To cop from a radio soap opera of my childhood: Can this nice, young, idealistic Jewish lawyer from Hyde Park win the votes of a cold-blooded, polarized electorate in the “consolidated primary election” for mayor on February 28, 1989? Fifth Ward Alderman Lawrence S. Bloom believes he can; he believes he is building a new coalition that will take him into the mayor’s office.
Bloom says that he has become more of a “regular” in the last five years. “I came into politics not expecting to be anything more than an independent lakefront politician–a watchdog, a person with good ideas, trying to push the venal government a little bit towards thinking about the people–an inch,” he says, laughing. “The interesting thing that happened was that I did that and I think I was successful at it during Jane Byrne’s administration, but my support for Harold Washington and his election and my subsequent involvement in the City Council leadership under Washington changed my whole orientation towards government. I learned a heck of a lot from Washington and just from being involved in the decision making of every aspect of that administration so far as it was council-involved. If it needed council approval and we had to sit down and strategize about it, I understood the issue and how to get the council to support it. So I learned a lot about government, not about being a protester but what it takes to make it work, to set an agenda and follow it. And frankly, I was fascinated by it. I saw where Harold Washington was able to mobilize forces to get something done. I saw where he blew opportunities to do it. And I saw the tremendous power that a mayor’s office has to change the direction of city government.
Sun-Times political editor Steve Neal essentially agrees with Bloom. He says, “He lost that race because he was running against a very popular incumbent. It was an unwinnable race for any City Council official.”
Ben Reyes, who held the highest Hispanic position in the Washington administration as one of five top aides to the mayor: “I support Bloom as the natural heir to the Washington legacy. He will treat Hispanics fairly. I expect to beinvolved in all aspects of the campaign.”
Thirty-third Ward Alderman Richard Mell, loyal member of the white ethnic bloc and a sometime mayoral aspirant himself. “Bloom is a very, very bright individual probably one of the brightest aldermen. I think his chances are really out of his hands. It depends on how many people are in the race. If it was Bloom one-on-one with Sawyer or Evans, he could win handily. If it’s a real crowded field, it will be harder for him.”
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“Larry will get black votes according to whether blacks identify him as a full-fledged member of the Washington coalition, and I think they are, from my talking with people. When blacks voted for Washington they were voting for more than race. It wouldn’t have been sufficient for him to be just another experienced black politician. When he ran in ’77, there was not the readiness for change and he got only 11 percent of the vote. But by the time Byrne ran, they were ready. People want to see the unified vote for Washington as racism, but it wasn’t.
“There are still a lot of black people who resent a white person taking over the office again. There are some who think, like Dorothy Tillman says, ‘He is pimping off it,’ that somehow he and other Jews are not supposed to acquire advantages for themselves. They’re supposed to be helpmates to black ascendancy. They shouldn’t take advantage of this new voting strength that would allow a white liberal to get elected. But I don’t find that to be so among the more solid black voters. They seem to believe that you can’t go back and there’s a danger of that happening with any of the old machine types like Sawyer. People are going to look at Larry’s opponents very carefully.”
