Illinois at a Glance State Profile - Gov. Ryan (R) - Sen. Durbin (D) - Sen. Fitzgerald (R) Presidential Politics Congressional Districting - 01 - Rush (D) - 02 - Jackson Jr. (D) - 03 - Lipinski (D) - 04 - Gutierrez (D) - 05 - Blagojevich (D) - 06 - Hyde (R) - 07 - Davis (D) - 08 - Crane (R) - 09 - Schakowsky (D) - 10 - Kirk (R) - 11 - Weller (R) - 12 - Costello (D) - 13 - Biggert (R) - 14 - Hastert (R) - 15 - Johnson (R) - 16 - Manzullo (R) - 17 - Evans (D) - 18 - LaHood (R) - 19 - Phelps (D) - 20 - Shimkus (R) Almanac 2002 Home States & Districts Elected Officials For district profiles and additional information on the elected officials of Illinois, please use the pull-down menu above.

Illinois's western prairies are some of America's richest agricultural land. They were first settled by Yankees coming overland from northern Indiana and Ohio and Upstate New York. After 1848 Germans left their homeland in search of better opportunities and settled this land that in so many ways resembles the flat, orderly plains of northern Germany. All these migrants farmed quarter-sections and built small towns, with banks and stores, community churches and libraries. In time, investors built farm machinery factories, and the Quad Cities of the Mississippi--Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois--became one of the nation's biggest agricultural equipment manufacturing centers. These plants were unionized in the 1930s and 1940s, and in post-World War II America their wages went up as the demand for ever more sophisticated machines rose among the Midwest's government-subsidized farmers. But eventually the cost of subsidies rose too high and the market had its revenge. In the early 1980s farm profits vanished, land values declined and orders for new machinery and equipment dried up. The result was a depression in western Illinois and neighboring Iowa, and a political swing toward the Democrats and away from the Republicans who had been the ancestral party in most of this area. In the 1990s the Democratic tide receded a bit, but this was still one of the few parts of rural America carried by Al Gore in 2000.

The 17th Congressional District includes most of Illinois' Mississippi River border with Iowa plus half a dozen more prairie counties to the east. For years its Democratic base in the Quad Cities was outvoted by Republican counties elsewhere. But for most of the last 20 years this has been a Democratic district. Its demographics are changing as a wave of Hispanics have been drawn to places like the Rock River industrial town of Sterling; they now comprise 19% of its 15,000 residents.

The congressman from the 17th District is Lane Evans, a Democrat elected in 1982 and now the ranking minority member on the Veterans Affairs Committee. Evans grew up in Rock Island, the son of a union firefighter. He joined the Marine Corps in 1969 after high school and served two years, then went to college and law school and worked as a legal services lawyer. In 1982, he ran for Congress--a seemingly quixotic race against longtime incumbent Republican Tom Railsback. But Railsback lost his primary to a conservative and the economically hard-pressed district voted 53% for Evans. He calls himself a "populist" rather than a liberal; by most standards his voting record is solidly liberal and one of the most pro-union in the House. He was a strong opponent of NAFTA, GATT and permanent trade relations with China. He fervently favored higher agricultural subsidies during his five-year tenure on the Agriculture Committee, but left that post to take a seat on Armed Services in 1988, even as farm subsidies were cut back in 1985, 1990 and 1996. Evans is co-chairman of the Alcohol Fuels Caucus; he helped the ethanol tax credit get extended from 2000 to 2007 in the 1998 transportation bill. He was one of 31 Democrats who voted for the Republicans' impeachment inquiry in October 1998, though he later voted solidly against impeachment.

Evans has devoted much time to veterans' issues. He worked hard for years to get compensation for veterans who claimed they were harmed by exposure to Agent Orange, and ultimately succeeded. In 1994 he began to investigate what he and others have characterized as Gulf war syndrome. In 1996 Evans passed a bill providing benefits to children of Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange who were born with spina bifida--the first entitlement for children of veterans.

On Armed Services, Evans worked on finding alternatives to tritium production; he also questioned how much export controls should be relaxed on critical weapons materials. His major cause on the committee has been a ban on land mines, which continue to injure thousands years after wars are over. In 1996 he passed a one-year moratorium, to begin in 1999, but it was repealed by Congress in 1998. In 1997 he co-sponsored, with Republican Jack Quinn, a total ban along the lines championed by Canada and agreed to by many other nations; his ban would include "smart" mines, those which remain explosive for only a limited time and, after a 12-year exemption, all mines in South Korea. This approach was rejected by the Clinton administration, which wanted to keep mines in South Korea to repel any attack by North Korea.

In the years of agricultural unrest and high unemployment in western Illinois, Evans was re-elected by wide margins. But in recent years his margins have been narrower. In 1994 against an underfunded candidate he won with 55%. In the last three elections he faced Mark Baker, a TV anchor until 1996 in Quincy, in the southern end of the district. In 1996 Evans won 52%-47%, carrying Rock Island and the central part of the district, but losing the northern end and the area around Quincy by wide margins. In 1998 the race was targeted early on by Republicans and Baker raised more PAC money than any other House challenger. In May 1998 Evans announced he had Parkinson's disease, which was diagnosed in 1995; he said he could not stand long without pain or smile easily, but could still jog and that he had lost weight under doctor's orders. Evans ultimately raised and spent almost $1.3 million and appealed strongly to the 38,000 Farm Bureau members in the district; he depended heavily on organized labor and liberal volunteers. The result was almost exactly the same as in 1996: Evans won 52%-48%. He increased his percentages in Rock Island County and the counties immediately east and south; Baker increased his percentages in the north and south parts of the district.

In 2000 Baker ran again, but this time the race was not as high on the Republican target list and Evans had a money advantage. Baker had primary opposition from retired surgeon Harold Bayne, but won 65%-28%; Bayne supported Evans in the fall. Baker attacked Evans for taking "bunny money" from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and ran ads showing him with union members. Evans spent much of his ad budget talking about his Parkinson's disease; one showed him jogging and saying, "If you hear someone say they're worried about Lane Evans, tell them you saw him running today and he's doing just fine." This time Evans widened his margin to 55%-45%, once again winning big in Rock Island County and losing counties in the southern and northern ends of the district. This was a party-line race: the two candidates' percentages closely paralleled those of Al Gore and George W. Bush. Because it needs to add 85,000 people, redistricting will change the boundaries of the 17th at least slightly for 2002, which might tilt the district a little away from Evans since almost all the adjacent counties are Republican.

Cook's Call:
Competitive. This competitive Quad Cities district will never be an easy one for Evans to hold onto. After surviving four tight races, however, it is hard to see what more Republicans can try to do to knock him out. If Evans decides to leave (his health may be a factor), Republicans have a good shot of picking it up.

The People:

• Pop. 2000: 567,712; Pop. 1990: 571,585, down 0.7% 1990-2000.
• 92.2% White, 3.7% Black, 0.7% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 1.2% Two+ races, 1.9% Other. 4.6% Hispanic origin.

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 126,987 (51%) Bush (R) 113,520 (46%) Nader (Green) 4,836 (2%)

1996 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 119,918 (51%) Dole (R) 89,447 (38%) Perot (I) 23,176 (10%)