Chicago                                                                                   

Gutierrez living up to expectations for Midwest's first Hispanic congressman By MANUEL GALVAN

Only two months into the Clinton administration, the first Hispanic congressman from the Midwest has already experienced the potential and the pitfalls that await the newly elected in a city where power is the absolute ruler. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-4, Chicago), elected in a November landslide, sees his position as one of service and his ethnicity as a chance to improve the understanding of Hispanics. "It's an opportunity to take issues from the neighborhood to the Congress," said the 39-year-old freshman about jobs, education, health care, gangs and drugs. "I bring that sensitivity to Congress."

Gutierrez, whose district is 65 percent Hispanic, says that many congressmen have never dealt with a Latino from the Midwest. His actions affect the way in which others "view the next person with an 'ez' on his name. That's important, and I understand that responsibility."

Hispanics' political prowess is increasing in Chicago. Political demographers are already talking about a second Hispanic congressional district after the 2000 census, when Latinos are expected to comprise nearly 30 percent of the city's population.

Juan Andrade Jr. is executive director of the Midwest/Northeast Voter Registration Education Project, a group that monitors and registers Hispanic voters. He says that Hispanics registered and voted in record number last year. "What motivates voters the most are those elections in which they feel they can control the outcome or have a major stake, like a Hispanic candidate running."

A decade ago Chicago had four elected Hispanic officials, including a Democratic ward committeeman. Today there are 22 Hispanics in public office, including the city treasurer. Andrade predicts that by 2000 Hispanic elected officials from Chicago will number 46. "Luis has been part of the progress," Andrade said. "It has removed another barrier to the heights that we can reach."

For Gutierrez, who moved from obscurity in 1985 to a pivotal power role in the Chicago City Council a year later and Capitol Hill six years after that, his advancement was no less dramatic. "I'm used to people recognizing me," Gutierrez noted. "But the intensity in pride and the happiness level of people coming up to me was bigger than I ever realized."

Gutierrez ran for 26th Ward alderman in a special 1986 election. The northwest side ward was one of several court-ordered districts that united minorities previously dispersed and politically diluted. Mayor Harold Washington had been in office for two years, but he had been denied City Council control by Alderman Edward Vrdolyak, who led 28 aldermen in parliamentary maneuvers against Chicago's first black mayor and his 21 council loyalists. After the 1986 aldermanic elections, including Gutierrez' victory in a razor-thin runoff, Washington forces held 25 of 50 council seats. With Washington's tie-breaking vote as mayor, the Council Wars ended.

Gutierrez quickly became one of Washington's key votes, but he just as easily voted with Alderman Eugene Sawyer, who became mayor after Washington's death. When Alderman Timothy Evans — a one-time, close political and philosophical friend in the Washington camp — ran for mayor, Gutierrez was one of the first aldermen to back Richard M. Daley. The payoff for Gutierrez was influence in the new Daley mayoralty. He was named president pro tempore of the council, chairing meetings in the mayor's absence, and chairman of the Housing Committee, which oversees the sale or lease of several thousands of parcels of city property.

When Washington first campaigned for the formation of a Hispanic district during the 1987 mayoral campaign, Gu-

38/March 1993/Illinois Issues

tierrez was one of the first to put his name in the running. It stayed there during the debate and drawing of a Hispanic district, and it swept through the primary and general election.

His tactics, however, triggered trouble in Washington. Riding a national wave of anti-Congress public sentiment, he spoke frequently and publicly about reforming a pork-barrel Congress. Speaking a bit too loudly to the national press about his post in "the belly of the monster," he was called on the carpet by House Speaker Thomas Foley (D., Wash.). Instead of the House Ways and Means Committee, Gutierrez sits on the Banking and Veterans committees. "It's a no win situation," Gutierrez said. "If I had been given a seat on Ways and Means, people would say I was selling out."

As to the future, Gutierrez says he will keep his pledge to bring Congress closer to the people and continue trying to restore people's faith in the institution by fighting pay raises and perks. "They're [the leadership] gonna need my vote. I'm a Democrat, and we're gonna work on things together," he said, adding that smooth relations "will take time."

Gutierrez campaigned to represent all his constitutents, not just Hispanics. But many issues, such as the economy and unemployment, transcend the ethnic boundaries of his largely blue-collar district. On the economy, Gutierrez wants "to make sure that any economic stimulus package includes education." He says that without education programs, like Headstart and financial assistance for college, nothing will work in the long term.

On the "Hispanic" issues of Puerto Rico and the North American Free Trade Agreement, he favors a plebescite to determine the island's status and a watchful eye on President Clinton's approach for the proposed trading treaty with Mexico and Canada.

In the meantime he has established a "community corps" of volunteers to improve Chicago's neighborhoods with graffiti paint-outs, recycling campaigns, food drives, clothing collections and similar projects, practicing a lesson he learned in the City Council: Good service gets you good election results. *

Manuel Galvan is a Chicago writer and marketing consultant.

March 1993/Illinois Issues/39