For a city with a political tradition as rich as Chicago’s, the field of mayoral candidates in the upcoming primaries and the general election beyond is a joke. As far as that goes, this field would be a laughing matter for a city with no political tradition whatsoever. Of course cynicism is all the rage right now, especially where politics is concerned, so that affecting a sharp-witted Roykoesque stoicism appears to be the only way to get through the day. Even a normally high-minded pol friend of ours described the Democratic primary as a battle between a joke, a bigger joke, and a potentially dangerous mystery. Yet the realization that there is, after all, some danger involved is important; it’s what puts the edge on a cynic’s fatalism. For those who can’t tell their candidates without a scorecard, the dangerous mystery is the one leading in the polls.
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Bloom’s self-proclaimed campaign of racial harmony–as displayed in last week’s debate and elsewhere–was nothing more than a persistent statement of “let’s you and him fight,” so that he could then appear to be above the fray. The worse things got between Gene Sawyer and Rich Daley, the better for Bloom. The limitations of this argument ought to have been apparent, but they were so apparent in this case that they sometimes passed for wisdom among the city’s political commentators. Larry Bloom said that neither Sawyer nor Daley was capable of running the city; the fact was obvious. Larry Bloom was therefore a prophet, the designated Cassandra candidate. Of course Bloom was, at heart, no less jaded about his own chances, and so he played the same demographic games as his opponents. Politics on both the local and national levels appears to have descended to the slight talents of carving out a constituency and maintaining it, with polling the one essential tool of the art. That Bloom was aware of this was reflected by his persistent attacks on Daley and his kid-gloves treatment of Sawyer. Bloom the politician paid lip service to racial harmony, but Bloom the mayoral candidate realized that his black support had peaked and that his only hope was to siphon off Daley’s more progressive supporters. Of course his cynical support for the home-equity bill was also an appeal to Daley’s less progressive supporters, so that the general Bloom strategy became simply strike wherever Daley was weak. That, Bloom found, was everywhere and nowhere. To his credit, Bloom established himself as the one candidate with a sense of humor, meaning the only one with even a modicum of personality. His best joke, however, went almost unnoticed at the two-man debate with Sawyer at WBBM TV. Bloom bemoaned Daley’s failure to show up, and said he was surprised because he had even offered to get Daley a copy of the debate questions. No one laughed, so perhaps Bloom was too high-minded for his own good after all.
Yet even as the catalyst of doom for reform, Sawyer at this point is not so much an Uncle Tom as he is a black Jane Byrne. Placed by something of a fluke in a position clearly out of his depth, Sawyer has strengthened his most loyal (read corrupt) supporters and, when necessary, has run to other corrupt sources of power for political loans. This explains why he was so reluctant to fire Steve Cokely, why he nominated Erwin France to head the school board, and why he moved to extend the O’Hare Hilton lease. Then, like Byrne, having blundered his way through, he runs for reelection as a person who’s grown into the office, as a person who’s matured, as someone suddenly in control. This explains why his boring recitation of statistics and jargon at the debate was praised by the more weak-minded commentators. They didn’t expect him to act like a mayor, so when he almost did it was seen as a great victory.
Within 30 seconds, Daley followed that by saying he is “working for child abuse.”
