Gombos’ long, lonely quest ends today with little fanfare

Editor’s note: This column originally ran Nov. 5, 1996.

For the last eight years, Ed Gombos has poured every ounce of inspiration and perspiration into his dream of running for president.

“On Tuesday, Nov. 5, 1996, my campaign will turn into a pumpkin,” Gombos notes Monday with a small chuckle. “And my ideas will probably turn into mice and run away.”

Gombos, 59, is behind on rent for the T-shirt factory in Addison that doubles as his home. Having vowed to suspend his “personal enrichment,” Gombos has given away thousands of T-shirts or sold them at cost. His once-profitable silk-screening business is no longer so, in part, he once confided, because customers would rather pay more elsewhere than have to endure another Gombos speech.

The copy machine on which he printed more than a half-million copies of his campaign literature died the other day. As did his old van.

“Maybe it’s a portent,” Gombos says.

His 1996 presidential odyssey began on May 18, 1988, when he saw the image of Jesus Christ in the wood grain of his closet door.

That, and the fact that his TV broke, had to be some sort of sign, Gombos figured. So he began writing. And writing.

Ed Gombos is to the written word what Forrest Gump is tojogging.

So far, Gombos has written more than 30,000 pages, putting forth his philosophies on how to make the world better.

Ideas (such as a Bill of Responsibilities, maximum wage and national family reunion day) frenetically flock to Gombos’ brain like sperms to an egg. Getting any of them to implant in the public conscience is another matter.

Merely persuading people to listen is a quixotic chore.

If a candidate runs and no one is there to hear it, does he still make an impact?

“It’s almost like God gave me a bow, but no arrows,” quips Gombos, who has mailed thousands of his pages to thousands of politicians, schools and leaders - from local school principals to President Clinton.

But Gombos discovered a poor T-shirt-maker who sees Christ in a closet door doesn’t carry much credibility.

“I was looked upon as a kook or whatever,” Gombos says. “I couldn’t shake that. To this very day, I couldn’t shake that.”

But that didn’t stop him.

“When you can’t find someone to share your dream, you have to go it alone,” Gombos says. And his journey has been long and lonely at times.

He is just one of 275 people who declared themselves as presidential candidates with the Federal Election Commission. Gombos never expected to win. In fact, he doesn’t really like the term “running for president.”

“The other 274 people were running for president,” Gombos says. “Ed Gombos was dragging an idea.”

(He might not garner the publicity Bob Dole does, but Gombos was speaking about himself in the third person long before Dole started doing it.)

Gombos, once an award-winning gymnast at the University of Illinois, thinks the athletic world is better at declaring a champion than our election system is.

So he thinks the presidential elections should be like the NCAA basketball tourney. Every community should offer a candidate. Then the township could select the best of that lot, and then the county could do the same, and so on and so on until you have only the top two candidates in the nation left.

“I don’t think it’s such a crazy idea,” Gombos says. “Of course, I was not successful in bringing my message to the national public as well as I had hoped.”

If his proposal were in place, Gombos admits his campaign might never had made it out of Addison. And that’s OK with him. The process was more important than the outcome.

“I think I put forth a genuine effort, a sincere effort, and perhaps posterity will be the judge of my effort,” he says.

“Crossing the finish line may not always be possible for every person, if there is such a thing as the finish line,” he says.

But Gombos finished.

Today, Election Day, the climax of his past efforts, Gombos will be present by the telephone, waiting to see if his future calls.

“What door will open?” he ponders optimistically. “Ed Gombos is expecting that phone call.”