Teacher, broker, milkman,
governor? GOP hopeful Oberweis visits the Burg
by Mike Kroll
Can
a wealthy, very conservative political outsider defeat four opponents to face
off Governor Rod Blagojevich in November and prevail? Republican primary voters
will make that determination March
21st but according to the candidate himself this race has already
narrowed down to merely a choice between current Illinois State Treasurer Judy
Baar Topinka and himself. ÒWhile there are five Republican candidates in
reality this is a two-way race between Judy Topinka and myself, nobody else has
even gotten out of single digits. And there couldn't be greater differences on
the issues that there are between Judy and myself. Ó
At
59 Jim Oberweis is now millionaire businessman from the western-Chicago suburb
of Sugar Grove (near Aurora). A father of five and grandfather of eleven he
grew up in a well-to-do family in the dairy business immediately west of
Aurora. His grandfather operated and successful dairy farm and began home
delivery of his surplus milk in 1927; thus was born Oberweis Dairy. Jim
attended a Catholic military high school, Marmion Military Academy and earned a B.S. In political science from
the University of Illinois. He proudly notes spending a year teaching junior
high math and science before beginning his financial career. He did well for
himself and his investors operating three no-load mutual funds and eventually
earned his MBA from the University of Chicago.
Oberweis
has proven himself an able businessman, not only managing investment funds but
also after he assumed leadership of the family Dairy Business. ÒI bought
Oberweis Dairy twelve years ago and have grown the business from about 50
employees to over 1,000 employees today. Not only did we survive in the home
delivery business when few of our competitors did but the company thrived!Ó His
business success doing business commentary and analysis on television and radio
and two failed attempts to win election to the US Senate. His last senate race
found him coming in second to Jack Ryan in the 2004 primary but when Ryan was
forced to withdraw the Republicans turned instead to Alan Keyes who
subsequently lost in the biggest Illinois landslide ever to Barack Obama. Last
April Oberweis was among the first Republicans to announce his campaign for
governor.
The
candidate was in Galesburg Monday for a town hall meeting held at the VFW Hall
before a crowd of nearly 50 enthusiastic supporters. While nary a one of Knox
CountyÕs traditional Republican faces could be found in the crowd this was an
Oberweis crowd. They cheered loudly for his pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay,
anti-immigration, protector of marriage
message and they were heartened by his no new taxes pledge and promise
to role back many of Blagojevich's fee increases. This was a crowd of social
conservatives, not fiscal conservatives and plying everyone with ice cream
didn't hurt either. Oberweis clearly understands that while these conservative
social issues may have been the keystone to his senate battles the governor's
race has a different focus. I sat down with the candidate before the town hall
meeting to discuss his top campaign points in the governor's race and they are
very different from those of his senate campaigns.
ÒThe
number one issue for voters in this race is ending the prevalent culture of
corruption that has characterized Illinois politics for way too long. During my
lifetime we have had four former governors who have either served [prison] time
or been indicted, two Republicans and two Democrats and Gov Blagojevich may
have the opportunity to break that tie before we are done with this race. I
believe we need someone from outside of state politics to help clean up the
corruption that is so rampant in Springfield today. For example, Judy is a lifelong
politician who has been in Springfield for over 25 years. I pledge that as
governor of Illinois I will not accept political contributions from companies
doing business with the State of Illinois. I have no problem with individuals
or groups spending money to promoting political ideas, that's free speech, but
when those contributions are aimed instead toward expanding their financial net
worth that is where I must draw the line.Ó
Capitalizing
on his outsider status and access to large personal wealth allows Oberweis to
claim the moral high ground. Like both of his earlier campaigns this one has
largely been self-funded. Oberweis doesn't have the same thirst for campaign
contributions that plague most other candidates nor does he have a political record
to run away from. He positions himself as a successful businessman who life and
politics are guided by Christian moral principles and a business rather than
political management style. However, no candidate for governor; be they
Democrat or Republican; can escape the need to demonstrate to voters that he or
she has a plan to heal the state's huge financial mess.
ÒIf
we clean up the culture of corruption we will go a long way toward fixing the
state economy by eliminated the corruption tax that I conservatively estimate
to be two-three percent of the state budget-- that's over a billion dollars
right there.Ó By taking the no-new-taxes pledge Oberweis has leveraged himself
out of nearly all traditional opportunities to raise state revenues and he
chastises Blagojevich for his end runs around that same pledge by imposing fee
increases Oberweis would reverse. That leaves elimination of waste, increased
efficiency and natural revenue growth through economic expansion as the few
tools available to mend the state budget. ÒIt would be my number one job as
governor to insure that the taxpayers of Illinois get the best return on their
tax dollar.Ó
Carrying
his outsider strategy further he vows to ask other outsiders to assist him in
fixing the Illinois budget. ÒI propose putting together a blue ribbon panel of
academic, community and business leaders from across the state to scour the
overall budget for savings and more specifically explore how Illinois can
maximize the return on our investment in education. I would also want this
panel to look at how we could apply a business best practices model toward cost
efficiency in state government.Ó
And
he mentioned a few of his own cost-saving ideas. ÒI will eliminate by executive
order Gov. Blagojevich's requirement that construction bidders abide by project
labor agreements. These agreements make it difficult for small local firms or
minority firms or female firms to competitively bid for state work. This act
alone will increase competition for state contracts and reduce these costs by
anywhere from 12-20 percent. I am very confident that this alone would save the
state hundreds of millions of dollars each year. ...I am pledged to not rob the
motor fuel fund or other such funds that have dollars dedicated to specific
uses. Gov Blagojevich has take over $500 million out of the motor fuel tax fund
alone as part of his fund sweeps. ...I am on record as being opposed to any
further expansion of gambling in Illinois, it is NOT the solution to our
funding needs, and I will not accept any contributions from gaming interests.Ó
Given
the state budget crisis and his own financial background this top priority
should surprise no one. His secondary focus on education just might surprise
some. ÒMy number one goal will be to get the state on a sound financial
footing. My second goal will be to reexamine our priorities and let me assure
you that education, including higher education will be high on that list. My
family places a high value on education and every one of my five children has a
college degree, four have post-graduate degrees. At Oberweis Dairy we support
higher education through a $500 per year scholarship available to our ice cream
scoopers. They can use that money at any college or university they choose and
it is available regardless of need; we just want to encourage them to go to
school. We also make the same offer to the kids of our 37 family farmers that
provide our milk.Ó
ÒWe
need a free-market concept in our schools that allows parents to send their
children to the school of their choice, either public or private, and take
their share of funding with them. No matter what we do we will never end up
with total equality in school funding. Wealthier districts are going to provide
extra funds for supplemental or extra programs like music and art or clubs and
sports but the state's job is to see that essential education needs are
adequately funded everywhere in the state. And extra dollars aren't always the
key factor either, we need to get the incentives right and consolidation of the
small districts must occur so we can operate the education system more
efficiently and effectively.Ó
Financial
answers may not address all demons but Oberweis sees money as a prime
motivator. He illustrates his idea of applying incentives to Illinois schools
with the story of how he turned around the family dairy business.
ÒOne
of the first things I did after taking over the dairy business was to look at
the income statement and realize that the company wasn't making any money in
the home delivery business. Our delivery employees were represented by the
Teamsters Union under a contract that allowed only two percent of salary to be
based on commission. We didn't have the incentives right and we needed to
change if we were to survive. All the other home delivery dairies were going
out of business and I proposed that we take a chance on something new that
would allow both the company and our employees to make more money. The first
time it was brought to a vote we lost but after some minor changes and discussions
with the union to take the chance or risk closing. After allowing a second vote
this passed by a single vote. The result, in the last 12 we have seen the
average number of deliveries per man per route per day go from 83 to 162 today.
Then we had 3,500 home delivery customers while today we have over 35,000 and
our average employee income rose from about $25,000 to over $60,000 today. This
has clearly been a win for the employees and the company, both have survived
and prospered; and it was a win for the union who gained member. But most
importantly it was a win for my customers because now the delivery guy was
motivated to serve the customer well.Ó
ÒI
believe we need to give parents the ability to choose the best school for their
children. We need to spend more of our education tax dollars in the classroom,
on teachers and books and I want to reduce administrative and bureaucratic
expenses. We also need to move toward merit pay for teachers so we reward the
best teachers on performance rather than longevity. We need merit pay to keep
the best teachers in the system and teachers who fail to deliver should be
financially penalized. Tenure should not serve as a shield for laziness or
incompetence and principals need to be able to shed non-performers, even those
with many years of experience.Ó
Oberweis
abhors career politicians. He sees government service as a brief sabbatical
from our regular lives and pledges to limit his own term in office. ÒJust as I
believe it is the right and duty of all citizens to provide some form of public
service I also thing that holding elective office should be for a limited time.
If elected I pledge to serve no more that two terms as Governor and I have no
intention of making politics my new vocation.