THE CHOICE FOR SENATOR: PETER FITZGERALD, REPUBLICAN

One became a national icon six years ago but today finds herself on
the defensive. The other was a relative unknown whom party leaders
considered too extreme to carry the Republican banner. But perhaps
surprisingly, there is some common ground between U.S. Senator Carol
Moseley-Braun, 51, and her challenger, state Sen. Peter Fitzgerald,
37.

PETER FITZGERALD, REPUBLICAN

Q: You have endorsed having prisoners do hard time, including working
on chain gangs. Does America need to get tougher on its criminals? How
would that affect the war on drugs and crime?

A: Prisons need to mete out tough punishment. You should have to pay a
price for committing a crime, and society has a right to protect
itself against violent criminals.

I do believe in prisons that are prisons. You hear reports of prisons
that go too far in terms of giving televisions and other privileges to
prisoners and get too far away from the idea of really making it a
prison.

In the 1960s, the thinking in criminal justice was really more about
the rights of the criminals rather than the victim. There was a whole
series of Supreme Court decisions, some of which were justified--the
Miranda decision, reading people their rights. But then it really got
carried away.

Criminals were getting off on technicalities. They were getting out
early. And I don't think prison terms were severe enough to serve the
deterrent function that we need them to serve. So you've started to
see crime problems go down as we got tougher.

But that doesn't mean to say that we can't do things in prisons that
would help make people more likely to lead productive lives when they
got out. We can encourage them to better themselves, to educate
themselves while they're in prisons.

Q: Is there any legal or social justification for having different
criminal penalties for crack cocaine and powder cocaine?

A: If there are disparities now, I would have to know what the reasons
are. There probably is a rationale for those.

Certainly, on the face of it, at first blush it would seem not right
to have a great disparity between the sentences for possession of
crack cocaine as opposed to powder cocaine.

Q: Should marijuana be legalized for medicinal purposes?

A: I would want to look at that. It's much different for medicinal
purposes than it is for (recreational) consumption. That would be
something I would have to investigate. I'd want to hear testimony from
both sides, including medical professionals, and I'd want to know if
there is another alternative that maybe doesn't have the harmful side
effects.

I'd want to know that there's no other synthetic alternative that
would have the pain-killing functions similar to it.

Q: Have you smoked pot? How has that affected your outlook on the
nation's drug problem?

A: Yes, I have on several occasions when I was in college. It
certainly is something that, as a father now, I would hope my son
would never do. It certainly is bad for the youth of our nation. I had
friends in college who had problems. In fact, I had one friend who it
became a problem for, and I saw it destroy him and, ultimately, he
committed suicide. Certainly that was an eye-opener for me.

Q: How would you propose the U.S. save Social Security?

A: I would take the Social Security trust fund off budget entirely,
and I would ban them from ever spending Social Security money on other
programs. We would not have the problem we now have with Social
Security had we taken that off budget and protected it. It should be
treated like a real trust fund.

If the executives at any private corporation in this country raided
their employees' profit sharing or pension fund to pay for other
programs, that executive would go to jail.

What I would do is build up a real trust fund, and I would have them
put it in government bonds or certificates of deposit in federally
insured financial institutions. And just doing that, just getting the
low interest from that, it would save the Social Security program for
years to come with no diminution of benefits or any increase in
payroll taxes.

Q: What should the U.S. do, alone or with other world powers, to
address the economic crises in Asia and Russia and to protect against
future recurrence?

A: I'm in favor of the International Monetary Fund. It has a purpose.
However, it was set up in 1944 at the close of World War II, and its
original purpose was to help stabilize currencies that were pegged to
the gold standard. Since the United States has gone off the gold
standard, that original mission doesn't make sense.

One of the other things I'm worried about with the IMF is that I'm not
altogether satisfied that its policy of encouraging the devaluation of
the currencies around the world makes sense. There are a lot of
reasons it makes sense to have a currency float. But in the
underdeveloped countries that we've seen, all investor confidence is
gone once that peg to the dollar is lost.

I would want to look at each nation that the IMF loans to on a
case-by-case basis. I know, from my experience as a banking lawyer,
that it is often a close call as to whether you lend a distressed
borrower more money. Sometimes loaning a distressed borrower more
money can help them get by a liquidity crisis. But other times you're
throwing good money after bad.

Q: Should the federal government be involved with local public
schools?

A: You don't need bureaucrats a thousand miles away running the
schools. I don't have any problem with the federal dollars coming into
the classroom, but I do have a problem if the federal government is
controlling our local schools. Education is primarily a state and
local matter. On the other hand, there are several federal education
programs--some inside the Department of Education and some, like the
Head Start Program, actually outside of the Department of
Education--where a lot of good work has been done.

Q: What specifically would you do once in office to curb
abortion?

A: I certainly favor a ban on partial-birth abortions. I was a
co-sponsor (in the state Senate) of a ban on partial-birth abortions
at the state level. I support a ban on partial-birth abortions on the
federal level.

I do think it is reasonable for government to have parental
notification or consent laws. It's ridiculous that, in the public
schools in Illinois, if you want to give a child an aspirin you have
to call parents for permission. But minor children can go out and get
an abortion without notifying, much less getting the consent of, their
parents.

I would work to support amendments like the Hyde Amendment, which bans
federal funding for abortion.

There are only a few areas, really, that we can legislate in because
the Supreme Court has more or less taken this out of the legislature's
hands.

I would vote for (a constitutional amendment banning abortion). That's
one of the areas where our Constitution is not clear. It was not
something that was contemplated back when the Founders wrote the
Constitution, much like they didn't focus on the slavery issue.

I feel that life begins at conception. And I know no one really knows
for sure when life begins, but I would err on the side of humanity.

Q: You sponsored successful legislation that prohibits same-sex
marriages in Illinois. Would you extend any anti-discrimination
protections for gays?

A: I support the anti-discrimination laws, and I oppose discrimination
against anybody. But I would probably decline to extend the protection
of our civil rights laws to include behavioral characteristics. Once
you start to do that, the question becomes, where does it end?

Q: You have talked extensively in this campaign about high taxes.
Identify at least three specific changes you would make to lower taxes.

A: Right now, when single individuals reach $25,000 in adjustable
gross income, they are immediately bumped into the 28 percent tax
bracket. Now, if that single individual is self-employed, he or she
has to pay 15 percent Social Security tax plus the employer and
employee share on top of that. So you're already up to 43 percent in
taxes without considering state income taxes, property taxes, gas
taxes or the other taxes. That's about 50 percent of his income going
to taxes. I don't think that's right.

One of the first things I would do is I would increase the threshold
at which the 15 percent tax bracket and the 28 percent tax bracket
begin. I have yet to look at the numbers to see what we can afford.
But I'll just tell you, $25,000 is just too low to be taxed as if
you're rich.

No. 2, the marriage tax penalty. We had two bills this year to
eliminate the marriage tax penalty for married couples earning less
than $50,000 a year. I think that's appropriate.

The other thing I would do for self-employed individuals is, they
should be getting full deductibility of health insurance. If you're an
employee of a corporation, your corporation gets to deduct 100 percent
of it. But for people who are self-employed, they have to go out and
buy health insurance--maybe $400, $500, $600 a month--and they don't
get the deduction for it.

Q: What was your favorite album in college?

A: "L.A. Woman" by the Doors--remember that one? And I liked Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young "Deja Vu." I liked the Grateful Dead's European
tour; it was the two-volume, white one. You don't have all those
albums now, with the CDs.

Q: What did you do with all your albums, by the way?

A: They're in my basement. When we moved we were wondering whether to
throw those out, but I think I saved them in my basement. Some of
those could be collectors' items.

Q: Have you ever tried to teach your son, Jake, Grateful Dead
lyrics?

A: No. I do tend to listen to the classic rock stations in the car so
he probably picks that up. He does know the Beatles. He knows Roy
Orbison. And I remember him singing "Candy Man."

Q: Do you still hunt with your dad and brothers?

A: I hunt about once a year. My dad and brothers are more avid hunters
than I am. I just don't have the time. But I do do one bird-hunting
(trip) with my brothers. My dad plans it like a year in advance to
make sure we're all there.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: I don't have a favorite, but I tend to like the mindless
thrillers.

Q: What event in your life most shaped your political philosophy and
your day-to-day approach to the job of being a public servant?

A: When I was very young in college, I remember following Ronald
Reagan and the presidential campaign in 1980. I really started
following him after that Nashua, N.H., debate where he grabbed that
microphone and said, "Mr. Green, I'm paying for this microphone." He
was able to articulate the appeal of Republican economic and social
policies to people regardless of party affiliation and do it in a very
cheerful way.

That was kind of a turning point, watching Ronald Reagan.

An edited transcript

Checked-by: Patrick Henry