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SEIFFE:  Public Service Adds Up

Thursday, December 8, 2005

By Ralf Seiffe

If you live in Illinois, and in Cook County particularly, you probably think the term “public service” involves getting your name on the overheads welcoming visitors at O’Hare or on the signs telling us the forest preserves close at sunset.  For others, it means getting your name on no-bid contracts.  If so, you can be excused if you don’t recognize a genuine act of public service when it comes along.  

Steve Rauschenberger’s decision to drop back to the Lieutenant Governor’s race and cast his lot with Ron Gidwitz is a true act of public service and because of it, the Senator’s cause is materially advanced.  We chatterers have not recognized the real importance of Rauschenberger’s decision, preferring to speculate how this apparently “odd couple” will get along.  Stumbling over this apparent dichotomy misses two important developments this new alliance shows.  

First is the concept of public service.  To my mind, that notion includes an element of sacrifice.  True public service means giving up something personal in exchange for the greater good.  At one time, that often meant foregoing some financial advantage by putting one’s own ambitions on hold while doing something good for society at-large.  But public servants forfeit nothing these days.  Perusing the Internet lists of teacher’s and county employees’ salaries shows they enjoy middle class earnings and, when one adds their pensions and subtracts their likelihood of layoff, they do very well indeed.   

At a higher level, elective office-seekers claim they are all about public service, too.  Few are effective because they do not lead from principle; instead, they compromise to accumulate enough support to form a coalition.  So, along comes State Senator Steve Rauschenberger who has ambition and does have a principled crusade.  He offered to lead those Republicans who want more from the party than a business arrangement with the Democrats.  Now, he’s put aside his personal ambition to advance the crusade, an act that utterly defines public service.  It’s the political equivalent of falling on a hand grenade to save the rest of the platoon.      

The immediate effect of the new alliance between Gidwitz and Rauschenberger is the second development -- these Republicans may have stumbled onto the thought that politics works best through addition.  The duo offers differences and intersections of opinion that could tempt Republicans with a broader, attractive alternative to the anointed frontrunner.  Their differences could appeal to moderate and the socially conservative Republicans who understand how difficult it will be to beat the Democrats next November.  If each man can convince their natural constituencies that they will have representation and a fair shake in a new Republican administration, the ticket might be able to unite active and latent Republicans who might otherwise stay home on election day.  

By aligning, Gidwitz and Rauschenberger offer a different sort of combination than the establishment candidate represents. The issue on which the two agree is corruption, inside the party and inside the government.  Both have already recognized that reform is a pre-condition for the party to return to electoral relevance and each has previously called on the party’s national committeeman to resign.   Corruption is the real issue splitting Republicans, especially as the last act of the Ryan administration plays out at the Dirksen Federal Building . 

Presumably, that trial will be over by the time voters begin to pay attention in February and the spotlight will then begin to shine on Chicago Democrats’ smorgasbord of sleaze. At that time, a pair of bona-fide reformers should be able to leverage the news into a strategic position that a Combine member could never achieve and that the Democrats cannot answer.   

Cynics -- even respectable columnists -- have pointed to Rauschenberger’s money problems as the reason for this alliance.  That’s certainly possible but this union offers a new choice for open-minded Republicans, especially for those weary of the Combine and disappointed by the Bob Dole model of entitlement that anointed Judy Baar Topinka.  The now-smaller field may have become a real competition . . . and the definitive battle for the future of the Illinois Republican Party.

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Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader and Illinois Review.