Try as they might, the Illinois party can`t seem to avoid the divisive issue of abortion any better than Republicans nationally.
While party leaders have pushed a ”big tent” strategy to allow divergent beliefs to coexist, opposing sides have staked out mutually exclusive positions that strain the fabric of the tent.
No other state delegation better illustrates the differences among Republicans attending their party`s national convention. And no delegate better embodies the political distress the issue has caused than the party`s U.S. Senate nominee, Kenilworth lawyer Richard Williamson.
The conservative Williamson, who was anti-abortion a year ago but switched his position shortly after he entered the March primary race, held a news conference within hours of his arrival Sunday to announce that he had been endorsed by Republicans for Choice, a fledgling abortion-rights group that has tangled with ardent foes of abortion in the party.
Calling the issue a ”fundamental one” for Republicans, Williamson used the forum to distance himself from the party line and from President Bush.
”He (Bush) is comfortable with this platform (which calls for a constitutional amendment banning abortions), and that`s fine with me,”
Williamson said.
”My obligation is to let the people of Illinois know where I stand on the issues. . . . As Republicans, as conservatives, we believe in individual freedom, less government and more personal responsibility. This position is consistent with everything I have ever believed in-to be left alone by government and to make decisions for themselves.”
Two leading anti-abortion Republicans are members of the Illinois delegation, Rep. Henry Hyde of suburban Bensenville and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly of Alton. After they hammered the anti-abortion plank into the platform, Schlafly triumphantly declared: ”Total victory. None of this litmus-test, big-tent garbage.”
While Hyde is part of a conservative contingent that has promised to work for Williamson this fall in his race against Democrat Carol Moseley Braun, Schlafly has withheld her endorsement.
”The Illinois delegation mirrors the problems that the entire Republican Party has nationally, although the problems are not as common in other delegations,” said John Frendreis, a professor of political science at Loyola University.
”The focal point for divisiveness in Illinois will be Rich Williamson`s race,” he said. ”A bitter convention may heighten those problems for him.” The 85-member Illinois delegation, which is scheduled to be the focus of Monday`s ”Nightline” on ABC-TV, is representative of the diversity of abortion views in the party.
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For example, Gov. Jim Edgar, the chairman of the delegation, is an abortion-rights supporter but thinks minors seeking abortions should be forced to notify their parents.
Lt. Gov. Robert Kustra and Secretary of State George Ryan have been abortion opponents. And former Gov. James Thompson routinely vetoed measures to restrict abortion while expressing increasingly anti-abortion sentiments.
”I think you`re going to have families that are going to be split by this plank, not just delegations. This is no good,” said Rep. Manny Hoffman of Homewood, the Cook County GOP chairman.
”This is not doing anything for the Republican Party. We`re 35 points behind right now. We`ve got to concentrate on other things.”
Albert Jourdan, the state GOP chairman from McHenry County, believes it`s time for the party to put the issue of abortion behind it.
”I think what we`re seeing here is the last convention that really deals with abortion at this depth,” Jourdan said.
Edgar, like other Illinois GOP moderates, downplays the rift over abortion as a ”media issue.”
Implying that not all party members are bound by the platform, he said:
”The national platform is for the president. That`s what he runs on.”