Incumbent May Get Lift if Elevators Work : Chicago Picks Mayor Candidates Today

As voters head to the polls today to decide a racially heated Democratic mayoral primary, the fates of black incumbent Harold Washington and white challenger Jane M. Byrne could rise or fall with the balky elevators in rundown public housing projects.

Lifts constantly break in the high-rise structures, and the 144,000 people who live in the projects, most of whom are black, are miffed at Washington about it. Few of them would vote for Byrne, but Washington strategists fear many may not vote at all if it means walking up and down 10 or 15 flights of stairs.

The solution: Elevator repair crews have been assigned to work double shifts on Election Day, at an estimated cost of more than $50,000 to the financially strapped Chicago Housing Authority, to ease the trip to the polls for project residents.

Race Close, Unsubtle

Every vote counts in the Byrne-Washington battle, which is not only close but, in the best traditions of Windy City politics, about as subtle as a ward boss’s diamond pinkie ring.

Each candidate has accused the other of trying to exploit the racial wedge long dividing the city. Washington is sure of virtually all of the black vote, and Byrne appears to have the lion’s share of the white vote. And that represents the high road in a race in which the victor will emerge as the favorite to win the April 7 general election and also take final control of a Democratic organization badly frayed by racial distrust and political jealousies.

Byrne’s camp has ridiculed the paunchy Washington as “fat” and has distributed doctored pictures of luxury Lake Michigan high rises under several feet of water to dramatize charges that the mayor has ignored severe lake shore erosion problems. Washington has responded by likening Byrne’s tactics to those of Nazi Adolf Hitler and his propagandist, Joseph Goebbels.

Politics in Turmoil

Washington beat Byrne, his predecessor as mayor, in the Democratic primary four years ago, and the political climate of the city, long dominated by omnipotent Democratic bosses, has been in turmoil ever since.

White leaders first rallied around an obscure Republican candidate in a last-ditch drive in the 1983 general election to keep Washington out of City Hall. After that ploy failed, they orchestrated moves in the 50-member City Council to obstruct his programs and appointments. Only in the last year has Washington been able to prevail, with the slimmest of majorities.

Today’s vote will probably only kick the confusion into a new phase. Three other prominent white politicians could face Byrne or Washington on the April 7 ballot. They include Donald Haider, a former Byrne aide who will probably win the Republican mayoral primary over three challengers. Cook County Assessor Thomas C. Hynes and Alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak, the ringleader of the City Council’s anti-Washington forces, are running under third-party banners.

‘Fast Eddie’ Plans Blitz

Should Washington win the primary, three white challengers would inevitably split the white general election vote and probably guarantee the mayor’s reelection. To avoid that, the whites are expected to put pressure on one another to drop out of the race and leave only one contender. True to his nickname, “Fast Eddie,” Vrdolyak will be first out of the chute, with a $400,000 media blitz, to begin Wednesday.

One last-minute television poll showed Washington leading Byrne by a 2-1 ratio, but both camps discounted the accuracy of the survey. Still, other media polls have shown that support among blacks remains monolithic, while Byrne’s following among whites is strong but not as overwhelming. Polls indicate also that Washington is doing better among Latino voters than expected.

The outcome may hinge on turnout, one reason why the Washington camp has imported out-of-state civil rights workers and prominent black congressmen to whip up enthusiasm in the black community. Busloads of black students are being ferried from downstate Illinois universities back to their Chicago homes to vote.

Absentee Ballots Impounded

The final day of campaigning saw as much activity in the courtroom as on the streets. A state judge late Monday ordered the impoundment of many of the record number of absentee ballots that flooded into the city elections board, mostly from white-dominated wards. The action was in response to a suit filed by Washington backers charging that the Byrne camp had hauled the ballots in by the truckload in violation of laws requiring their delivery by mail or by the voter in person.

Washington spent a busy last day pumping hands throughout the city, but Byrne’s campaign seemed to wind down early. Her final television commercials dropped earlier attacks against Washington and adopted an upbeat theme: “I want to make Chicago smile again,” the former mayor said in the ads. But, in an apparently unintentional self-parody, the video showed her with an unmistakable scowl on her face. She had only one stop on her election eve schedule--private prayers at her Roman Catholic parish.