October 15th, 1997 to October 21st, 1997

Diminishing IMPACT and the Future of the Illinois Federation

Part Two by P.J. Engelbrecht

The Chicago lesbigay political action committee IMPACT started out flush in late 1987, with high hopes and $10,000 banked before the PAC even went public. More than $4,000 in campaign contributions were distributed that first primary season, by March 1988. Former board member Ann Christophersen has stated succinctly that "IMPACT was formed to be a PAC ... to raise money for candidates and raise consciousness about lesbian and gay issues ... to support lesbians and gays and straights who support the lesbian and gay agenda [politically]."

Current IMPACT Chair Brian Bates, who is presiding over the PAC's dissolution, estimates that over the last ten years, IMPACT made approximately $100,000 in political donations. Now, however, the board is closing out the books and closing the doors. By Nov. 1, IMPACT will be gone.

IMPACT's recent public financial records (so-called D-2 forms) outline expenditures and donations from January through June 1997: over $55,000 spent, barely offset by just over $58,000 in receipts, with $9,196 in the bank. No monies were donated to candidates during this six-month period, although the PAC gave $5,000 to a lesbigay political organization, the Illinois Federation for Human Rights, to defray lobbying expenses. By comparison, during the same period in 1993, IMPACT spent $117,280, but receipts totaled $139,213, and assets were a hefty $55,000. During the first half of 1993, the PAC made one significant political donation: $1,000 to gay judicial candidate Tom Chiola, whose campaign was ultimately successful.

Where did the money come from, and where did IMPACT spend the other thousands? Some funds went to the executive directors' salaries, to taxes, and to office and administrative costs-all in unexceptional amounts. The PAC's major expenses stemmed from the annual benefit dinner, held each February, and the dinners themselves were the PAC's principal fundraising tool. The benefit revelers have included numerous local politicians, as well as community leaders.

"It was wild, but it was incredible ... that straight politicians were courting the community," said former IMPACT chair Nancy Katz of the heady early days. In recent years, gala attendees coughed up $150 per plate, grossing over $40,000 in 1987 and over $50,000 even this year, when the dinner was almost cancelled by a board in disarray. Net profits were much less, as formal dinners are expensive. For instance, one year, the orchestra bill alone was over $2,000.

In early 1995, IMPACT reportedly was fined $2,500 by the Federal Election Commission for having made improperly large direct donations to the Democratic Senate campaigns of Carol Moseley-Braun (Illinois) and former vice presidential contender Geraldine Ferraro (New York). Nine months later, in September 1995, IMPACT closed its federal election arm and restricted itself to "local" political action. Nevertheless, IMPACT forged onward, though candidate contributions have diminished significantly.

Yet IMPACT is not even now in the red, so what motivated the board to call it quits? The answer is both seemingly simple and astonishingly complex. Simply, times have changed. "Today, you've got people like [openly gay and lesbian politicians] Larry McKeon ... and Tammy Baldwin [in Wisconsin]. Rather than giving your money to a PAC, you can give it to candidates directly," observed Bates. "We [also] have so many organizations out there ... that people are getting involved in. ... It's very difficult to get people to devote their time and resources."

IMPACT board member Michael Bauer said concisely, "As a community, we're victims of our own successes." Bauer pointed out: "The two major developments of the last ten years: we've ... elect[ed] openly gay officials, [and] as a gay community, we're ... more accepted. [Now,] what should the mission be?"

"Organizations need to be articulating a mission that is in touch with the gay and lesbian community ... [but] there is a gap between the political organizations and the ... community," Bauer added.

Former IMPACT board members suggest that the perceived gap is longstanding, even to be expected. Katz thinks "you can't expect a community not to have conflict. [In IMPACT,] natural tensions and differences ... surface[d]. ... Some of it is healthy, and some of it is not. If they become personalized ... it is not productive."

The history of IMPACT is littered with a shadowy web of disputatious personal rivalries, along with political differences of opinion. Former board chair Amy Maggio remarked that "some people liked who [we] endorsed, and some people didn't .. .and of course, the litmus ... [and] point of [candidate] endorsements was looking at issues we thought were important to the community. One of the big issues was to not endorse for County Board anyone who did not [support] public funding for abortion."

Maggio explained how pursuing a generally progressive agenda, including the so-called women's issue of abortion rights and other 'limited constituency' issues, caused controversy among board members and criticism from the community. The split often opened along gender lines, according to another former board member who preferred anonymity.

Illinois Federation Political Director Rick Garcia still faults IMPACT for an overly diffusive agenda. "We will not do our endorsements the way IMPACT did," he told Outlines Saturday. Discussing single-issue partisan voting, Garcia bemoaned the fact that "We have seen pro-choice groups defeat pro-gay legislators. We're between a rock and a hard place if we hold legislators up to a [litmus test] of a whole list of progressive issues."

The history of the Federation is, however, intimately bound up with IMPACT. The current Federation board president, Art Johnston, was a founding board member of IMPACT. Reportedly, he left IMPACT to found the Illinois Federation with Garcia largely due to a vigorous dispute over IMPACT's organizational priorities.

The Federation's singular goal since 1992 has been to lobby for passage of a gay-rights bill in Illinois (i.e., amending the state human rights code to disallow discrimination based on sexual orientation). IMPACT's goals were broadly progressive-apparently too broad for Johnston.

Christophersen noted that "When the Federation started ... they rose out of a perceived need. ... There was a kind of contentiousness and competitiveness [between IMPACT and the Federation]. There were power plays, no question about it. The perceived legitimate differences took some unfortunate turns. "The Federation had a different agenda [from IMPACT]. ... It formed to serve the function of ... policy work at the state level, to fill a gap, and organized effectively to fill it ... [which] I applaud."

Yet Christophersen also rues the inter-organizational competitions and personal "trashing."

All sources agree that in-fighting comprised IMPACT's most devastating problem, particularly during the last four or five years. The degree of animosity between various former board members is sometimes astonishing, the attacks unprintable. The vitriol surrounding the resignation several years ago of IMPACT Executive Director Laurie Dittman is one example. The more recent, December 1996 debacle which resulted in the resignations of both Executive Director Garry Huebner and board chair David Ormsby is another. (Huebner subsequently joined the board.)

Christophersen allows that "IMPACT ... didn't do things that needed to be done," but still thinks that as Chicago's main lesbigay PAC, IMPACT has played a "key role" in building the lesbigaytrans community's political clout. "We became players on the political field," agreed Katz.

With the loss of IMPACT, how will the lesbigaytrans community fare in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois politics? Money talks; campaign contributions encourage gay-friendly candidates and attract new political friends. As Outlines reported previously, attempts to merge IMPACT and the Federation failed late this summer. The Federation remains on the field, and its PAC arm will continue to support state-level candidates who support gay rights, with 75-80% of PAC monies going to candidates. But Garcia says the Federation does not plan to fund local campaigns.

"Times have changed, [but] I'm confident that other groups will move into the vacuum," says Katz. "I think there has to be a local PAC ... because political contributions make people aware of lesbian and gay issues ... not just the money [counts, but also] the organizational ability of a PAC [to reach] voters that can be mobilized to work for candidates that care about the issues."

Maggio suggests that the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a national lesbigay PAC of which she and Bauer are national board members, may pick up some of the slack in Chicago, besides tapping some of the financial resources previously mined by IMPACT. The Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign also draws on Illinois resources-Garcia says HRC raised $300,000 here last year, but that little funding returned to Illinois through PAC donations.

Politically, Garcia believes the Federation is now the only game in town. "What is not being done, now that IMPACT is gone?" he asks rhetorically. "Given that we're the only statewide group and [the only] PAC in town, we undoubtedly are gonna have to change to meet the increasing responsibility." However, Garcia makes no bones about the Federation's three priorities: to pass an Illinois gay-rights measure; to re-elect Rep. Larry McKeon, D-Chicago, the state's first openly gay legislator and the primary sponsor in Springfield of last year's gay-rights bill; and "to elect pro gay and lesbian candidates" to state-wide office.

The Federation does not intend to broaden its political agenda, nor will it take up IMPACT's local mantle in Chicago and Cook County.

When former IMPACT board member Joanne Trapani heard of IMPACT's impending demise, she said, "I think it's really sad. ... Different voices should be manifest in the community. To see that [diversity] diminished is a bad thing. The more organizations we can support, the greater the voice. ... Limiting [our] voice, [we] dilute the message."

Whether IMPACT has simply outlived its usefulness in a new, increasingly powerful lesbigaytrans political community, or whether internal backstabbing fatally weakened the PAC, or whether the PAC finally lost the internecine war with the Federation, a singular cause for IMPACT's disintegration is almost impossible to determine. Ten years of political effort comes to an end, but the loss of IMPACT need not mean a diminution of lesbigaytrans political influence.

Next week, more on the Federation's future, with details about Garcia's goals and new Executive Director Laird Petersen's development plan. We'll also look at other political groups with a local presence, including the Human Rights Campaign, the Committee, and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.

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