on national issues such as literacy, hunger, and morality. For his entire time in public office, he personally wrote a weekly newspaper column, a practice he resumed in 2000, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times. Rather than identify himself as a politician, he usually stated his profession as “writer.” There always was a strong moralistic tone to his interest in matters of public policy. He came by that sensitivity naturally, with parents who served abroad as Lutheran missionaries. For his occasional righteous outlook on issues, he was kidded by colleagues, enemies, and admirers, who called him “Reverend” and “the Deacon .” He accepted the comments with good grace. At times, Simon could be as pragmatic a politician as could be found in all of Illinois. Getting elected fourteen times required building a steady, dependable, voter base. As a result, he remained true to the interests of labor and of blacks, and he put a high priority on constituent service. Politically, he usually did what was necessary to get elected and reelected. He campaigned across Illinois with Paul Powell in 1968, although he often was at odds with the Vienna native, who was running then for Illinois secretary of state. Simon accepted the blessing of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, after he had openly criticized the mayor as an autocratic party leader. Inclined to turn the other cheek in slam-bang political fights, he aggressively attacked Senator Charles H. Percy in their contest 212 ★ A MORALIST IN POLITICS in 1984. As often is the case of elected officials who serve many years, Simon was not always easy to pigeonhole. Paul Simon was born on November 29, 1928, soon after his parents returned from missionary work in China and settled in Eugene, Oregon. The Simon family lived modestly, and its home life featured a respect for Christianity and hard work. At sixteen, Paul began studies at the University of Oregon, concentrating on journalism. When his parents soon moved to Highland , Illinois, he transferred to Dana College, a Lutheran school in Blair, Nebraska. When he was nineteen, and approaching graduation , he had an opportunity in Illinois that did much to shape his later life. Citizens of Troy, a community of...