When I started to write this little blog I said would not get into political issues, but with all the talk about political maps I thought might write about my personal experience.

My good friend Paul Findley served in the US congress from 1960 t0 1982. Let me tell you why he lost in 1982.

Bob Michel, from Peoria, was minority leader of the US House of Representatives in 1982 and we all wanted to protect his seat in congress. Paul was much more to the center and always received a strong democratic vote.  I had the honor of being in some of the meetings as the new congressional maps were being discussed. As we reviewed voting in the Democratic area in Paul’s district we saw where he had done well in most democratic areas.  Bob had not received many democratic votes in democratic areas of his district.  Paul and most of us agreed to give Bob the highly republican area of Morgan and republican part of Sangamon County.  Paul and we all wanted to keep the minority leadership.

The second thing that played a factor in Paul losing was he supported a Palestine state and was going to most likely be minority leader of sub-committee on the Middle East. This caused great concern for the Jewish community.  The Jewish community helped finance David Nissan, former Mayor of Quincy, to run against Paul in the primary.

The third thing that contributed to Paul losing was one of Illinois’ best and strongest Democratic leaders, Richard Durbin. He ran against Paul in the General election of 1982.  The Jewish community gave Richard Durbin more money than most congressional campaigns had ever spent.  Richard Durbin won by about 1,200 votes. Bob Michel won with ease.

In my book “Your Food – MY Adventure” you will read how I got involved in Congressman Findley campaign by just showing up.