The name calling already has begun.
Even though their 1986 rematch for the Illinois governorship is nine months away, Gov. James Thompson and former U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson have been verbally attacking each other as if the election were next week.
Speaking before a GOP audience in Springfield earlier this week, Thompson declared that Stevenson was running a ”Chicken Little,” ”hand wringing”
campaign for governor and that a Stevenson administration would be a replay of the ”conflict, chaos, racism, and worse” of Chicago`s ”Council Wars.”
”The best word to describe him (Thompson) is pathetic,” Stevenson said Friday during a radio interview. ”He reminds me of a big, blubbering, harpooned whale. He`ll be thrashing around from now until Election Day.”
”He`s read his polls and realizes he can`t win, so he has two choices,” Stevenson said. ”He can go down with honor or go down with the public`s contempt.”
Polls taken by both candidates and several news organizations have indicated that Thompson and Stevenson are running about even. A Thompson strategist denied that Thompson`s remarks about Stevenson earlier this week had anything to do with a recent poll. ”We haven`t had a poll for months,”
said the Thompson aide.
After Stevenson`s remarks during a taping of the WMAQ-AM program
”Chicago News Conference,” Thompson joked about his Democratic opponent`s characterization. ”Do you see any holes?” Thompson asked, smiling, as he opened his sport jacket. ”Do you see any holes in me? Any steam hole at the top?”
”I don`t think I should have to comment on his descriptions,” Thompson said. ”I don`t know whether whales have tough skins or thin skins, but I`m not hurt.”
Thompson then said that the personal attacks had probably become too strident too early in the campaign and said that he would attempt to cool the increasingly bitter war of words between him and his Democratic opponent.
”Maybe we`re all getting a little carried away. Maybe we all ought to cool down for the weekend and think about what a political campaign is about,” Thompson said. ”I`m willing to do my part.”
In addition to being political opponents, Stevenson and Thompson genuinely dislike each other. Stevenson said that he decided to run for governor last summer after watching Thompson`s announcement for a fourth term. Stevenson, who had never lost an election, is resentful of his loss to Thompson by less than a percentage point in their 1982 contest. Thompson has ridiculed Stevenson as an elitist, while Stevenson has blasted Thompson as an old-style political boss.
During their earlier campaign, Stevenson complained that Thompson was depicting him as a ”wimp.” Thompson capitalized on Stevenson`s verbal slip and frequently depicted his opponent as a ”wimp.” When Stevenson said last summer that ”the sap is rising,” in reference to his interest in running for the governorship in 1986, Thompson began referring to Stevenson as a ”sap.” For his part, Stevenson has attacked Thompson for not serving in the armed forces because of a medical deferment and has also ridiculed the governor`s hobby of collecting antiques, suggesting that Thompson is the
”wimp” of the 1986 campaign.
Thompson suggested last summer that Stevenson had ”holes in his head”
for his effort to claim partial credit for helping to attract a Japanese automobile company to the Bloomington area.
On Friday, Stevenson said that Thompson had been ill-advised to establish the state`s trade office in China in Shenyang ”which is practically in Inner Mongolia.”
