Evans leaving legacy as defender

Illinois lawmaker known as advocate for unions, working-class citizens

*By Dori Meinert*

OF Copley News Service

*WASHINGTON, D.C. *- For several years after he first came to Congress
in 1983, Rep. Lane Evans would spend every Wednesday evening at his desk
in his congressional office personally returning constituents' phone calls.

"I was blown away because Lane was taking notes. And, he was nodding his
head ... you could tell he was really listening," said Eda Robinson,
recalling one of her earliest memories of working for Evans.

"It was so refreshing to see somebody who is a member of Congress who
was really trying to represent the people," said Robinson, who has spent
22 years as Evans' office manager.

That personal touch was a hallmark of the then-newly minted congressman,
a former Marine and legal aid lawyer with no prior political experience
who had defied the odds to become the first Democrat to represent
Illinois' 17th Congressional District in 16 years.

He was, in fact, the quintessential citizen legislator, so when Evans
arrived on Capitol Hill it was if life were imitating art - Jimmy
Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

When he bows out at year's end after 24 years representing his central
Illinois House district, he will leave with a national reputation as a
leading advocate for veterans and ordinary Americans and as an
inspiration for others who, like him, suffer from Parkinson's disease.

He also leaves Republicans wondering whether they might be able to pull
off a coup similar to Evans' feat in 1982, when he won the seat after a
longtime moderate Republican incumbent, Rep. Tom Railsback, was
unexpectedly defeated in the primary.

As the region struggled through an economic recession, Evans defeated
conservative Republican state Sen. Kenneth McMillan, by urging voters to
"send Reagan a message."

Dennis King, his chief of staff throughout Evans' tenure, described
Evans as a populist since his first days in office. He immediately
devised outreach programs to bring his services as a congressman to the
people he represents, King said. He held meetings in each county to
pinpoint local economic needs in an era when economic development
agencies didn't yet exist.

Courage and conviction

Evans arrived on Capitol Hill with a huge group of 57 newly elected
House Democrats. In two of his first four years in the House, Evans
voted more often against the policies of then-President Ronald Reagan
than any other House member.

"From the start, he really stood out in my mind because he started
casting some of the most politically courageous votes. This was a
district that a few weeks before was represented by a Republican," said
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was elected to the House the same year and
counts Evans as a close friend. "I admired him for his courage. Most
freshman congressmen don't have that courage to stand up and vote that
way. They tend to be more cautious and careful, but that just wasn't his
style."

Evans' voting record remains solidly liberal and pro-union to this day.

Ultimately, he became a leading defender of veterans' rights and
benefits in Congress.

In 1997, Evans became the senior Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs
Committee - the first Vietnam-era veteran to achieve that status. He
also sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

"He's been a champion for veterans, and he's going to be sorely missed,"
said Joe Violante, national legislative director for Disabled American
Veterans, who has worked with Evans on numerous veteran-related issues.

Evans served as a Marine during the Vietnam era. His older brother was
already serving in Vietnam, so Evans was sent to Okinawa. Their father
had served in the Navy. Evans returned home to go to college on the GI bill.

In his first two-year term, he won legislation to create a pilot program
establishing community-based veterans centers to help with job and
marriage counseling and post-traumatic stress syndrome. The program has
since grown to include hundreds of veterans centers around the country.

He also succeeded after a four-year fight to win medical compensation
for Vietnam veterans exposed to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange. In
1996, Evans also pushed through a measure extending benefits to the
veterans' children who were born with spina bifida, a spinal birth
defect. It was the first time the government agreed to compensate
veterans' children for health problems related to their parents'
military service.

He's also pushed for disclosure of health risks to Gulf War veterans.
His agenda has also included expanded services for women GIs and for
those who become homeless once they leave military ranks.

His has been a leading voice in the effort to ban the use of
anti-personnel land mines, which pose a danger to soldiers and civilians
alike. And, he's pressed Japan to apologize for sexually abusing Asian
"comfort women" during World War II.

Personal heroes

A huge Beatles fan, Evans has a large John Lennon photo displayed
prominently in his congressional office.

It hangs there "because he thought John Lennon was often a better
reminder than many people he met in Congress of the hopes of
working-class young people for peace and freedom," said Durbin, in a
tribute to Evans on the Senate floor this past week.

On the opposite wall, Evans has surrounded himself with photos and
posters of his other personal heroes, including John F. Kennedy, Eleanor
Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. Among them, he also has a photo of
Canton teenager John Keets, who died of AIDS.

In 1995, Evans was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease after he noticed
he had trouble waving his left hand during a Labor Day parade in
Galesburg. He waited three years to announce it publicly, fearing it
would hurt him politically.

Although he had supported increasing research funds for the disease even
before his symptoms surfaced, he stepped up his advocacy.

His close friend Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, recalls how Evans last
year approached him on the House floor and asked him to vote to lift
President Bush's ban on federal funding for research using embryonic
stem cells. Ortiz, who like many anti-abortion lawmakers had supported
such a ban, was persuaded by Evans' personal plight to change his position.

"I deviated from my regular voting because I was so sad to see his
health deteriorate so fast," Ortiz said. "You don't want to see a man
like that suffer. I just hope that some day we'll discover something
that will help my good friend."

'Grace under pressure'

Back home in Illinois, Evans also has appeared at fund-raisers for
Parkinson's disease research and inspired constituents, who also suffer
from the disease.

"He has shown me ... not so much by his speaking but by his actions that
Parkinson's disease can be a life sentence and not a death sentence. He
has shown me how it is to deal with grace under pressure," said Joan
Blessington Snyder, 54, of Chillicothe.

She and Evans became friends after they discovered they were the same
age, at similar stages of the disease and using the same medicines.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disease that causes
tremors, muscle stiffness, speech and balance problems, but doesn't
affect mental capacity.

Evans was hospitalized briefly in February for severe fatigue, probably
brought on by over-exerting himself on a weeklong congressional trip to
South Korea in January, said King, his chief of staff. At his doctor's
suggestion, Evans has been resting at his home or at a friend's home
without medical supervision, King said.

Evans announced his decision to retire at the end of this year after it
was reported that he hadn't voted on the House floor since Feb. 14. His
announcement set off a flurry of speculation about his successor and
about Democrats' ability to retain the House seat. Democrats must decide
by Aug. 31 who will replace Evans on the ballot. Evans has endorsed his
longtime district director Phil Hare.

Bill Burton, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee, has said that Republicans shouldn't bother spending money in
the district. Republican candidate Andrea Zinga, who lost to Evans in
2004, has just $3,600 left after a three-way primary fight. But
Republicans see an opportunity there.

"The Illinois 17th congressional district is a swing district that is
trending Republican," said Jonathan Collegio, spokesman for National
Republican Congressional Committee. Collegio noted that Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry carried the district by just three
percentage points in 2004.

"The Republican candidate has strong name ID. She's run in the district
before. She's an Emmy-winning television journalist. And, if she puts
the money together with a strong campaign team, she could turn Illinois
17th into one of the most competitive districts in the country,"
Collegio said.


--
Joan Blessington Snyder   54/14
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