tinyurl.com/yycogq

The State Journal-Register
Springfield, Illinois

Published Sunday,
November 12, 2006

Our Opinion:

A Message About The War

WE DOUBT seriously that, if granted the authority, Springfield voters would pluck all U.S. forces out of Iraq immediately and bring them home.

Even the most ardent anti-war activists, we believe, understand that such a sudden withdrawal would be disastrous. The situation in Baghdad already borders on chaos; creating a vacuum of power where U.S. forces used to be would only make things worse.

Yet that is what an overwhelming majority of voters in Springfield voted for on Tuesday.

THERE ARE two ways to interpret the 60 percent approval of the Capital Township advisory referendum that asked, "Shall President George W. Bush and Congress commence a humane, orderly, immediate and comprehensive withdrawal of all U.S. Military personnel and bases from Iraq?"

One is a cynical version. It says the referendum was meaningless, that a local election is an inappropriate venue for venting opinions on national issues. This view also holds that the inclusion of the referendum on the ballot - and, in this case, its result - sends a negative message to the troops now serving in Iraq. That it indicates lack of support for their mission back home.

WE PREFER a second version. We interpret the 60 percent approval of the Iraq referendum in the context of the rest of Sangamon County's vote totals.

This is a county in which those represented in Congress by John Shimkus, a Republican who has supported the war in lockstep with President Bush, voted him into a sixth term by a 66 to 34 percent margin. Ray LaHood, another Republican who represents a large part of the county, won 71 percent of the
36,810 votes cast by his constituents. (Phil Hare, the Democrat won in the
17th U.S. House District, won among his Sangamon County voters, but his district is carefully carved to include Democratic-leaning precincts and he represents only a small fraction of Sangamon County voters.)

Republican gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka received only 40 percent of the vote statewide in losing to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but she received a whopping 68 percent in Sangamon County. Republican Raymond Poe won re-election handily despite a strong campaign by Sam Cahnman, and the Republican candidates who lost in the Illinois secretary of state and treasurer's races both won in Sangamon County.

In short, we are a shining red beacon in a solidly blue state.

THAT MAKES the overwhelming approval of the Iraq referendum all the more remarkable.

Those who re-elected Shimkus and LaHood clearly did not believe their voting records on Iraq precluded them from returning to Washington. While voters in districts throughout the nation voiced their discontent with the Republican Congress by voting for Democrats, voters here were unwilling to go that far.

Thanks to Tuesday's advisory referendum, however, voters here were able to send Shimkus and LaHood back to Congress with a clear message: The conduct of the Iraq war is unacceptable, and we expect change. Immediate change.

"Many citizens told me that they appreciate the opportunity to express themselves, that in the past they lacked an avenue through which to voice their opinions," writes Michael Ziri, who organized the effort to get the referendum on the ballot, in a letter to the editor today on this page.

The Iraq referendum had no power beyond sending a message to those in Washington. In this case, that was all the power it needed.