Philip Crane obit

Longtime Rep. Phil Crane dies at 84

 

He was not on the list.

Longtime Illinois U.S. Rep. Phil Crane has died of lung cancer in Virginia, one of the Republican’s former staffers said on Sunday. The influential conservative was 84.

Crane died Saturday night surrounded by his children at his daughter’s home, according to Eric Elk, who served on Crane’s staff when he was in Congress and who is now chief of staff for Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk.

Crane represented Chicago’s far northwest suburbs for 35 years and was the longest-serving House Republican when he was defeated in 2004 by Democrat Melissa Bean, who had come close to ousting Crane in 2002.

Kirk released a statement Sunday heralding Crane as “one of the great leaders from northern Illinois.”

“He will always be remembered for vowing to never raise taxes, a promise he kept through his long career, and for expanding trade opportunities for our state,” the Republican senator said.

The conservative was first elected to Congress in 1969 when a young Illinois congressman — Donald Rumsfeld — left the House to work for the Nixon administration.

“Crane supported a set of ideas which then seemed backward-looking,” the Almanac of American Politics later said of Crane’s initial campaign, “but which have been on the ascendant in the nation and the world since: free market economics, a strong national defense, traditional values.”

Having made his name as an anti-tax crusader and also an advocate for free trade, he ran for president in 1980.

Crane was hoping to outflank front-runner Ronald Reagan by positioning himself as a truer libertarian but was unable to make a dent on the electorate, withdrawing March 20, 1980, from the race. His most notable finish was fifth in the Iowa caucuses, well back of George H.W. Bush and Reagan and also behind Howard Baker and John Connally.

Having watched Chicago’s suburbs become increasingly less conservative, Crane lost to Bean in 2004 by 4 percentage points.

“As the years went on and a younger generation of conservatives came to Washington, Crane was increasingly looked on as their bridge to the early days of the modern conservative movement,” Human Events magazine said in 2004 after his defeat.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Arlene, and a daughter. His brother, Daniel Crane, served three terms as an Illinois congressman from 1979 to 1985; he lost reelection in 1984 after being censured in the House pages scandal.

Crane’s death comes only days after the death of his longtime Illinois congressional colleague Lane Evans, a Democrat who was elected in 1982 and served 12 terms. Evans died of Parkinson’s disease on Wednesday.