Damn. Another choice between two mediocrities whose records are, at best, modest and mixed.
Bloom believes his difficulties had a lot to do with money and race. And his sortie suggests that flying solo is no way for good progressive candidates to overcome these hurdles. Harold Washington did it on the strength of a multiracial progressive movement. Bloom tried–and failed–to go it mostly alone.
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But on February 15 Bloom withdrew, in part squeezed out by the same money people and media moguls who often say they’d like to see more candidates like him. He not only endorsed Sawyer, but said he will campaign for him.
What deal was cut? The Sun-Times immediately quoted two of Sawyer’s more mindless allies, aldermen William Henry and Robert Shaw, as suggesting that Bloom, who is a lawyer, would make a fine corporation counsel. WBBM newsradio aired Alderman Eddie Burke, of late a Daley supporter, licking his chops when asked whether Sawyer may have promised to help with Bloom’s campaign debts.
While this reflected progress for Bloom, it was still far short of what he needed to win. But “the thing that really got me,” he told me the day after his withdrawal, was a Southtown Economist poll taken about the same time. What it showed, Bloom said, was that about half of his voters would back off if on election day they thought he was going to lose–which they probably would. That might leave Bloom with an embarrassing single-digit showing for a campaign in which he had actually done much better. Bloom thought it better to leave the race with his electoral dignity intact.
One could argue, of course, that siding with Sawyer is in Bloom’s self-interest, if he hopes to be reelected yet again from a ward that’s 75 percent black. But one could also argue that siding with Daley would be in Bloom’s self-interest. Most political savants still expect Daley to win. Bloom would not be the first “progressive”–witness Luis Gutierrez–to go with the expected winner. And a Bloom endorsement would give Daley a real boost. A nice, deniable Daley deal could have been cut.
You can’t win a major contested election in Chicago without either a lot of money or a movement to back you up. Bloom had neither. By last count Daley had raised about $4 million (and still growing) and Sawyer about $3 million–enough for each of them to fund a constant barrage of slick TV and radio ads. Bloom raised something closer to $200,000–not enough for TV ads. The candidate who most needed to build up name recognition and a familiar image among the voters was least able to afford it.
