Chicago

Omen of future Dem disasters

By PAUL M. GREEN

IT HAS been said that "war is hell and civil war is the worst hell of all." Few Illinois Democrats would contradict this observation given the shocking results of their party's March primary. Almost everyone has an opinion on why endorsed party candidates George E. Sangmeister for lieutenant governor and Aurelia M. Pucinski for secretary of state lost to the Lyndon LaRouchities, Mark J. Fairchild and Janice A. Hart. Equally widespread is the fingerpointing and blame-fixing among party leaders, the media, the candidates and the voters themselves. A careful look at the election returns, however, reveals the true, root cause for the two LaRouche victories: the splintering of the once mighty Chicago Democratic organization.

By no means is the machine dead; it still wins far more contests than it loses, but in 1986 there is little remaining of the organizational unity and internal party discipline from the Mayor Richard J. Daley era. To be sure, if Hizzoner were still in command, he could have and would have prevented a LaRouchite sneak attack. Even Daley's considerable skills, however, would be insufficient to hold back today's changing political times and changing personal lifestyles.

Back in the 1960s Daley was fond of quoting Robert F. Kennedy — "politics is a noble profession" — while urging, threatening and manipulating party members to follow his leadership. Whatever his motives or goals, few would deny that Daley was a leader who believed in strong party government and who was eager to be up front in every political contest. Times have changed. The current Democratic party in Illinois and Chicago is being "Republicanized." Traditional GOP-style personality politics, which is based on financial muscle, direct campaign mailings and individual candidate popularity, has replaced the Daley Democratic style of a tight, strong party structure. The effects of television, recent antipatronage court decisions and an awakening of previously under represented voting groups in Chicago have relegated the Daley era to the nostalgic past.

What has not changed since Daley's day is the vital importance of Chicago in a statewide Democratic primary. Over 50 percent of the vote on March 18 came from the city, and when the suburban vote is included, Cook County cast almost two-thirds of the Illinois Democratic primary vote. What happened and why?

Neither Sangmeister's nor Pucinski's name appeared on the Cook County Democratic organization's sample ballot issued by county party chairman Edward Vrdolyak or on the ballot mailed out by his arch-foe, Mayor Harold Washington. These omissions were critical because neither statewide contest generated media publicity, and there was little ability or willingness on the part of most ward committeemen to push either candidate. The result was an astonishing falloff in Democratic votes cast for the lieutenant governor and secretary of state races compared to the most publicized statewide contests. Almost one-third of Democrat Chicagoans voting in the attorney general contest skipped, forgot or refused to vote in the Sangmeister-Fairchild race for lieutenant governor.

Mayor's clout with blacks

Some may call it personal charisma, others may label it a continuation of the black political movement, while still others describe it as a new and competing machine; whatever the description, the fact is clear that Mayor Washington's endorsement carries overwhelming clout with Chicago's black voters. Candidates endorsed by the mayor did well in the city's black wards. He mailed his sample ballot of choices in the primary to over 600,000 voters — predominantly black. His preferences carried more weight with these voters than all the other pieces of campaign literature and TV and radio commercials combined. By not placing Sangmeister's and Pucinski's names on his sample ballot, he gave the city's black voters the opportunity to voice their displeasure against the party's slate. Of the 23 wards carried by both Fairchild and Hart, 19 were predominantly black. One can understand the Pucinski omission because her father, Aid. Roman C. Pucinski, has been a strong opponent of Mayor Washington in the council wars. But given the mayor's full support of gubernatorial candidate Adlai E. Stevenson III, the Sangmeister omission must be considered a mistake.

Few dependable wards

What is often forgotten in the heat of the Chicago council wars is that everyone is a Democrat. The feud has decimated the number of city wards capable of supporting Democratic organization candidates in contested primaries. In March only five or six predominantly white wards on the south and southwest sides delivered votes in the old-fashioned way for the endorsed slate (high turnouts, high margins, high percentages). Interestingly the big news story was not the black defections but the inability of most north and northwest side white wards to produce vote numbers anywhere close to the southside wards.

What can the Democrats do to win in November since they can't turn back the clock to March 18? Whatever means gubernatorial candidate Stevenson uses to get back on the ballot to present his candidacy to Illinois voters, the victory chances of the other statewide Democratic candidates should not be affected.

One does not need the ghost of Mayor Daley to tell feuding factional leaders to close ranks. "Rule-or-ruin politics" made the Democrats a minority party for decades in Chicago and Illinois. The LaRouche intrusion is an omen of future political disasters unless common sense and common cause unite Democratic party leaders and party members.

June 1986/Illinois Issues/43