September 21, 2011
"HOUSE OF LYONS" ENDS LONG REIGN IN CHICAGO'S 45TH WARD

ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART

"Quoth the Raven Nevermore."

That famous line in the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe describes the stupendously quick collapse of the 45th Ward's venerable "House of Lyons." The once-formidable Democratic ward organization was founded by Bill Cowhey, nurtured into a precinct powerhouse by the late Tom Lyons, and anesthetized by Pat Levar.

Now, with "crown prince" Joe Lyons, Tom Lyons' cousin, abdicating as 19th District state representative and endorsing a suburban Democrat, the 45th Ward Democrats are no more and nevermore.

Elected in 1996 and well known, Lyons needs two more terms to maximize his pension. Why did he retire?

First, even though Lyons is the assistant majority leader, he'll never be the Illinois House speaker. Mike Madigan will keep his post until his daughter Lisa Madigan becomes governor, and long thereafter. When Mike Madigan relinquishes the speakership, either Lou Lang or Barbara Flynn Currie will get it.

Second, Lyons voted for the income tax hike. Throughout his career, Lyons has been a fiscal and social conservative. That 2011 vote put crosshairs on Lyons' back, and it would have cost him votes in 2012. In 2010, against an under-funded Republican, Lyons got 69.3 percent of the vote.

Third, his 45th Ward base collapsed. Levar's egregiously inept handling of the 2011 aldermanic succession put a silver bullet into the heart of the "House of Lyons." Levar persistently pledged to run for a seventh term, then retired just before the 2011 filing deadline. He endorsed a nonentity, Marina Faz-Huppert, thereby infuriating his precinct captains by not consulting with them or picking one of them to run. Then Levar's organization proceeded to generate a measly 3,095 votes (19.5 percent of the total cast) in the preliminary aldermanic election for Faz-Huppert, as she finished third among seven candidates. Faz-Huppert won a majority in none of the ward's 53 precincts, and she placed first in six. Levar and his organization are now a laughingstock.

Like Humpty Dumpty, all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put Levar together again. Nevertheless, it's Act Two. Levar, who succeeded Tom Lyons as committeeman in 2007, insists that he will run for committeeman in 2012. Had Levar an ounce of shrewdness, he would have quit, backed Faz-Huppert for committeeman and expected that her union allies would pump tens of thousands of dollars into the ward organization, enabling it to hire workers. That manpower then could have been used on behalf of Faz-Huppert and Lyons (had he run) in 2012.

"Levar just won't let go," complained one precinct captain, who said most of the remaining captains won't be working for Levar in 2012. Lyons suspects that they wouldn't be working for him, either.

Newly elected Alderman John Arena has announced that he will run for the party post, and aldermanic loser John Fitzgerald Ward is a likely contender.

Fourth, the Democrats also are a shambles in the 36th Ward, where the vaunted "House of Banks," founded by once-powerful Alderman Bill Banks, failed to elect Banks' successor, John Rice, in the April 5 aldermanic runoff. The winner, Nick Sposato, is running for Democratic committeeman. Banks is retiring as committeeman, and he has endorsed Larry Andolino.

The new boundaries of the 19th District, as remapped by the Democrats, include all but a few precincts in the 36th Ward (Montclare and Galewood), all of the 38th Ward and Norwood Park Township (Norridge and Harwood Heights), and all but the Forest Glen and Edgebrook precincts in the 45th Ward. To have won in 2012, Lyons would have had to build his own organization in the 36th and 45th wards, raised $100,000, and campaigned feverishly for the next year. At age 60, and with a high-paying county job as director of training, Lyons doesn't have the time or the incentive for a grueling race.

But the stunner was the fact that Lyons endorsed Rob Martwick of Norridge as his successor. Martwick, a township trustee, is the son of Norwood Park Township Democratic Committeeman Robert Martwick, a longtime ally of Tom Lyons. That endorsement was a direct slap at Levar, his erstwhile ally, since the 19th District's Democratic committeemen have yet to meet to slate a candidate, and Levar may have wanted to foist Faz-Huppert on the slatemakers.

There also will be candidates in the House primary backed by the organizations of Sposato, Andolino and Arena. Only 21 of the district's 111 precincts are in the suburbs, giving Martwick a paltry power base. Also, his losing efforts for state senator in 1996 and for county commissioner in 2002 will provide plenty of fodder for his opponents. In fact, Martwick won his township by just 927 votes in 1996 against Republican Wally Dudycz and by 454 votes in 2002 against Peter Silvestri. However, if 38th Ward Democratic Committeeman Patti Jo Cullerton quickly embraces Martwick, he will be the early favorite.

"It's over," said another Democratic precinct captain. "In recent years, Joe was the glue that held the organization together. The captains were loyal to him. They're disgusted with Levar."

In the 36th Ward, Andolino is currently, as he puts it, "reorganizing and recruiting," but many existing precinct workers will be riding off into the sunset with Banks, and the days of four or five workers per precinct are over.

Sposato will certainly field someone from his organization for state representative in the 19th District Democratic primary; he is already backing Mike Nardello in the 78th District, which contains part of his ward. Andolino also may run for state representative or back a ward organization member, such as attorney Frank Tedesso.

In the 45th Ward, Arena, who beat John Garrido in the April 5 runoff by 30 votes, has been a "Tower of Jell-O" concerning his aspirations for Democratic committeeman. During the campaign, union money enabled Arena to flood the ward with mailings excoriating Garrido's Republican affiliation and insisting that the ward have a "Democratic alderman." At that time he said that he would not run for committeeman if he won election as alderman; after his victory he began vacillating, and now he's running because he doesn't "want to be looking over his shoulder." At least Arena's honest: No platitudes about "building the party." He wants the job so nobody else can get the job and then use that power base to take his job in 2015. That's a mouthful.

Garrido said he is "focused" on his job as a Chicago Police Department lieutenant and that he will not run for Republican committeeman or as a Republican for Lyons' House seat. Ward, who got 1,654 votes (10.4 percent of the total) on Feb. 22, endorsed Garrido over Arena. He is more conservative on fiscal issues than Arena, and he would use the post as a springboard for 2015. Ward lives Forest Glen, which is not in Lyons' district.

Faz-Huppert, a union lobbyist, has ambitions. Rumors abounded this summer that Faz-Huppert, who endorsed and contributed to Arena, was trying to cut a deal with both Levar and Arena whereby she would be the Democratic committeeman, use union money to hire workers, run for Lyons' seat if he retired, and endorse Arena in 2015. But promises in politics are soon forgotten. Arena cannot let Faz-Huppert or Ward become committeeman.

The "House of Lyons" originally was the "Doghouse of Cowhey," run by the concrete contractor who made his post-World War II fortune in road and housing construction. Bill Cowhey became the Democratic committeeman in 1963, when the 45th Ward was created by dividing the 41st Ward in half. Until then the 41st Ward took in all territory west of Cicero Avenue and north of Montrose Avenue.

In 1963 Cowhey, an ally of Mayor Richard J. Daley, backed John Hechinger for alderman, and he was humiliated when Hechinger lost to independent Ed Fifielski, who later joined Cowhey's organization. In 1964 Tom Lyons, who was a Chicago police officer from 1953 to 1957 before finishing law school, was elected at age 33 to the Illinois Senate; defeated in 1966, he reclaimed the seat in 1970. Cowhey died in 1968, and Lyons became the committeeman. In 1972 Lyons made an ill-advised bid for state attorney general, forfeiting his Senate seat. Thereafter he became a Democratic insider and a lawyer-lobbyist extraordinaire, and he used his vast contacts to procure a plenitude of city and county patronage jobs, beefing up his precinct army.

In 1979 Lyons forced out Fifielski, installing Dick Clewis as alderman, but then Lyons made several calculations which could have been career-ending miscalculations. In 1980 he backed Rich Daley in the state's attorney primary against Jane Byrne's guy, Ed Burke. Daley won the ward, and Byrne began chopping ward jobs. In 1983 a weakened Lyons backed Daley against Byrne, again carrying the ward, but Gerry McLaughlin beat Clewis. Had Byrne won, Lyons would have been toast. With Byrne gone, Lyons won a tough 1984 committeeman's race, Levar beat McLaughlin in 1987, and Lyons emerged from the wilderness when Daley became mayor in 1989 and made Lyons the county party chairman.

Tom Lyons has been dead for 5 years. Now, sadly, so is his life's work -- the "House of Lyons."