The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 11

Wednesday, August 20,1997 ILLINOIS CHICAGO Section 11 Edgar leaves few clues on BY MADELEINE DOUBEK AND DON THOMPSON Daily Herald StaffWriters The gig's up. Today is decision day. After nine excruciating months of speculation by every politician and political operative in Illinois, Gov. Jim Edgar is expected to clue us all in about whether he'll seek a third term, a Senate seat or a job in nonpolitical pastures. On Tuesday night speculation was increasing that Edgar leaned toward quitting politics.

"It could be a swan song," said Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra. "I don't doubt that's a very viable option and one he might take." But several signs, and even some comments from Illinois' 38th governor, would seem to indicate he leaned toward a run for re-election. Indications were Attorney General Jim Ryan was speeding up his consideration of a run for Senate.

But confidantes and top current and former Edgar staffers insist he has kept them in the dark. And perhaps even Edgar was in the dark himself late Tuesday. "I mean, why make a decision prematurely?" he said as he left the Capitol. Edgar's longtime former press secretary Michael Lawrence said Tuesday, "I've gone back and forth the last 48 hours. This is hard.

I think he is genuinely undecided." Lawrence now works with former Democratic Sen. Paul Simon at a Southern Illinois University think tank, but Edgar called him to Springfield Sunday to prepare three speeches for today and to offer advice and feedback. He would not say what path he advised for Edgar, but did say more than once he could understand how many observers might conclude the popular Republican will attempt to win a third term. Others suggested Edgar focused only on a re-election scenario in some recent conversations, but Edgar's current aides warned against reaching any conclusions. No matter what Edgar decides, the move will affect the fortunes of at least a dozen other Democratic and Republican statewide hopefuls and even more activists and political professionals who support them.

It also has the potential to affect control of the House and Senate as the governor will preside over the next political re-mapping. Here's how those who have worked closely with Edgar and other observers evaluate the three options: A third term: It would be the move Edgar is most familiar with and the one short of political retirement that allows him to keep the greatest control over his schedule, travel and family time. "I think it's a significant factor," Lawrence said. At least two former Edgar aides have advised him to seek re-election former chief of staff state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale and former press aide Gary Mack of Woodridge.

That advice and the urgings last week of GOP county chairs should have some influence. Last week when asked, Edgar also told a reporter Ryan would make a "great" Senate candidate. Ryan's press secretary, Dan Curry, confirmed Edgar and Ryan talked Monday, but he said the governor did not inform Ryan of his decision. Still, a third re-election run is something only former Gov. Jim Thompson previously has accomplished, and Edgar would be the target in that race.

Democrats and other critics are lambasting him for his inability to pass school funding reform and for presiding over a state contract scandal that resulted in convictions for a midlevel bureaucrat and a top Edgar campaign contributor, Edgar has been irked by media coverage of both issues and has been at odds with his party's legislative leaders, House Republican Leader Lee A. Daniels of Elmhurst and Senate President James "Pate" Philip of Wood Dale. Leaving politics: It may just happen, but the biggest surprise would come if he quits. He has been working political angles since the end of the legislative session in May and few observers think the 51-year-old will retire. However, some have speculated that the Executive Mansion setting for today's announcement is a good one for a farewell and Edgar's Cabinet and longtime supporters have been invited to attend.

Edgar also seems to enjoy the job less lately. "If he had his druthers, he probably would retire, he's so fed up," one aide said. The governor has suffered from heart ailments that might push him toward a less stressful life. Others reported Tuesday evening Edgar was waxing eloquent with supporters about his career as a legislator, secretary of state and governor and musing about how he might spend his remaining time in office if he were to quit politics. Edgar likely could line up several jobs on corporate boards, but he does not have the law degree that landed his predecessor Thompson with a lucrative law firm job.

But if Edgar quits now, Democrats surely would suggest he was hounded out by the state contract convictions, and reporters chronicling his career certainly would dwell on that and his failure to pass school funding reform. before decision day Edgar stands to bolster nest egg by not seeking re-election BY MADELEINE DOUBEK Daily Herald Political Editor Gov. Jim Edgar conceivably could build a nicer nest egg for himself if he retires or runs for Senate. Money matters are one part of the decision for Edgar as he contemplates his political future. He has salary, pensions and a $3.24 million state campaign fund to consider.

If Edgar seeks a third term, he obviously will use the fund to finance that campaign. But by state law, politicians can use their state campaign funds for personal purchases as long as they disclose those uses. If Edgar retires, he could convert his state campaign fund to personal use, give up a big chunk of it to state and federal income taxes, but use the rest however he wants. Other state politicians, in fact, have used their campaign funds to pay for college tuition, cars and salaries for their spouses while they still were in office. If Edgar runs for Senate, most experts believe he could not use most of the $3.24 million war chest on a federal race because of strict contribution limits on federal candidates.

However, Edgar aides have suggested the governor could chart new territory by converting the fund to personal use and then donating the money himself to his federal campaign fund. But one election law expert said he doubts federal election authorities would look favorably on that and it likely would be challenged by Edgar's political opponents. As for pensions, if Edgar is not holding a state office when he turns 55 in four years, he can begin collecting a generous state pension. One Edgar confidante said Tuesday he believed that pension will be 85 percent of whatever is his top government salary, a figure that should bring him close to $100,000 in state pension income annually. Should Edgar run for Senate and win, say, two 6-year Senate terms, he could collect the state pension plus a more than $27,000 annual pension from the federal government based on current senators' salaries.

To figure Senate pensions, Senate staffers say a senator's years in office are multiplied by 1.7 percent and that percentage of their highest salary is what they are paid annually. Senators and their staffers also can contribute up to 10 percent of their salaries annually to a savings plan that includes a generous federal matching program. Still, Lawrence noted, "Since I left, he's been interested in how my life has been outside the arena." A Senate bid: A few advisers to Edgar suggest the governor may be ready for a new arena. A history buff, Edgar may enjoy immersing himself in foreign policy in the U.S. Senate and its clubby mystique.

If he won, and many suggest he is the GOP's best bet to beat incumbent Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun, he would be the first in Illinois to win election as both governor and senator, Edgar would lose access to state planes, the Executive Mansion, chauffeured cars and a helicopter. His wife, Brenda, would have to leave friends behind, but her husband would gain a lifestyle with less pressure as a legislator. But, done well, the job requires almost weekly commercial flights to and from Washington, D.C., which might make it difficult for the Edgars to spend much time with their grandson, Dakota, who lives with his parents in Colorado. Housing in the Washington, D.C., area is expensive. Many con- gressmen share housing, but that likely would not appeal to Edgar.

In a Senate contest, there would be perhaps more critical focus on Moseley-Braun than on Edgar. The fund-raising with strict contribution limits would be more difficult, but the campaign, several observers said, would be easier. Chicagoans 'steered' away from fire's origin It wasn't a cow. It was an Irishman, That is the conclusion of attorney Richard F. Bales who has used his spare time to research the origin of the Great Chicago Fire that burned the city down on Oct.

8, 1871. Until now, everyone has blamed Mrs. O'Leary's cow in stories, songs and movies. Bales is rewriting history. The arsonist cow tickles the Chicago funny bone because of its total absurdity.

Love for the absurd drives Chicagoans today to toast unlikely celebrities like Dennis Rodman, the Picasso statue, Al Capone and the Cubs. And the cow. Bales, 45, works in the Wheaton office of Chicago Title Insurance Co. His love for local history goes back to days as a student at Aurora College (now University) where, he said, he was most moved to investigate local history by his professor Clyde Hewitt. He spent his idle Saturdays over the past two years researching the Great Fire, which has affected every Chicago remembrance since it started on the near West Side, burned down a third of the city, killed 300 residents and destroyed 11,000 buildings.

Bales looked up accounts of the city hearings on the causes of the fire at the Chicago Historical Society, as well as property records, plats and deeds from Chicago Title. He may be Chicago's first historical arson investigator. The city loves remembering the fire. It has long designated the hideous old Water Tower at Chicago and Michigan as its symbol because it didn't burn down while everything around it did. (Visitor and poet Oscar Wilde described the Water Tower as looking like an ornate salt shaker.) Bales blames Daniel "Peg Leg" Sullivan for the fire, though Sullivan probably didn't mean to start it.

Everyone else has long blamed the unnamed cow belonging to Catherine O'Leary. The fire started on the near West Side on DeKoven Street hi the O'Leary's barn when something ignited a pile of dry hay. The Chicago Fire Department has its fire academy building near the site today, marked by a modern art sculpture of a flame. But who actually set the fire, the cow or the Irishman? The legend says Mrs. O'Leary was in the barn on the fateful night, milking one of her five cows (she was in the dairy business).

The summer of 1871 was dry and hot, and the West Side was full of lumberyards and wooden buildings. (Even today, Lumber Street lives on.) The legend says the cow kicked over a lantern that ignited the straw and started the blaze. If true, why did Mrs. O'Leary ignore the fire and'go home to bed' with husband, Patrick, only to be awakened after the fire was discovered? The barn where she kept the cows was not insured, Bales said, so it was very unlikely Mrs, O'Leary was an arsonist for profit. Bales said Peg Leg Sullivan, who also kept a cow in the barn, saw flames and bellowed an alarm to the Irish working-class neighborhood.

This is where his story breaks down, according to Bales. Unless he was in the barn, he couldn't have seen the fire from where he claimed to be standing. "It does not seem possible that Sullivan would be able to hobble 193 feet into a burning barn that was full of hay and wood shavings, struggle with animals, fall down, but still ultimately free a calf," Bales wrote in the spring issue of the Illinois state Historical Society journal. Bales is now working on a book about the Great Fire. But he isn't giving up his day job at Chicago Title either.

Like a good cop looking at the facts, Bale thinks Sullivan was when the. fire, started and ''covered it'iip later and oth- "ers were questioned after the fire. The fire department itself came under scrutiny at the time because firemen then were accused of being arsonists on the side and rather lax in their fire-fighting zeal. In the end, the commission blamed no one. A typical Chicago cover-up.

The Great Fire in Chicago inflamed the interest of the world. Queen Victoria of Britain led her nation to rally to the city and the English sent the city a boatload of books for its public library. It didn't have a public library but the English gesture shamed it into building one. The Fire lit one under Joseph Medill, who had owned the Tribune since 1855 and claimed credit for making Abe Lincoln President and for co-inventing the Republican party. He ran for mayor after the blaze on the FireProof Party ticket and won.

The city began to require all subsequent buildings be made of something other than wood and fireproofing became part of the reborn city's building code. Chicago's today is one of the na: 1 also attracted great architects' from all over the world to rebuild the city from smoldering scratch. The Chicago school for architecture was born. On the same day as the Chicago fire, a fire in Peshtigo in northern Wisconsin burned tens of thousands of acres after a lightning strike. It was the greatest fire in the world.

No one treated that story as anything but an afterthought Chicago's fire was bigger news because it had more people, it had a stock exchange and it had more newspapers. Maybe the papers blamed the cow because it made a better story. Cow Burns Chicago is just a sexier headline than One-Legged Irishman Sets Accidental Blaze. Shorter, too. ADDITIONAL 35 OFF ALREADY REDUCED SUMMER FASHIONS pf Up to Over Fashions, accessories for Here's how the savings work: Original Price 100.00 Current Price 49.99 ADDITIONAL Price 32.49 YOUR TOTAL SAVINGS 67.51 reduction off ticketed prices will bo taken at the register.

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