May 1, 2013
NO MAYORAL OPPOSITION IN 45% OF SUBURBAN RACES

ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART

In 54 of Cook County's 120 suburban municipalities, 2013 is the "Year of the Non-Obama." Change we need? Have a choice? Pick among the best? Forget about it.

When voters went to the polls on April 9, an astonishing 45 percent of the cities and villages had only one candidate on the ballot for mayor or village president. By contrast, in Chicago's 2011 municipal election, the alderman was unopposed in only seven of the 50 wards -- 14 percent.

The result begs the question: Is the lack of opposition due to voters' acceptance of change we don't need? In other words, are they doing such a swell job that there's nary a gripe or grievance? Or is it due to change we can't have? Are the incumbents so well entrenched and so well financed that any challenge would be fruitless? In other words, why bother to vote if the insiders are going to crush the outsiders anyway.

In a previous column, I analyzed four types of elections: mortification, vindication, temptation and benediction. An unopposed contest is the latter. The best way to get re-elected is to have no opposition, and that can be effectuated either by knocking an opponent off the ballot or by creating an intimidating aura of inevitability, for instance by raising staggering sums of campaign cash.

Here's a look at some "benediction" elections:

Rosemont: It is often remarked that the two enduring certainties of life are death and taxes. In this vibrant northwest suburban village of 4,202, the reality is twofold: "Not until death do we depart" and "No money for taxes do we part." Once someone moves in, presuming one can find an available home or apartment, one gets, to use the undertakers' vernacular, "planted."  Living in Rosemont is sort of like a preburial, as in "preboarding" an airplane or a "preowned" auto. Once you move in, you're in for life and you never aspire to move out -- unless in a casket.

According to an area real estate agent, who noted that there were only about home 50 sales in 2012, and that 15 were new construction, there are "ten times more people wanting to move in than there are available residences." There were 2,691 registered voters in Rosemont in 2009 and 2,964 in 2013, indicating population stagnation.

What's not stagnant is Rosemont's economy. Conventions abound, entertainment venues proliferate, tax revenues from eateries, bars and hotels gush from a never-ending spigot, and shrewd and opportunistic business owners can get generous tax breaks if they relocate. Rosemont is not just business friendly, it's business obsessed, and the deluge of revenue from commercial sources means that residential property taxes are negligible, thereby pushing home values high but stifling any motivation to sell.

As a result, there's not the slightest murmur of discontent with the status quo. On April 9 Mayor Brad Stephens was re-elected, unopposed, with a resounding 716 votes, after raising a total of $868,834 from Jan.1, 2012, through March 31, 2013. The funds were raised through three entities controlled by Stephens: the Rosemont Voters' League, which raised $270,534, with cash on hand of $102,176 as of March 31, the Bradley Stephens Committeeman Fund, run by Stephens as the Leyden Township Republican committeeman, which raised $30,000 and had cash on hand of $197,000, and the Stephens Political Action Committee, which raised $548,600 and had cash on hand of $161,435, having spent close to $400,000 to elect other Republicans in nearby suburbs.

In 2009 Stephens actually had opposition, but he triumphed 759-82, getting 90.2 percent of the vote. That was his first electoral test after succeeding his father, the iconic Don Stephens, who created and developed Rosemont into the commercial Mecca it is today and who ran it from 1955 until his death in 2007, creating the proverbial "family business." In addition to Brad Stephens, other offspring have positions of power in the police department, the exposition authority and Triton College and run the company that provides all village cleaning services. Does the election outcome mean Stephens is as beloved as his old man?

No way. As of the 2010 census, there are 2,964 registered voters in four precincts in the village. Stephens may have gotten all of the vote, in a turnout of 24.6 percent, but he got only 17.4 percent of the village's registered vote. That's not intimidating, but having the capacity to raise up to $500,000 annually from business sources is very intimidating.

Residents live opulently, have exemplary services, pay minimal property taxes, and can sell their homes instantaneously. The clear message of April 9: We don't need any change.

Skokie: Despite being a proverbial melting pot of ethnic and racial diversity, the white, mostly Jewish, Democrat-run Skokie Caucus Party is still dominant after 50 years. On April 9 Mayor George Van Dusen was unopposed for re-election to a fourth full term, as he was in 2009 and 2005; he got 4,407 votes, which was a meager 11.4 percent of Skokie's 38,482 registered voter base. That's an uptick from 2005, when Van Dusen got 1,749 votes in a turnout of 5.7 percent. The difference? In 2005 the Caucus slate ran unopposed for every office, including the six villagewide trustees, while in 2013 three independents ran for trustee, all losing but spiking turnout.

According to the 2010 census, Skokie's population is 64,784, of whom 60.3 percent are white, 25.5 percent are Asian, 7.3 percent are black and 8.8 percent are Hispanic. As for "diversity," you won't find it among Skokie's office holders. Seven of the current eight officials are white, with one Asian.

The reason: State Representative Lou Lang (D-16) and his Niles Township Democratic organization. Lang has served in Springfield since 1986, and he aspires to the Illinois House speakership when Mike Madigan moves on. According to recent disclosures, as of March 31 Citizens for Lang had cash on hand of $1,035,119 and had reported loans of $415,000 to the township Democrats, of which Lang is the committeeman. "He owns Skokie," one area Republican said of Lang. "Nobody's going to run against him or any of his allies."

Van Dusen, who was a trustee for 15 years before being appointed mayor in 1999, is Skokie's "mayor for life."

Evanston: It is sometimes remarked that "cleanliness is next to godliness." Not in ferociously secular Evanston, once known as "The City of Churches," where deities are now politically incorrect. Its motto would be "cleanliness is next to civic mindedness" -- at least in presidential elections, where liberalism is de rigueur.

Evanston, with a population of 74,486 and 45,860 registered voters, gave the Obama-Biden ticket a thumping 29,188-4,580 margin (84.8 percent of the vote) over Romney-Ryan in 2012. Obama got 87.1 percent of the vote in 2008. Evanston's most powerful politician is U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-9), who won the city 28,311-5,072 last November, but Schakowsky and her allies do not visibly meddle in city politics, where a small clique of white do-gooders dominate.

When Lorraine Morton, Evanston's first Democratic mayor, retired in 2009, the transition was seamless. Alderman Liz Tisdahl, a quiet Schakowsky ally, easily won the job. In a heated race with four candidates, Tisdahl won with 62.0 percent of the vote, getting 6,430 votes in a turnout of 10,375. The only major controversy of her term was whether the plan to build a $20.6 million elementary school in the Church Street area was "racist," since it would mean not having black children bused into nearby white-majority schools.

On April 9 Tisdahl was re-elected unopposed, getting 6,804 votes in a turnout of 15 percent; she received a whopping mandate from 14.8 percent of Evanston's registered voters.

Melrose Park: Without question, 2013's "Ostrich Award" vests in this west suburb with a population of 25,411, the majority of whom are Hispanic. No matter. Mayor Ron Serpico's political machine is every bit as effective as Larry Dominick's in Cicero.

There are 11,162 registered voters, spread in 12 precincts in Leyden and Proviso townships. Although Serpico was opposed, it was wholly illusory. As in Cicero, white voters instinctively know that Melrose Park's mayor is more important to them than America's president. In a phenomenal turnout of 44.6 percent on April 9, Serpico, a Democrat, crushed Jesus Martinez 3,548-1,386, getting 71.9 percent of the vote. Expect Serpico, newly rehabilitated after a decade of scandals, to begin angling for a higher office, perhaps county commissioner in 2014.

River Grove: In this west suburban village of 10,227, incumbent Republican Marilynn May has long been a cog in the Stephens' Leyden machine, and she double-dipped until this year as the township clerk. She was unopposed on April 9, but the result is surely a wake-up call.

May also was unopposed in 2009, getting 1,272 votes from the 4,816 registered voters, or 26.4 percent of the voter pool. This year, with 4,721 registered voters, turnout was 11.2 percent and May got just 483 votes -- a 789-vote decline from 2009. She won re-election with just 10.2 percent of the voter pool.

May (and Stephens) should be very worried about 2017.

Palatine: One success story. Former Chicago Bear Jim Schwantz ousted polarizing Republican Mayor Rita Mullins in 2009, getting 4,668 votes (42.1 percent of the total cast). Schwantz has avoided partisan politics and focused on his job, and he was re-elected unopposed, getting 3,685 votes. Schwantz definitely has a political future.