In early 1946 James Doherty, Chicago Tribune political reporter, wrote a series of articles covering the current state of politics in each of Chicago's 50 wards. One of his main themes was that in many formerly staunch Republican wards on the city's far southwest and northwest sides, energetic and ambitious Democrats had convinced GOP voters to support their aldermanic candidates. Doherty also predicted that unless the Republicans began a "reconversion" process, the growth of Democratic power in these wards would spill over into state and national elections as well. He was right.

Forty years later we see a political conversion possibility looming once again in many of these same Chicago wards as the recently reinvigorated Chicago Republican party gears itself to win back its former peripheral city ward strongholds.

Former Cook County Democratic party chairman Edward R. Vrdolyak's switch to the Republican party has highlighted the potential of a GOP conversion of traditional Democratic ethnic white voters. It is crucial to understand that Vrdolyak's party shift is not the cause of the movement; rather he may turn out to be its main beneficiary. In short, given recent city election results and current political and philosophical battlelines, it should come as little surprise that socially and economically conservative ethnic Democrats feel left out of both the political and governmental processes in Mayor Harold Washington's new Chicago.

Chicago's northwest and southwest sides are underrepresented in the current city administration. Their views and concerns often go unanswered as the mayor's allies flex their new muscles to stifle dissent on legitimate community issues. 1960s style liberals who had huffed and puffed around independent-minded Hyde Park and lake-front neighborhoods calling for a colorblind society now take great pride in counting the white faces in Washington's second administration (many of those faces are their own). Yet most of Washington's white appointments do not reflect ethnic Chicago or ethnic Democrats.

During former Mayor Richard J. Daley's heyday, racial critics denounced his administrative appointment or political support of subservient or machine-dominated blacks; it was labeled "plantation politics." Today in the city, we find a kind of reverse "plantation politics," where liberal white administrators have their governmental or political operations monitored by loyal black Washington supervisors or deputies. In reality the late 4th Ward black Aid. Claude W.B. Holman, a Daley loyalist, was more representative of his community than the vast majority of Washington's white appointees, who seldom travel to the land west of Western Avenue.

The current Democratic dilemma is to find a way to reconcile politically the two key wings of the party — the blacks and the ethnics. Fortunately for Chicago and Cook County Democrats the new county party chairman, George W. Dunne, is —even at his mature age — the shrewdest political operative around. Dunne has the respect of both conflicting party voting blocs. His dislike for Vrdolyak is personal and known, and there is little doubt that Chairman Dunne will do all he can to prevent his predecessor from riding back to power as a Republican. Yet the question remains: Will Dunne, for all his ability, be able to prevent ethnic GOP conversion at the same time he maintains Democratic party unity?

Key to the future of this upcoming political melodrama is Mayor Harold Washington. Since becoming mayor in 1983, Washington has danced around the issue of his party status and his loyalty to the local organization. He used the fact of Vrdolyak's party chairmanship to explain his unwillingness to support local party slating and fundraising efforts. In the end the mayor, to his credit, always came around to endorse the Democratic ticket in the general election but in the process weakened an already faltering party apparatus.

The mayor must make a decision concerning the local Democratic party. His enemy Vrdolyak is gone; his ally Dunne is in command. Washington's choice is to settle finally the issue of whether he is the mayor because he leads a racial and philosophical political movement or because he leads a truly multiracial city constituency.

What's at stake? For black Chicagoans, the conversion of ethnic Democrats to the Republican party would leave them and their interests geographically and politically isolated. For ethnic Democrats a switch would be more psychological than philosophical, but it is questionable whether the WASP-dominated Republican statewide party structure is willing to accept former ethnic Democrats with strange sounding names into their hierarchy. Thus, the battle is joined.

By 1990 we will know how this complicated and highly charged political infighting turns out. Social and economic considerations (white flight from Chicago) may make the entire issue moot if the city becomes the home mainly for yuppies and minorities. On the other hand, if the ethnics remain in the city, their political identification and loyalty will determine the outcome of statewide elections, control of the General Assembly and the future direction of Chicago.

One thing is for certain: Those statewide Democratic candidates with strong downstate support will become the great hope of the party. It will give them a base apart from the reconversion quicksand and racial politics taking place in Chicago.