Election Gives Him ‘Ability Now to Wheel and Deal’ : Washington Set to Build Own Chicago Machine

A new era of political stability began in the Windy City Wednesday as Mayor Harold Washington prepared for a second term as Chicago’s strongest chief executive in a decade.

Washington finished Tuesday’s three-way race for mayor with 53% of the vote contrasted with 41.7% for his nearest challenger. And he ended the day with an apparent majority on the 50-member City Council.

Together, these results leave the 64-year-old son of a Democratic machine precinct captain in a position to fashion a political organization in his own image--just as Chicago’s legendary political boss, Richard J. Daley, did in the 1950s.

‘Victor Takes All’

“There’s nothing wrong if the victor takes it all,” Washington said. “That’s what it’s all about.’

“He will have the ability now to wheel and deal that he did not have in the previous four years,” said Paul M. Green, political scientist and historian.

“As one machine dies, another is born,” wrote Basil Talbott Jr., chief political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.

But Washington will be hard pressed to build a machine as monolithic as the one with which Daley ruled this city like a Third World dictator for more than two decades.

Washington, for example, will have to contend with court rulings that have eliminated much of the patronage in Chicago government--patronage Daley used to build an army of city workers beholden to his Democratic organization for their livelihood. And Washington will have to contend with a new city ethics code--one he championed--that affects campaign contributions and dealings with lobbyists.

Evaluates the Opportunities

“A shrewd politician who happens to be mayor of the city of Chicago can always find ways of sidestepping even the most burdensome restraints upon his office,” said Green, co-author of a new history of Chicago’s mayors and co-author of a book on Washington’s first election.

“The new patronage is . . . ‘pinstripe patronage,’ ” said Louis H. Masotti, a Northwestern University professor of public management. “You give very lucrative contracts to people who support you financially. . . . Why does the mayor go to New York to raise money? There are a lot of firms who want either access to City Hall or want to be rewarded with contracts.”

Washington’s victory, coupled with the City Council majority, also puts him firmly in control of a broad range of city agencies that run everything from parks and parking lots to subways and airports.

Insists He’s Not a Boss

At a post-election press conference Wednesday, an uncharacteristically subdued Washington insisted he was not a new boss.

“All the ingredients for a boss just aren’t there any more,” the mayor said. “Now if you’re talking about a leader, a first among equals? Yeah! Yeah!”

Before Tuesday’s vote, the mayor indicated he wanted someone new to take over the Democratic political organization, forcing his arch foe and campaign opponent, Edward R. Vrdolyak from his position as Democratic party chairman. Vrdolyak, who ran as a third party candidate, polled 41.7% of the vote Tuesday. However, Washington has said repeatedly that he does not want to be both mayor and party chairman--positions that Daley held simultaneously throughout his years as mayor.

The size of Washington’s majority on the 50-member City Council remained in question late Wednesday.

May Lose Two Backers

He was assured of at least 25 supporters, even though two of his staunchest backers--both of them under federal indictments in a corruption investigation--lost. Clifford P. Kelley was broadly beaten. Wallace Davis, who ran his campaign from a federal prison cell where he is awaiting trial on charges that he pistol-whipped a secretary, appears to have lost narrowly, but an expected recount may change the outcome of that race.

Four other council members are considered “nonaligned.” Twenty other council members are supporters of the “old guard” Democrats.

Meanwhile, several council members who supported Vrdolyak for the last four years have softened their public opposition to Washington, while reportedly seeking some sort of accommodation with him in private.

An old problem will continue to challenge Washington in his second term. Chicago remains a racially polarized city. A map of wards that Washington carried is largely a map of black and Latino communities. Predominantly white areas, including those along the Lake Michigan shoreline on the city’s North Side, voted, with few exceptions, for Vrdolyak.

Race Question Rankles

Washington, Chicago’s first black chief executive, became testy Wednesday when asked about his failure to dramatically improve his vote totals among whites. “I would like everybody to call a halt to that kind of question,” he snapped.

“You could run one person against him or five people against him and he’s going to get between 53% and 54% of the vote,” said political scientist Green. “In the black community, he is far more powerful than Daley ever was in the white ethnic community. . . . It’s just incredible the amount of support that Washington gets. When Daley used to get 92% or 93% of the vote in his home ward, people think Washington is slipping if he gets less than 99% of the votes in black wards.

“I think he is far more powerful than any politician has been anywhere in the city’s history,” continued Green. “If his health stays, he’ll be mayor for the rest of his life. I don’t see him being beaten. He’s shooting to match Daley’s (six) terms. He’ll also be like Daley in that he will never appoint a second in command.

“There’s an old saying in Chicago politics,” Green said: “ ‘Don’t make anyone who can unmake you.’ ”