Dems' dream ticket wins: tribute to Harold Washington

By PAUL M. GREEN

November 1988 was a month of tributes to Chicago's late Mayor Harold Washington. The city remembered and honored Chicago's first black mayor with a series of observances that celebrated Washington's remarkable political life. But the tribute that would have pleased the late mayor the most occurred on election day, November 8, when his so-called "dream Democratic ticket" routed the

Mayor Harold Washington

Republicans in all Cook County contests.

It was back in early November 1987 that Washington and House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-30, Chicago) orchestrated the make-up of a truly multi-ethnic/multiracial county ticket. Their goal of course was not only to win but to defeat two formidable mutual rivals — former Mayor Jane Byrne and former Democratic party chairman turned Republican Edward Vrdolyak. Both Byrne and Vrdolyak wanted to become clerk of the circuit court — a little known county office. To defeat Byrne in the Democratic primary and Vrdolyak

36 | January 1989 | Illinois Issues

in the general election Washington and Madigan wisely selected Aurelia Pucinski, a member of the Metropolitan Sanitary District board and the daughter of longtime Polish leader and 41st Ward Alderman Roman Pucinski.

Indeed Pucinski slew both former political giants as she and her Democratic ticketmates swept to victory.

There are three keys to the successful Democratic campaign in Cook County:

• With only some slight slippage the ethnic/racial Democratic coalition held together for the entire slate.
• Suburban Republicans were unwilling to give wholehearted support to a ticket made up of former Democrats.
• Speaker Madigan's refusal to back a state income tax increase killed Vrdolyak-Republican efforts to portray the Democrats as high taxers and big spenders.

In the state's attorney contest Richard M. Daley was easily reelected. He improved on his 1984 landslide performance despite some backlash from Chicago's black wards stemming from his 1989 possible mayoral candidacy. (Daley still received over 80 percent of the vote in these wards). A 1.5 percent dip

With only some slight slippage the ethnic/racial Democratic coalition held together for the entire state

in his Chicago numbers was offset by a 4.5 percent increase in the suburbs.

Only in the 10th Ward (Vrdolyak's turf) did Daley's winning ward percentage drop below 60 percent. Daley's Chicago strength was so powerful citywide that his Opponent Terry Gainer received 30 percent or more of the vote in only 10 wards. Suburban totals were just as impressive for Daley. He won 27 of 30 townships, clobbered Gainer in suburban areas with heavy black and ethnic populations (especially southwestern townships) and was challenged only in far northwestern Cook County and the western township of Cicero.

As for Pucinski, she pummeled Vrdolyak in Chicago's black community, garnering over 90 percent of the vote in 17 predominantly black wards. Pucinski's winning margin in Mayor Eugene Sawyer's 6th Ward (25,607 votes) by itself nearly matched Vrdolyak's combined margin victories in the eight wards he won. As expected Vrdolyak did best on the city's northwest and southwest sides and in his home base, the far southeast side 10th Ward. Even in these areas, however, his totals were less than expected. (Pucinski won 44 percent of the 10th Ward vote.)

Vrdolyak's narrow plurality in the suburban townships was no match for Pucinski's 405,000-margin in the city. He got over 60 percent of the vote in only five suburban townships. In the GOP vote-rich corridor in northwest Cook County, tiny Barrington was the only township to give Vrdolyak a landslide victory. In fact, he ran best in the heavily ethnic southwestern townships. As for Pucinski, she did best in townships having liberal and black residents. For example, Evanston township gave her a vote margin of nearly 15,000.

Winning the contest for recorder of deeds, state Rep. Carol Mosely Braun become the first black woman elected to a major executive office in Cook County. Her victory over former Democrat, 50th Ward Alderman Bernie Stone, followed the pattern set in the other races. Braun decimated Stone in the black wards, held her own in the rest of the city and captured nearly 40 percent of the suburban vote. Her relatively easy 225,000-vote victory was perhaps the best indication of the near invincibility of a united Cook County Democratic party.

The county victories are now history as the big guns, big money and big interests aim their sights at this year's special mayoral election. It seems that Washington in death looms almost as large as he did in life in focusing the direction and scope of city politics. If Washington were still mayor, based on the 1988 county results, the Cook County Democratic party — admittedly in a somewhat altered and more color coordinated hue — would be on the road to renewed glory. The mayor who said he would destroy the machine and the Cook County Democratic party organization may in fact have been the last man who could have saved it.

Paul M. Green is director of the Institute for Public Policy and Administration, Governors State University.

January 1989 | Illinois Issues | 37