Interview with James Thompson # IST-A-L-2013-054.15 Interview # 15: March 30, 2015 Interviewer: Mark DePue COPYRIGHT The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955 Note to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge. DePue: Today is Monday, March 30, 2015. This is Mark DePue, the director of oral history at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Today I’m in Chicago, sitting across the table from Gov. Jim Thompson. Good afternoon, Governor. Thompson: Hello Mark, how are you doing? DePue: Good. It has been way too long since we had our last session. Today is the fifteenth session. Thompson: Yes, my memory has probably collapsed since then. DePue: The last two sessions, I had a good time— Thompson: I’ll bet you did! DePue: —hearing your stories about Adlai Stevenson. Thompson: (laughs) They’re all true too. DePue: And occasionally, you see the Stevenson name getting in the press. But I wanted to start today with how you got recently mentioned in the press, retiring from Winston & Strawn. Thompson: Oh, yeah. Governor James Thompson Interview # IST-A-L-2013-054 DePue: So what does that mean? Because I’ve gotten the impression, Governor, that you haven’t been actively in the docket for a while anyway. Thompson: Well, that’s true. I have been focusing my efforts at the law firm on mentoring young associates in the litigation practice. And to me that’s very important, and I think it’s very important to the firm. But a slight correction—I have not retired. I don’t retire until January 31st of next year. DePue: So did I hear that wrong, or did the press report that wrong? Thompson: No, it’s easy to miss the deadline, I think. And sometimes the stories didn’t include it, or didn’t put it very high in the story. So I’m there for the rest of the year, and then I’m there for two more years as a consultant. Not as a lawyer, but as a consultant, consulting with the managing partner on non-legal cases. DePue: Does that mean that you still get to keep your primo corner-office spot? Thompson: Yes. All that stuff—the office, the car, the staff—for three more years. DePue: So John Frier will still continue to work for you? Thompson: John’s there until the end of this year. But it’s time to get John a real job, so I’m going to work on that. DePue: He’s been working for you how long? Thompson: Fifteen years in a one-year job. DePue: My understanding is that he thought that was a real job. Thompson: (laughs) Yeah, I’m sure he did. It’s a great job, probably the best job in the state. But it’s time for that boy to hit the real world. DePue: He’s no longer a boy, he’s a young man now. Thompson: Well, he’s getting old. DePue: (laughs) That’s a nice segue to how I wanted to start with you today. We just got done, last time we met, talking about the 1982 election. By that time, that was your third election. And once you finished that term, you were going to have ten years in office; you’d already had six. How would you characterize your relationship with the news media in 1983, after you get out of the election? Thompson: Excellent. I had some detractors in the news media, but I had some fair- minded reporters and columnists as well. I’ve been in public life for a long, long time—almost fifty-six years. And I have to say, over fifty-six years I have, with rare exception, been fairly treated by the media. And I’ve enjoyed 510 Governor James Thompson Interview # IST-A-L-2013-054 my relationship with the media, especially in the early days as a prosecutor. I had great media relations as a young governor, or a gubernatorial candidate running for the first time; a lot of the young reporters who covered that political campaign were friends of mine. Now, the longer you stay, maybe the harder it is; because the longer you stay, the more things you do. And you can be criticized for some of the things you do, because nobody in public life is going to have a trouble-free record for fifty-six years. But looking at that entire time, from the time I began as a young prosecutor until today, I think I would have to say I have been fairly treated by the media. DePue: Did you get some of the major newspapers to endorse your campaign in ‘82? Thompson: Yes. In my first campaign, I had every newspaper in the state except two. In the second campaign, I think I had every newspaper in the state. In the third campaign, we might have had some small fallout, but I can’t remember who it would be. And the same with the fourth campaign. DePue: So in ‘82, both the Sun-Times and Tribune came out and endorsed you? Thompson: Right. DePue: It doesn’t seem to carry as much weight today, but in ‘82, did those endorsements matter? Thompson: I think they did. In 2015, I think the endorsement of a gubernatorial candidate by a newspaper does not hold the power it did twenty, thirty years ago, when more people read newspapers and more people paid attention to the editorial page. But the last statistic I ever heard, and the one that stuck with me, is that only 3 percent of newspaper readers read the editorial page, 3 percent. So if they write an endorsement editorial in the closing days of the campaign and only 3 percent of the people read it, it’s not going to do you much good. The real power of a newspaper editorial comes from its repetition by the campaign. There’s always a commercial that goes up on television that says, in essence, “Jim Thompson’s been endorsed for reelection by”—and they do a rolling screen of all the newspapers that have endorsed you. Now, all of that together on a rolling-screen commercial is pretty powerful, I think. And it’s made more powerful by the fact that your opponent, who didn’t get any endorsements, can’t answer it. Cannot answer it. What’s he going to say, newspaper editorials don’t mean much? He’s not going to say that. So he’s not going to say anything. That’s the power of the endorsement. But that’s the only power that I could see. DePue: I’m going to mention one name to see if you have a memory of this individual, and that’s Roger Simon, who I believe was writing for Chicago Sun-Times. Thompson: Yeah. Sure, I know Roger Simon. 511 Governor James Thompson Interview # IST-A-L-2013-054 DePue: Not one of your supporters? Thompson: He didn’t like me, plain and simple. And I’ll tell you why. There was an earlier time when I did a budget cut that he took offense to. I think it was in the mental health area; I’m not clear, but I think that’s right. And ever since that, he would write as critical or even nasty columns as he could. He was at the Sun-Times in Chicago until he got fired, and then he went off. And now he is the chief political correspondent for Politico, the website thing. He went other places in between that. But he’s never been a fan of mine, and I understand that. Not much I can do about it. DePue: Do you remember any of the specific articles or incidents or issues that he was taking on? Thompson: Oh, sure. He didn’t like the mansion expenses, and he would write his articles about “Thompson’s living royally while people are hurting” on and on and on. You have to live with stuff like that. It may offend you, but what’s the point of letting that upset you, when other reporters are writing favorable pieces? DePue: Can you recall any other reporters who were consistently negative about you or your administration? Thompson: Not really. The guys in Springfield—Mike Lawrence, for example—who knew government thoroughly always wrote very fair columns. Mike Royko wrote fair columns, defended me; Steve Neal of the Sun-Times, the same way; Bob Wiedrich of the Tribune, same way. I’d have to say that they greatly outnumbered the Roger Simons of the world. DePue: It doesn’t seem to be as prevalent today, but back in the heyday when you were running for office, lots of political cartoons.