When they decided to call their meeting, the organizers figured 40, maybe 50 voting members would attend. But as the minutes ticked down to starting time, all the seats were taken, and a line of people without seats–attendance was estimated at roughly 200–snaked around the wall of the carpeted conference room and out the door.
Contributions are up–this year the organization raised roughly $70,000 and will break even for the first time in years. Paid membership is at about 900 and rising, Meites says. Their annual fund-raising dinner drew 300, and both Hartigan and Edgar have eagerly vied for IVI-IPO support. Not bad for a liberal organization in the era of Reagan-Bush.
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“Jerry despises Hartigan because Hartigan is backed by [43rd Ward Committeeman] Ann Stepan, who is one of Jerry’s bitterest enemies,” says David Slavsky, former IVI-IPO political action chairman and a Hartigan supporter. “Jerry tried to change the rules to help Edgar get the endorsement. And that’s not right.”
In some ways, the rift goes back to the 1960s, when the IVI-IPO–originally the unofficial liberal wing of the Democratic Party–first began endorsing “moderate” Republicans as a response to machine politics.
For instance, when Lipinski and other IVI-IPO members backed Toni Preckwinkle in 1987 in her aldermanic campaign against Washington floor leader Tim Evans, they were criticized as “Hyde Park elitists.”
Slavsky, however, sees his alliance with Hartigan as evidence of political maturity. “I eagerly support Neil Hartigan because I think he’s the best candidate,” he says. “In some cases you have to ask yourself whether you become irrelevant if you hold all politicians to unrealistically high standards. Not all candidates are going to be David Orr. Maybe it’s better to try to influence the candidate who can win.”
Tensions heightened as the governor’s race approached, and both sides tried some unusual tactics.
