Last Hurrah for Big City Political Machine : Old Guard Democrats in Chicago Ousted by Mayor

It was a last hurrah for the last of the old-time big city political machines Thursday as Mayor Harold Washington seized control of Chicago’s City Council, pushing old guard Democrats out of power for the first time in half a century.

Washington, whose reelection last week made him the first two-term mayor since the death of machine boss Richard J. Daley, flexed his mayoral muscle and showed he is Chicago’s unchallenged political strongman.

The mayor watched as 40 of the City Council’s 50 members voted to reorganize the city’s legislative machinery, putting Washington backers at the head of every major committee and in the majority of every one of the 27 committees.

Firm Grip on Reins

The reorganization gives the Washington administration a firm grip on city government reins, allowing it to control how and where the city spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year and to decide who is confirmed to run other city agencies, varying from the park district to the transit authority.

Old guard leader Edward M. Burke, who led a political coup four years ago which stopped Washington and his backers from gaining council control, called Thursday’s power play pure politics.

“Every chief executive would like to have a submissive legislative body . . . populated by political capons,” said Burke, who saw more than a dozen of his former allies side with the mayor Thursday.

Burke, an 18-year veteran of the council, was dumped Thursday from his chairmanship of the powerful council finance committee--a job that commands more than 60 patronage positions, a chauffeured car and a number of other perks.

‘Ain’t Ready for Reform’

Burke, one of the council’s best orators, said that what former Councilman Paddy Bauler said decades ago is still true today: “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.”

Addressing Washington, who has campaigned as an anti-machine, reform-minded politically independent Democrat, Burke bitterly said of Thursday’s council reorganization: “Don’t say it’s reform. Don’t say it’s good government. Don’t say it’s progress. Tell the truth. It’s politics, pure and simple, straightforward.”

Washington was silent throughout the meeting except to announce the results of a succession of 40 to 9 roll-call votes. But a Washington backer, Councilman Burton Natarus, looked at Burke and said: “There’s an old saying. What goes around comes around.”

Councilman Timothy Evans, who has been Washington’s floor leader for the last four years and who was picked Thursday to succeed Burke as finance committee chairman, said Washington’s new majority on the council and his new strength would bring a new stability to Chicago.

‘New Era’ Expected

“You will see a new era in the city. You will see an opportunity for the legislative branch to work in partnership with the executive branch,” Evans told a television interviewer after the council meeting.

Thursday’s orderly and relatively rhetoric-free meeting was in marked contrast to the one four years ago where old-guard Machine Democrats seized the podium, adopted rules and took over City Council committees while Washington and his backers walked out, contending that the meeting was illegal.

The courts later upheld the reorganization adopted by the old guard, and for most of his first term Washington was powerless to implement legislation he favored or to get his choices approved for city boards and commissions. At one time more than 80 of his appointees were blocked by his political foes.