May 26, 2004
2006 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY UNDERWAY FOR MWRD
It's not quite as befuddling as Winston Churchill's analysis of Russia, but the biennial battles for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) commissioner in the Democratic primary can be described as the obscure inside the arcane wrapped in the absurd. Such "random factors" as ballot position, gender, ethnicity (especially an Irish surname), race, and committeeman endorsements trump qualifications and incumbency every time. And that's because voters don't know who's running for this powerful job, which has an input into the MWRD's $750 million annual budget. In the 2004 primary, the three incumbents won -- a rarity. But the 2006 battle is already underway, with at least three 2004 losers poised to run again. Two incumbents will likely retire in 2006, so another chaotic, random-factor primary is looming. Full Article...
May 19, 2004
ISURTENT FLORES MAKES MINIMAL COUNCIL IMPACT
Early political success in Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois accrues to those who are well-connected, and especially to the offspring of powerful politicians. Daley, Blagojevich, Madigan and Hynes got where they are because of family connections. In the 2003 election, pro-Daley candidates won 47 of 50 aldermanic seats. Two of the three insurgents have since been invited to join the mayoral fold. The only non-invitee is the 1st Ward's Manny Flores, a 31-year old attorney who was blocked in his bid to be 1st Ward Democratic Committeeman in 2004 by Congressman Luis Gutierrez. Flores is reviled by the HDO (Hispanic Democratic Organization). He is also viewed as a future mayoral contender. But Flores has made a lot of rookie mistakes, including abandoning the man who helped elect him alderman, and a large field is assembling to run against him in 2007. Full Article...
May 12, 2004
NEAR-TO-NEST THEORY KEEPS NW SIDERS CLOSE
To be sure, North and Northwest Siders generally love the Chicago Cubs, and South Siders love the Chicago White Sox. Geography counts. But why are Northwest Siders loathe to move South, and South Siders loathe to move North? Call it the Near-to-Nest Phenomena -- which means staying close to family. To Northwest Siders, the South Side and the South and Southwest Suburbs are a foreign land. They just don't move there. The far South suburbs are now majority black. The Southwest suburbs are booming, but are populated primarily by whites migrating from Chicago's Southwest Side. Blacks from the South Side are migrating to the south suburbs, and blacks from Chicago's West Side are migrating to the west suburbs -- validating the Near-to-Nest Rule. And whites from the Northwest Side move to the west, northwest, and north suburbs. But Hispanics are the exception. They're following the Grand Avenue and Ogden Avenue/Stevenson Expressway corridors, and taking their families with them. Full Article...
May 5, 2004
CHICAGO'S SOUTHWEST SIDE FACES POLITICAL TUMULT
Chicago's so-called "white ethnic" wards on the city's far Northwest and far Southwest rims are alike in many ways -- rising housing prices, tons of city workers, powerful pro-Daley Democratic politicians. But they are unalike in one major way: The far Southwest Side is racially integrated, and large numbers of blacks are buying homes in the Beverly neighborhood -- without prompting "white flight" to the suburbs. The black population on the Northwest Side is still negligible. And there's another difference: Generational change is precipitating political upheaval on the Southwest Side, with Tom Hynes' 19th Ward in the throes of demographic and political change, and with Congressman Bill Lipinski possibly quitting for an RTA job. Full Article...
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