Illinois: Seventeenth District

Rep. Phil Hare (D)

Phil Hare (D) Elected 2006, 1st term up
Born:	02-21-1949, Galesburg
Home:	Rock Island
Education:	Attended Black Hawk Community College, 1967-69
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Becky)
Military Career:	Army Reserves, 1969-75.
Professional Career:	Factory worker, Seaford Clothing Factory, 1969-82, Dist. Dir., U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, 1982-2006.
DC Office	1118 LHOB, 20515 202-225-5905 Fax: 202-225-5396 Website: hare.house.gov
State Offices	Carlinville:217-854-2290; Decatur:217-422-9150; Galesburg:309-342-4411; Moline:309-793-5760;
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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. As farming expanded, so did the need for agricultural equipment. Entrepreneurs and 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. The Democratic tide has receded a bit, but this was still one of the few parts of rural America carried by Al Gore and John Kerry. Recent job losses and wildly oscillating farm prices have helped Democrats maintain majorities here.

The 17th Congressional District of Illinois includes the state’s portion of the Quad Cities plus several rural counties to the south: All of the Mississippi River border with Iowa and south almost to St. Louis. From there, the geography gets more imaginative. A thin strip of land along the Mississippi River and the lower Illinois River connects the district to an extension that includes rural Macoupin County and some parts east of there. Then another thin reed sprouts north from Macoupin to include central Springfield (but not the state Capitol building) and then reaches some 40 miles further east to take in a portion of Decatur. Decatur is home to politically influential Archer Daniels Midland, the largest agricultural processor in the world and a key promoter of ethanol. It would be fairly easy to drive directly from any part of the 17th District to another, but only if you crossed over into the 18th or 19th Districts. To drive from one end of the 17th to the other while remaining entirely inside the district would take many more miles and many, many more hours than to drive from Chicago to the southern tip of Illinois in Cairo. There is, of course, a good political explanation for this weird configuration. By removing the Republican counties east and north of the Quad Cities during redistricting, the 17th was made more safely Democratic and neighboring districts were reinforced for Republicans. Macoupin County is historically Democratic; central Springfield and Decatur are solidly Democratic. The old 17th district gave George W. Bush a 6% margin in 2000; the new gerrymandered 17th gave Al Gore a 10% margin. 

The new congressman from the 17th District is Phil Hare, a Democrat elected to succeed his long-time boss Lane Evans. Hare was born in Galesburg and is the son of a machinist. He attended Black Hawk Community College in Moline and was a union leader at the Seaford Clothing Factory in Rock Island, where he was a lining cutter for 13 years. He worked on the presidential campaigns of Fred Harris and Ted Kennedy. For 23 years, he was an aide to Evans, chiefly as his district director.

Evans had served in Congress since 1982, became the ranking minority member on the Veterans Affairs Committee, and was a leading prairie populist before suffering the debilitating effects of a long-running battle with Parkinson's disease. He was diagnosed in 1995 but did not make his condition public until 1998; for several years, little was heard of his illness. But in 2004 his Republican opponent, onetime Quad Cities TV anchor Andrea Zinga, raised it loudly. By this time Evans had trouble getting up from a chair and pouring a soft drink, and he had speech therapy once a week to prevent “lazy tongue,” though he said he still went out running some mornings and regularly traveled throughout the district. Zinga said he was not physically fit to serve. “People who are on the medications he is on may have trouble with judgment, which can be worsened by excitement or stress.” Evans assured friendly audiences, “I may be slow, but I know which way to go.” In November 2004, he was reelected 61%-39%, carrying every county except heavily Republican Adams. But one week after winning the March 2006 Democratic primary, Evans announced that he would not run for a 13th term, citing his long-running battle with Parkinson's.

After Evans announced his retirement, Hare quickly received his endorsement as well as the backing of organized labor and the Rock Island Democratic Party establishment. Hare said that his top priorities were fixing the health care system, fighting for working families, and expanding renewable fuels. On social issues, he expressed his support for abortion rights but said he favored parental notification for minors who seek abortions. He opposed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. State Senator John Sullivan, state Representative Mike Boland and Rock Island Mayor Mark Schweibert were his chief Democratic opponents. Under Illinois law, precinct committeemen from the 17th District were authorized to choose the party's replacement nominee in a weighted selection process; party leaders jousted over who was an eligible voter and how the votes should be weighted. Voting was by mail, and the results were counted on June 6. Hare spoke personally with nearly 350 of the roughly 400 eligible voters. He won 64% of the weighted vote, to 28% for Sullivan and 5% for Schweibert. Boland criticized the “insiders game” and pressure from party and union leaders to support Hare.

Zinga ran again in the general, but her campaign never really threatened Hare. She struggled to raise money, and the national GOP took no interest in the race. After a controversial September 11 speech in which she supported racial profiling at airports, her campaign backpedaled, explaining that she had meant that airport screeners shouldn't face anti-discrimination lawsuits for focusing on travelers from certain ethnic groups. In another blow to her campaign, the Illinois Farm Bureau chose not to endorse either candidate, despite having endorsed Zinga in 2004. Hare won 57%-43%. Zinga carried Adams County and three adjoining rural counties, all located well to the south of Rock Island. Evans spoke softly at Hare’s victory celebration and “looked fragile, but he walked briskly to the podium with some assistance,” the Quad-City Times reported.

Committees

• Education & Labor (24th of 27 D)
  Workforce Protections; Health, Employment, Labor & Pensions; Early Childhood, Elementary & Secondary Education.
• Veterans' Affairs (8th of 16 D)
  Disability Assistance & Memorial Affairs; Health.

Presidential Vote

District Demographics (More Info)

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 5
• Area size: 8,289 square miles
• Urban Population: 71.1%
• Rural Population: 28.9%
• Population 2000: 653,647
• Population 2005 (est): 634,013
• Median Income: $35,066
• Poverty Status: 12.5%
• Military Veterans: 14.4%
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 87.3% White; 7.2% Black; 0.6% Asian; 0.2% Native Am.; 0.0% Hawaiian; 1.0% Two+ races; 0.1% Other; 3.7% Hispanic Origin;
• Ancestry: 18.2% German%; 9.0% Irish%; 7.7% English%;
• Occupation: Blue collar 29.9%; White collar 51.7%; Gray collar 18.4%;