St. Rep. Herb Huskey & House Clerk Fred Selcke, R.I.P.

Within the last week, two men I worked with in the 1970’s in Springfield died:

State Rep. Herb Huskey and House Clerk Fred Selcke.

Herb was described in obituaries as being a "non-partisan" guy.

That certainly is not my most intense memory of him.

In my freshman year, I asked to be placed on every committee that might handle property tax legislation. One of the committees was Counties and Townships.

As McHenry County Treasurer I had seen the strong and weak points of township government. We considered a bill that would have given township functions to county government, if township government were abolished. It was sponsored by one of Herb’s Cook County Democratic Party opponents. It sounded logical to me, so I voted for it.

The committee meeting was being held on the House Floor and I was in my front-row center-right seat.

Right after I voted “Yes,” I got my introduction to the “non-partisan” Huskey.

He ran down the aisle and confronted me.

“What are you trying to do?” he said with a lot of emphasis.

“Kill the Republican Party?”

Immediately on the defensive, I asked what he was talking about.

He told me how suburban Republicans only base of power was township government and my vote might lead to the Democrats eliminating the Republican Party in Cook County, since they could surely pass a countywide referendum to abolish township government.

That’s how I learned a little about the realities of Cook County Republicans.

It would not lead me to describe Herb as a “non-partisan.

The second man to die was former House Clerk Fred Selcke.

Fred was the man that told me and virtually the whole House staff that they were fired in December of 1970, about two weeks after I had been hired to staff the House Appropriations Committee.

He walked into the first floor offices, which were then next to the southeast elevator in the center of the Capitol, where a hearing room is now.

“The services of the following people will no longer be needed,” Fred said, before reading the names of everyone but two leader's secretaries and the woman who knew how to fill out vouchers.

He even read the names of the Legislative Council interns, including future State Senator Prescott Bloom, now-U.S. District Judge Wayne Anderson and Thompson administration Department Director of Rehabilitation Services Jim Jeffers. They were not even employees of the House Speaker’s Office.

Fred had kept his Clerkship, as newly elected House Speaker Bob Blair took control of House Republicans.

Two years later, I was elected to the Illinois House and, being able to count, voted for the winning candidate for Speaker, Bob Blair. Henry Hyde was his opponent.

Seats were assigned in alphabetic order and, I got one of the last choices. I decided to sit down front, which was right in front of where the House Clerk held forth.

Fred and I got along well. He answered my questions about what was happening. He admired my ties and I got him a couple from a tie shop somewhere to the east of Marshall Field’s. He was kind enough to give me bill numbers of my choice. The result was that I could actually remember the numbers of a lot of the bills I sponsored.

Fred retired while I was in “remission” from elective office, but he made his mark before that.

Fred did not retire until the General Assembly passed a bill, which paid him—and all state employees—for unused sick time. This later because a major budget buster and was repealed.

Fred’s son Steve and future daughter-in-law Kathy met while they were on the House Staff. My condolences.

I have warm memories of both men.

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Crystal Lake had a rowing regatta without a political agenda this past Sunday. I think McHenry County Blog was the only media outlet which covered it. (The stories are posted Sunday and Monday.) Many more people attended than the Gay Games predict will come in mid-July.