Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

could file maybe up to midnight. You had eight days, Monday to Monday maybe. You could
file with the secretary of state, whether he was Democrat or Republican, they'd take your
petition up to midnight.
And there's always somebody with tricks up their sleeves you know. (laughs) One time
they had a big fight for state central committeeman in a Democratic primary down
here. And in that old Fifty-first District Charlie Vanpreter was trying to beat Leo
Dougherty. St. Clair and Madison County were in the same congressional districts and state
central committeemen come on the same congressional district. And they wanted to beat
Dougherty I guess. Somebody did. And Vanpreter was mayor of East Alton and well he
was - he definitely wasn't a do-gooder. IIe filed, I think, about 11:30 the last night to
file. And I don't think Dougherty suspected it. Now I'm not speaking disrespectfully of
Vanpreter or nougherty. But Dougherty, they made him fight. He had to fight for that
job. (laughs) They had him up here at meetings and he'd come to precinct committee meetings
and he'd talk like a Dutch uncle, like only Irishmen can talk I guess when he gets
upset. He got elected. He beat Vanpreter. Of course he and Vanpreter are both gone to
their reward. Those are intraparty fights you know.
Q: Sir, how wcll did you get to know Paul Rroyles?
A: Not very well at all, Mr. Waggoner. Well, as I think T mentioned before I didn't hang
out in the senatc much. I just didn't know him at all. I don't know how long he was in
the senate quite frankly. Did he serve twenty years, or how long? When did he come
up? In the 1969 session?
Q: 1 don't recall. I don't think he was there. IJe was into the sixties, the 1960's.
A: He's not alive is he'?
Q: I don't believe so, no sir.
A: Oh 1 don't think he was a wild man or nothing like that. IIe seemed to he well-composed.
I don't think 1 ever had any individual conversations with him. 1 guess I show my
character, I suppose, I think those things are more or less ridiculous, that you have to -
I think that if you follow the Ten Commandments, you don't need something like that. I
don't mean to be a religious fanatic, I think that's just - you don't need things like that. Of
course you need constitutions and you need different laws and things like that, but I would
assume that - I'm no theologian - that if everybody obeyed the Ten Commandments, you
wouldn't need any police force. Rut that's too id~ological, you'rc not going to havc that. I
always thought that the loyalty oath - now you may research the records and find out I
voted for it, but if I voted for it I voted for it to get it to hell out of the way. It was going
to pass anyway I guess.
Q: Well let's see - we've mentioned the desk up there at Springfield which probably was
the rolltop you say that first go-round. How did you arrange your desk? What did you
haw on your desk up there? What types of thing?
A: Oh I remember that, yes, I remember how I arranged them. For days on end, weeks
on end, I kept all of those statutcs right on top of my desk. They got so damned many
bills introduced you know. First the sixty-fifth and my original eight years, the amount
of hills introduced compares nowhcrc to the numbrr introduced afkr I went hack in in the
1963 session, when you went from 154 members to 177, that was a noticeable change.
Bluc Cross wouldn't accept the chiropractors one time. And the chiropractors as a group
fought it and lobbied different legislators, in a rcspectahle sense, and you had patients of
chiropractors who were your constituents, and thc mcdical profession was against it at one
time, but I think they relented. They got together, and that was permitted.