Byrne Opts Out of Primary for Chicago Mayor

The deadline for entering the Feb. 28 mayoral primary came and went Monday with former Mayor Jane M. Byrne and ex-Democratic Party leader Edward R. Vrdolyak still on the sidelines, although it had been rumored that both might run as Republicans.

Vrdolyak, who led a bitter third-party campaign in 1987, and Byrne both issued statements saying they would not run in the primary, but Byrne left the door open to running as an independent in the April 4 general election.

The names of seven Democrats and 11 Republicans will be on the primary ballot for the special election to replace Mayor Harold Washington, who died of a heart attack in November, 1987.

On the Democratic side, Cook County State’s Atty. Richard M. Daley was considered the front-runner. His opponents are the acting mayor, Eugene Sawyer; Aldermen Timothy Evans, Larry Bloom and Juan Soliz; former state Rep. James Taylor, and Sheila Jones, backed by the Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. organization.

It had been rumored that Vrdolyak, the one-time chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party who became a Republican, lifelong Democrat Byrne, or both, would jump into the GOP primary race.

When the filing deadline passed at 5 p.m., however, neither had filed petitions. Both have until Jan. 23 to declare themselves independent candidates in the general election.

The Republican candidates are Frank Ranallo, 80, who has run for mayor four times; Jon Silverstein, 19, a sophomore at the University of Chicago; Alfred Balciunas, a United Parcel Service employee; John Holowinski, defeated by Rep. William Lipinski in the November general election; Herb Sohn, who failed to unseat Rep. Sidney R. Yates in November; William Grutzmacher, sponsor of this year’s creche at Daley Plaza; white supremacist Arthur Jones; Gene Kulichenko; Kenneth Hurst, who filed a lawsuit challenging the special election; Edward L. Bowe, and Dean Rosenberg.