The campaign that never wasp

Too bad Illinois could not have held the general election the day after the March 18 primary since very little changed statewide during the seven-and-one-half-month interim. The results of post-primary polls stood up throughout the campaign as all the heavy favorites swept to landslide victories. Voters simply rejected the negative campaigns of the underdogs. In fact Illinoisans almost rejected the entire political process by not voting.

Thoughts and anecdotes on this 1986 general election — the campaign that never was.

•   When will the press stop reporting the two most overused campaign cliches of desperate candidates facing certain defeat:

"The only poll that counts is the one on election day" and "Remember Harry Truman in 1948."

•   In Chicago and Cook County the so-called "LaRouche factor" affected the outcome only in the contests for sheriff and for the commissioners elected to the county board from outside the city.

•   U.S. Sen. Alan J. Dixon once again demonstrated his electoral magic. In Chicago he received an astounding 85 percent of the vote, carried every ward (only in the 41st did he receive less than 70 percent of the vote) and even outpolled (by 1 percent) the Democrats' usual top vote-getter in the city, County Assessor Thomas Hynes. Dixon's opponent, Republican Judy Koehler, never found a way to deliver her message to the voters. In fact her own paid radio and television commercials were so bad that Dixon could have made political history by replaying them as part of his campaign.

•   The Republicans may have finally achieved their breakthroughs in Chicago's northwest and southwest sides. Secy. of State Jim Edgar carried the city against his divided opposition, winning 31 of 50 wards. Jane Spirgel, his unofficial Democratic opponent, won the other 19, including the 11th Ward — the only nonblack ward in her win column. Yes, the Daley's still deliver. Gov. James R. Thompson carried 13 wards (up from two in 1982), while the victorious GOP sheriff canidate, Jim O'Grady, won 14 wards (including two lakefront independent wards), Despite the successes of these three Republican candidates, there is no truth to the rumor that all future GOP candidates will change their first names to Jim to cash in on the obvious key to renewed Repulican vigor in Chicago.

•   George Dunne deserves special mention. This longtime Democratic power-house almost casually won reelection as Cook County Board president. It was as if Edwin O'Connor's Last Hurrah was given a different ending. Dunne, like the fictional old-timer Frank Skeffington, ran an old-fashioned campaign. He relied on his personal network of friends, used tradtional political advertising (billboards) and relied on the party organization to deliver for him on election day. His opponent, Joseph Mathewson, the GOP's version of Skeffington's conqueror Kevin McCluskey, ran a modern, professional campaign. Mathewson employed the latest political techniques, spent gobs of money on sophisticated media spots and broke new ground in using clever campaign gimmicks to generate favorable publicity. In the end Dunne received three-fourths of the Chicago vote (losing only the 41st Ward) and ran respectably in the suburban townships. This combination gave the incumbent Democrat a comfortable 61-to-39 percent victory. Unlike O'Connor's book, the only "Ditto" in this campaign was the fact that Dunne had won again.

38/January 1987/Illinois Issues

• What does the 1986 general election tell Chicagoans about the upcoming 1987 mayoral election? Turnout-wise the recent election should alarm the forces of Mayor Harold Washington. The 10 lowest turn-out wards were Hispanic and low-income black wards located mainly on the city's west side. In fact the combined total of the city's four predominately Hispanic wards (22,25,26 and 31) was only slightly higher than the turnout in the southwest side's 13th Ward. The mayor has worked hard to turn on poor black and Hispanic voters; obviously much work is needed to reignite the movement for 1987.

Conversely the 10 highest turnout wards were located primarily in the anti-Washington northwest and southwest sides. Only Alderman Eugene Sawyer's middle-class black 6th Ward broke the monopoly on high turnout by these top 10 white ethnic wards. (Admittedly the 18th Ward, ranking fifth in this top 10, is now split almost 50-50 racially, and two black wards, the 8th and 21st, were ranked eleventh and twelfth best in turnout.) Unless a miracle occurs or Mother Theresa suddenly becomes a Chicago mayoral candidate, there is little doubt that in both the primary and the general election the eventual 1987 mayoral winner will be determined by the white/ black turnout figures. Given the above record in the November 4 election, it should be obvious why anti-Washington pols are hoping to get the mayor in a one-on-one contest.

• One final thought. The Chicago ward totals in the November election reflect the obvious: The local Democratic party is on a "kamikaze" mission. A united Chicago Democratic vote, combined with increasing Democratic support in suburban Cook County and downstate (beyond Cook's five collar counties), can elect almost every statewide Democratic candidate. This same party unity in the city would eliminate the Republican party's hope of ever winning another major Cook County office. Yet the divisions widen, defections seem more likely, compromises grow less likely, and solutions to Chicago's historical racial problems seem as elusive as ever.

39/January 1987/Illinois Issues