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| ZALEWSKI: Wants to go out on top! |
Zalewski
is in his fifth term as a member of the City Council. But like many of the
so-called “white ethnic” officials, he’s finding the “ethnic” part of his home
district changing.
ZALEWSKI
IS NOW an official of Polish ethnic origins representing an area that is 67
percent Latino (mostly Mexican-American) composition. It seems he saw the
result of the last month’s primary elections in a neighboring ward where the
state representative who is brother to almighty Alderman Ed Burke managed to
lose – to a Latino official who will now begin his political career
representing an area of which he fits in with the majority.
It would
seem Zalewski didn’t want to have a similar fate to Burke. So, he announced his
intention to resign come May 31 – even though his term runs through early May
of 2019.
He wants
to depart on his own terms, and NOT as someone who got taken down by a growing
ethnic population that no longer views him as “one of our own.”
Such
circumstances mean that Mayor Rahm Emanuel will get to pick a replacement for
Zalewski to serve through the next 11 or so months. Whoever that person winds
up being will have the option of seeking a full four-year term in the 2019
municipal election cycle – and will be able to do so as an incumbent alderman.
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| BERRIOS: Ethnic loss can go opposite |
So in
that regard, Zalewski is playing the political game according to the rules – in
that he’s making it possible for the establishment to decide for themselves who
will be admitted to the ranks of that political species considered by some to
be among the most insipid creatures of all.
A real,
live Chicago alderman!
But on
the other hand, Zalewski is making a bold move that political people would not
have even contemplated in the past.
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| BURKE: Sees own possible fate in Dan |
Yet that
doesn’t mean their political representation is always willing to follow along.
In fact, replacing the old with the new often means the “old” goes kicking and
screaming – with some insisting that some sort of foul conspiracy has occurred
to remove them from office.
Seeing
someone willingly acknowledge the change that has occurred in his neighborhood
– one that he often clings to because it gave him a chance to run for a
political office – seems to me to be a step in the positive direction.
Of
course, these ethnic changes move in all directions.
CONSIDER
THE FATE of one-time state Rep. Toni Berrios, whose Northwest Side legislative
district by 2014 had developed from a Puerto Rican enclave to one that had some
segments of upper-scale whites – many of whom that election cycle decided
they’d like to no longer be thought of as an ethnic district.
State
Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, wound up winning the support of people in the
Logan Square neighborhood, and the woman who had been the first Puerto Rican
female to serve in the Illinois House of Representatives went down to defeat.
A fate
that Zalewski definitely wants to avoid.
He’d
probably like to have an end similar to the one-time Alderman Vito Marzullo,
who served more than three decades representing what once was an Italian ethnic
community in Chicago that, by 1986, had become Latino.
COURT-ORDERED
REAPPORTIONMENT brought about boundary changes that made it highly unlikely
Marzullo could continue to be elected – so he retired amidst great fanfare in
the City Council. Which also brought about a rookie politico in the form of
Luis Gutierrez.
These
kinds of changes are going to continue in the near future. Because our city is
not the same composition as it was some 50 or 60 years ago.
Even
though the kind of people who’d be inclined to complain about Zalewski’s departure
are likely of the sort who wish things had never changed, and that we still had
the original “Mayor Daley” in charge – rather than trying to figure out which
third-generation Daley will someday try to run for mayor.
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