Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Q: So that was when Ralph Smith went in then?
A: He went in in the Sixty-ninth General Assembly, yes.
Q: Had you known him before he went to the . . .
A: Yes I knew him just to speak to. He'd moved from Granite City to Alton, and he talked
to me one time on the street and I was still in the assembly and he kind of kiddcd me and
said, "I'll be running against you sometime, Leland," or something like that. And I said,
"Okay, Ralph." And I was still out at Shell. Of course we didn't live too far from each
other. Now he and his wife - his widow's still over there. When we lived on Washington
Avenue he lived a couple of streets over in a new subdivision. Oh, we got along finc. Hell,
I got along with everybody. I mean I didn't always vote the way they wanted . . . (continues
to look through Blue Book)
Q: I don't recall that it says much in there about the reapportionment.
A: There's an article here on transportation.
Q: I think those are generally historical statements in there.
A: Oh I would imagine so, yes, but I can't . . .
Q: One question I had - most people don't remember - perhaps you won't, or don't remember
much about it - in 1953 the constitutional change had to do with getting into the Constitution
a statement that there wcre three parts in Tllinois. There was Chicago itself, there
was Cook County outside of Chicago, and then there was downstate. And that no districts
that were drawn in any of the redistricting as a result of reapportionment were to overlap
those lines. Do you recall that?
A: I remember that, I remember that, and that was quite a - sure, that was quite a -
in fact, that wasn't changed - did the Constitution of 1970 change that? I guess it must
have because they do it now. Sure - oh that was a hig - surc.
Q: Yes they kind of ignored that.
A: Well in the reapportionment that followed in 1955, you didn't overlap at all, see, in that
- there was no overlapping then at all.
Now where that was, it must have been up north in one of the collar counties because Tor
years, oh hell, I guess until then, until they reapportioned, if you wcnt back and aftrr the
large ballot, why, there never was any overlapping at all. Just like - well I think five districts
come into Madison County right now, five legislative districts. And Madison, St. Clair,
now you may hear this of other places too, where we're compared to Du Page and the collar
counties.
It was I guess worked out that they had a commission or something like that of senate and
house members or the senate and house leaders that got up and I believe Judge Tohy Rarry
was active in that, among other fellows. He's a appellate judge now. But the nemocrats
presented - I'm sure it was Ilemocratic legislation that led to the overlapl~ing of
districts. It was agreed so that it would pass that you could - thcrc's five districts that
come into Madison and St. Clair County - into Madison and into St. Clair.
Q: What about the Communist scare after World War 11, do you recall?
A: Wcll, that's interesting, that's a good question. Oh they had some of the damnedest
things. There was a senator, poor old Broyles. Didn't he have us - take . . .