EXTRA: Election Daze; Rahm wins again

What must it feel like to be Ed Burke these days?

Will we get Emanuel ...



First, his own wife (who sits on the Illinois Supreme Court) won’t bump off the mayoral candidacy of Rahm Emanuel, to the benefit of Flashy Eddie’s preference – Gery Chico.

THEN, EMANUEL GOES on to win the mayoral campaign so convincingly that we now wonder why we ever thought the election to replace Richard M. Daley would be competitive at all.

And now, Burke’s backing wasn’t enough to help long-time Alderman Bernard Stone hang onto his seat representing the far northern tip of Chicago.

Stone was one of the  incumbent aldermen who didn’t get enough votes to claim victory in the Feb. 22 municipal elections. So his ward was one of 14 across the city (out of 50 overall) that had to resort to a run-off.

In that run-off election held Tuesday, Stone (whom I recall from my City Hall reporting experience in the late 1980s as the press room companion of 1^st Ward Alderman Fred Roti – it took a federal indictment against Roti to break their attachment at the hip) got only 38 percent of the vote.

HIS OPPONENT, DEBRA Silverstein (the wife of state Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago), got the other 62 percent. She also had the backing of mayor-elect Emanuel, which made the 50^th Ward the latest battleground between new mayor Emanuel and old council Finance Chair Burke.

Which makes me wonder if there will be battle after battle between the two once Emanuel starts governing in mid-May.

... versus Burke in coming years?



That’s certainly the way Stone – who had been in the council since the latter days of Richard J. Daley as mayor – sees it. Noting that he lost his committeeman position a few years ago because of Richard M.’s influence, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Stone said, “instead of King Richard, he’s now Emperor Emanuel.

“If guys like Eddie Burke are pushed around by Rahm Emanuel, then this city is in for some rough times,” Stone said.

OUCH!!!

Of course, Stone isn’t the only incumbent City Council member on his way out. Sixth Ward Alderman Freddrenna Lyle was unable to get re-elected, losing to Roderick Sawyer – the son of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, who himself was once the alderman of that South Side ward.

Aldermen Denise Dixon of the 24^th Ward and 36^th Ward Alderman John Rice also managed to lose to challengers on Tuesday.

But it seems that we are being spared/denied the sight of a rapper in the City Council. Che “Rhymefest” Smith’s bid to represent the 20^th Ward is lagging behind that of incumbent Alderman Willie Cochran.

OF COURSE, I am enough of a political geek/observer to find elections and campaigning intriguing regardless of where it takes place.

Hence, I find my interest in the municipal elections of south suburban Chicago Heights, where voters apparently chose “unity” over “integrity” for mayor.

Those were the names of the slates created by the two mayoral hopefuls running for the post left vacant when the interim mayor, Vince Zaranti, decided he didn’t want to run for his own term.

So Unity Party candidate David Gonzalez, the candidate who had to cope with allegations that he was a drug dealer (the reality is that his brother has an arrest record for drug-related offenses), managed to prevail over Integrity Party candidate Joe Faso.

TO LISTEN TO Faso, he’s the candidate who was being viciously attacked and whose supporters were being intimidated by Gonzalez backers into keeping their mouths shut.

In short, this was an ugly political brawl – one so vicious that at one point, local religious leaders suggested that the Cook County clerk’s office close the early voting center they maintained in the south suburb (which was one of the busiest this year in all of Cook County).

Local voters wound up picking the candidate who was a political ally of the man who likely would have run for mayor. But Alex Lopez – who became mayor when state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, gave up the post to become a legislator – died last year at age 44 due to complications caused by diabetes.

Will Chicago Heights, a city who for many decades had a government that was heavily influenced by elements of what we politely call organized crime, finally gain stability? Who’s to say!

I HAD ONE other election I was watching – even though it didn’t take place anywhere in the Chicago metro area. In downstate Normal, Ill., voters picked the three incumbents seeking re-election to serve again on their Town Council.

Which means that Gary Ohler, who is a fellow Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus (we both graduated the same year), finished fourth (of five candidates) and is NOT about to begin his career as a government official.

That is too bad. Because the Gary I remember was diligent and serious, even if one time he tried to get me involved in a scheme selling Amway products – telling me I could potentially become so wealthy I could retire early and enjoy my life.

I forgive him for that effort, and am kind of glad he will not be exposed to the whiny geeks that all too many political people become once they get elected to office. He deserves better in life.

  -30-

Only one more week ‘til Election Day -- how many people really know, or care?

I don’t doubt that there are isolated spots throughout the Chicago metropolitan area where people can be found who are anxiously awaiting next Tuesday’s arrival. For it will be Election Day, and we’re going to learn once and for all who will be doing “the people’s business”: for the next four years at all sorts of local levels of government.

How many people think Election Day ended last month? Graphic provided by CheckVoterStatus.com. 



Yet the big drawback to the solid electoral victory of Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel back in February, along with all the other citywide officers, is that way too many people think Election Day is over.

THE VOTER TURNOUT for that election wasn’t even 50 percent (more than half of registered voters stood home, despite a competitive mayoral race). I’m wondering how pathetic it will be on April 5, when we get the run-off elections in 14 of the 50 wards, along with the actual municipal elections in the 128 villages, towns and cities that comprise suburban Cook County.

A part of me has this hunch that 20 percent voter turnout is a realistic guess as to how few people will bother to cast ballots.

The problem is that for the general public who don’t follow every nuance of a campaign (the ones who follow the Archie Bunker theory of politics and don’t “waste” their vote on anything other than president), there just isn’t a perception that the elections are ongoing.

It really does seem like it should have ended when Rahm Emanuel took his 55 percent of the vote.

WITH SO MANY wards not having any aldermanic posts, there are large swaths of the city (including all the neighborhoods where I have relatives living and voting), Tuesday is going to be just an ordinary day for many Chicagoans.

It will be worse in the suburban areas. While there will be elections in many towns, so many of those municipalities just don’t have any individuals who are interested in holding elective office – except for the incumbent members who tend to view the post as their birthright.

The Cook County clerk’s office this week pointed out that of the 716 positions up for election in the inner suburbs (local village boards, school boards and park districts), only 287 have anything resembling a competitive race.

Most are merely one person running for office unchallenged (which almost feels like the elections the old Soviet Union used to have, in which people were given the “freedom” to express their pleasure with the current regime). In the case of 55 positions, there is no one running for office.

IN SHORT, IT’S not an environment that is going to get people all enthused about wanting to get to the polls on Tuesday – or rush out to their local Early Voting Centers, which close down on Thursday.

We’re going to see many government officials who manage to win re-election and claim they have a “mandate,” all because they were able to persuade a couple hundred individuals to take the time to cast votes for them.

That’s how little it literally takes to win a government position these days. Considering that it is these local officials who make many of the decisions that directly impact our lives, it always strikes me as sad that so few people care.

It also is what makes the few competitive campaigns intriguing – although it does become pathetic when some races get their interest because of trivial factors – such as the 20^th Ward where Alderman Willie Cochran once again takes on rap music performer Che “Rhymefest” Smith – only this time without four other candidates to take attention away from them.

A RAPPER, OR an ex-cop? It’s Chicago’s chance for a “Jesse Ventura-like” election. I’m wondering how few people will pay attention to any position papers or stances either of those candidates have taken, and will merely vote on the image they’d like to see for that South Side ward?

Then, there is the case of south suburban Chicago Heights, where two candidates are slugging it out for mayor, the positions of clerk and treasurer are now elected instead of mayorally-appointed, and the city was just split up into seven wards (as opposed to six).

It means there is new territory for people wishing to hold office. The feisty level is complicated by the fact that the two mayoral hopefuls, alderman Joe Faso and certified public accountant David Gonzalez, are running for a post that is open because the current mayor is only mayor because the old mayor died – and that official was only mayor because the last elected mayor of Chicago Heights (Anthony DeLuca) decided that political life would be more interesting in the Illinois House of Representatives.

My point being that is the kind of chaos it is taking to create an intriguing election cycle this time around. For most of the 5 million-plus people of Cook County (plus the other 3 million-plus who live in the surrounding counties that make up the Chicago metro area), there’s nothing nowhere near as dramatic to pick from.

BUT THAT DOESN’T mean people won’t emerge victorious from those elections, and gain the authority to make decisions involving public monies on behalf of the people.

Which means that a year from now, when you get your assorted tax bills and fees and complain out loud,
“Who voted for these knuckleheads?,” the honest answer in many cases will be “You did!” when you didn’t bother to cast a ballot.

  -30-

Why let a little thing like the “wrong” political party stand in the way?

Perhaps political cynics are correct when they say there’s really no difference between Democrats and Republicans – a politician is a politician regardless of what label he uses.

At least that is what the political organization in Chicago Heights would like for people to think. For the political leaders in that south suburb managed to get one of their own chosen to fill a vacancy in the Illinois House of Representatives.

WE NOW HAVE state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, who was mayor of his hometown for six years. But what makes his selection unusual is that the Democratic committeemen who picked DeLuca last week to serve did so even though the Chicago Heights mayor always went by the Republican Party label.

He now says he was a Republican until about two years ago, and claims he will eagerly serve in the Democratic caucus of the Illinois House.

On a certain level, I believe DeLuca.

He’d like a higher-level office than serving as a suburban mayor (which ensures that no one outside of his hometown will ever hear of him). If he has to go by the Democratic Party label, he’ll do so.

FOR THE RECORD, DeLuca replaces George Scully, a south suburban-based attorney from Flossmoor who got himself elected to another term in the November 2008 elections, then gave up the post last month when he was chosen for a judicial post in Cook County Circuit Court.

Scully wasn’t exactly a flaming liberal of the Democratic caucus. His moderate record of voting on legislation was one that Republicans in the area could tolerate.

So the idea of DeLuca being a Republican whom some Democrats can tolerate means the people of that particular south suburban legislative district will not notice any radical change in the mindset of their particular representative.

But this wasn’t really a matter of the Democratic committeemen from the parts of Cook, Will and Kankakee counties that comprise the district deciding that DeLuca was someone they could live with ideologically.

THIS WAS TRULY a case of the people from Chicago Heights imposing their will on the rest of the legislative district. It all goes back to the way that legislators are replaced when vacancies occur.

The committeemen gather, but their votes are not all equal.

Their votes are weighted according to what percent of the vote came from their particular portion of the legislative district.

That means the Cook County committeemen had a majority of the vote all by themselves. It didn’t matter that the committeemen from Will and Kankakee counties wanted other people – or anyone, for that matter, who had a prior record of being a Democratic political official.

IT IS INTRIGUING in that the south suburbs of Chicago are an area that used to provide solid Republican majorities of votes on Election Days. But population shifts have seen many more African-American people move into the area, and they have maintained their Democratic Party ties.

The end result is that when it comes to the land south of Chicago, there are Democratic legislators galore and mayors/village presidents who are willing to identify with the Democratic Party – even though many claim its because of support for labor issues, and not because of liberal ideology on social concerns.

There are still pockets of Republicans trying to assert themselves, while dreaming of the past when they had the influence.

The pick of DeLuca almost reeks of an attempt by the aging GOPers to reassert themselves politically.

BECAUSE DELUCA MADE it clear last week that he’s still willing to listen to Republican officials – even though he carries the “D” as part of his political label.

“I will reach across the aisle if I believe it will benefit my constituents,” DeLuca told reporter-types. “We must look beyond party labels in search of good ideas.”

It sounds nice. But the suburban mayor who openly admits to be in opposition to his new political party’s platform on the issue of abortion seems like he’s an unofficial vote for the Republican caucus.

In fact, there may be but one plus to the presence of DeLuca in the Legislature, and it could force some people to think seriously about what constitutes a “Democrat” versus a “Republican.”

SO HOW DOES this political conversion rank in the annals of government history?

I don’t know that I’d put it up there with that of Edward R. Vrdolyak, who was once a leading City Council member and chairman of the Democratic Party for Cook County when – upon finally realizing that Mayor Harold Washington would prevail over him in “Council Wars” – converted himself to a Republican. He even tried running for office under the GOP label, although he never won.

It also falls short of the so-called conversion of the legendary Democratic political boss Richard J. Daley, who due to a quirk in state election law that is no longer applicable, was elected to his first governmental post as a write-in candidate, with the voters of Bridgeport and Back of the Yards choosing him to be their token Republican legislator.

Hence, there was once a time when “state Rep. Richard J. Daley, R-Chicago,” would have been totally accurate.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The Democratic Party primary (http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=436650) is going to be feisty (http://www.southtownstar.com/news/election/1465074,030709scully.article) come the year (http://www.nwi.com/articles/2009/03/08/news/illinois/doc4dd578555c79a29486257572008155a3.txt) 2010.