His activism against gambling, prostitution, and government corruption while at the Troy Tribune influenced the newly elected governor, Adlai Stevenson II, to take a stand on these issues, creating national exposure for Simon that later resulted in his testifying before the Kefauver Commission.

As a state representative, Simon was an advocate for civil rights, and once hosted an event attended by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

In the State Senate, Simon was part of a group of anti-machine liberal reformers called the "Kosher Nostra" that also included Anthony Scariano, Abner Mikva, and Robert E.

Despite his longtime reputation as a political reformer, he was supported by the Cook County Democratic machine, led by Chicago Mayor Richard J.

[11] Simon resumed his political career in 1974 when he was elected to Congress from Illinois's 24th congressional district, defeating former Harrisburg mayor Val Oshel.

This was an attempt by Bush to carry Chicago's Polish community in order to win Illinois during the election.

Mostly unknown outside of Illinois and in low single digits in national polls after his March 1987 announcement, Simon made a name for himself as the oldest, some thought most old-fashioned, candidate, with horn rimmed glasses and bow tie, and one who proudly associated himself with the New Deal liberalism associated with Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.

Simon won the Illinois primary, and decided to make a final effort in the Wisconsin Primary in early April, but dropped out after he finished behind Governor of Massachusetts Michael Dukakis, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore.

Simon endorsed Dukakis, who won the Democratic nomination in July, with Jackson the last active challenger.

[18] During the 1990s, Simon opposed both the Republicans' Contract with America, and President Bill Clinton's welfare reforms.

Simon believed that America should have acted faster, and Clinton later said his belated response was the biggest mistake of his presidency.

[23] Along with former Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords, Simon was retroactively praised by Canadian Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, the former Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, for actively lobbying the Clinton administration into mounting a humanitarian mission to Rwanda during the genocide.

According to Dallaire's book Shake Hands with the Devil, he "owe[s] a great debt of gratitude" to both senators.

It's happening with Senators, House members, and even state legislators sometimes, [when they] conduct polls to find out where people stand on something.

[25] He was also a longtime admirer of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, having witnessed her historic speech to a joint session of Congress as a teen and met her in person in 1995 at a Capitol Hill reception commemorating the 50th anniversary of the cessation of World War II.

Simon rose to national attention in the 1960s, due in part to his well-researched book Lincoln's Preparation for Greatness: The Illinois Legislative Years.

He later went on to write more than 20 books on a wide range of topics, including interfaith marriages (he was a Lutheran and his wife, Jeanne, was a Catholic), global water shortages, United States Supreme Court nomination battles that focused heavily on his personal experiences with Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas, his autobiography, and even a well-received book on martyred abolitionist publisher Elijah Lovejoy.

After his primary defeat for governor in 1972, Simon founded the Public Affairs Reporting graduate program at Sangamon State University in Springfield, Illinois,[26] which helped launch the careers of more than 500 journalists.

Simon lived for many years in the small town of Makanda, Illinois, south of Carbondale, where he was a professor and director of the SIU Public Policy Institute.

Activities included going to Liberia and Croatia to monitor their elections, bringing major speakers to campus, denouncing the death penalty, trying to end the United States embargo against Cuba,[28] fostering political courage among his students, promoting an amendment to the United States Constitution to end the electoral college, and attempting to limit the president to a single six-year term of office.

After Simon's death, his daughter, Sheila, made a television commercial in which she declared "Barack Obama will be a U.S.

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