The night bombs started falling in Baghdad Gloria Chevere was going door-to-door asking for votes. Her feet crunching in the snow, her breath shooting steam into the frigid January air, Chevere, running for alderman in the 31st Ward, couldn’t command much attention that night. Through the windows of every home on every block of this mostly Hispanic west-side ward TV sets were flickering with news from the Middle East.
On the eve of the elections scheduled for February 26, aldermanic candidates are finding their races overwhelmed by bigger national and international events. Most of them acknowledge that it’s hard to get residents interested in much less enthusiastic about their campaigns.
Take with a grain of salt any claims a candidate makes for him- or herself or any charge slung at an opponent. And don’t be convinced by their election-result prognostications (like the rest of us, they’re really only guessing). If one says, for example, that it really doesn’t matter who the local paper endorsed, assume that the other guy’s getting the endorsement. If a candidate says he really doesn’t care about all the opposition signs in people’s windows, you have to figure he’s given up on winning. Above all else, if she looks you in the eye and says that the City Council is where she wants to stay and she has no interest in higher office, get ready for the congressional campaign to follow.
Though Eddie refuses to publicly endorse a candidate, at least three claim to be his rightful heir. The only people who might be able to give some clue as to Eddie’s preference–the other members of his family–are dispersed in different camps.
Since losing the 1987 aldermanic race to Victor Vrdolyak, Balanoff has been on a roll. He was elected Democratic committeeman (a seat vacated when Eddie Vrdolyak turned Republican) and then state representative, having put together an integrated coalition of blacks, Hispanics, and whites (no small feat).
Balanoff said, as we drove through Jeffery Manor, “I’m the only candidate who campaigns in every community, not just white, black, or Hispanic ones. I’m the candidate to bring this ward together.”
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Back at Balanoff headquarters I met, of all people, Richards’s wife’s sister-in-law, who said neither she nor her husband supports “Richards, that jerk.” I also hear that the race has taken a turn for the worse. A flier has been sent to white voters, inviting them to a phony Balanoff fund-raiser hosted by Louis Farrakhan and U.S. Representative Gus Savage.
