Black Voters Wary Despite Conciliatory Moves : Chicagoans Viewing Daley’s Debut Cautiously

The honeymoon rhetoric around town these days is all about “new dawns” and “fresh beginnings.”

But two weeks after Richard M. Daley was sworn in as mayor of the nation’s third-largest city, much of Chicago--especially black Chicago--is busily trying to figure out what those terms are likely to mean.

Daley, the son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley, took office April 24, becoming the first white to win election over a sitting black mayor in a major city. He first defeated acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer in a primary in February, then defeated Republican Edward R. Vrdolyak and black Alderman Timothy C. Evans in the general election last month.

The level of racial tension in the city was markedly lower during the campaign than it had been in other recent mayoral elections. Nevertheless, the vote was split overwhelmingly along racial lines. And Daley was branded a racist by black politicians, some of whom--in the heat of rhetorical passion--predicted dire consequences if he should win.

Since winning, he has taken great pains not to alienate blacks. He has pledged to have an “open and fair Administration” and he has moved quickly to disarm his critics.

Non-Whites in Cabinet

Several days before his inauguration, he announced his cabinet choices, a veritable rainbow coalition that even the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who lives here, could find little fault with. Eleven of the 21 positions, including seven of the nine largest city departments, were filled by non-whites.

And one of the first things Daley did after he took office was sign several executive orders, including one reaffirming a minority set-aside program for city contractors first set in place by Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, who died in office in 1987. Daley was elected to fill the remainder of Washington’s term.

“These initial orders set the tone of how I plan to lead the city, and I will not hesitate to supplement them,” Daley said.

Despite these first moves and his call during his inaugural speech for a new era of “teamwork and cooperation” between the city’s communities, Daley’s fledgling Administration is being viewed in some quarters with caution and even skepticism.

Already, there has been grumbling that Daley’s reorganization of City Council committees rewarded his cronies with chairmanships while shortchanging blacks, and that Daley failed in his promise to pare down the council’s unwieldy committee system.

Referring to the blue-collar neighborhood where Daley grew up and still lives, political scientist Paul Kleppner said: “It looks like we’re returning to sort of the Bridgeport mafia, the white Irish mafia. Not only that blacks were shut out of important committee chairmanships but even membership.”

‘Irish Insiders’

“My fear is that (Daley’s Administration) will become a lot like his father’s Administration--very exclusionary, very closed, primarily Irish insiders and everyone else is just a second-class citizen,” said William J. Grimshaw, a political scientist and chairman of the social sciences department at Illinois Institute of Technology.

Black Alderman Danny Davis said of the reorganization: “(It’s) the continuation of the traditional political process--to the victor goes the spoils.”

Still, Davis, who is talked about as a potential Daley challenger in 1991, praised some of Daley’s other actions. “He wants to patch relationships and he has indicated he expects to have an open-door policy,” he said of the mayor. With some reservations, Davis said he considers Daley’s cabinet appointments to be “solid” and spoke highly of Daley’s support for minority set-asides.

Daley has taken over the city at a difficult time. Although he has tagged the city’s beleaguered school system as his top priority, he had to begin work immediately trying to solve a budgetary shortfall of $122 million. Daley has promised to slash spending rather than raise property taxes, although he said he might consider other revenue-raising measures, such as increasing a tax on cigarettes.

And one of the first pieces of legislation he placed before the City Council was a proposal to raise water rates by 16%, which would raise the average household’s water bill by $20 annually. The proposal passed, but it was not the type of legislation a mayor who faces reelection in two years would likely choose to place on the agenda his first week in office. Daley said that he had no choice.

Already, the 1991 race shadows Daley. Chicago’s blacks, many of whom feel Daley has taken over an office that is rightfully theirs, clearly will attempt once again to fill it with one of their own.

Black Community Split

Black leaders concede, though, that the black community is so factionalized and demoralized that the task will be difficult, if not impossible.

“We’re so devastated that we’re almost immobilized,” said black community organizer Lu Palmer, still reeling from Daley’s election April 4.

“I don’t think there’s any possible way we could win in 1991 unless Daley makes a major mistake, but I don’t think he’s going to make one because he has some very solid people around him,” Palmer said. “If Daley wins again, he’s secure for the rest of the century.”

“He’s got to tread carefully in some ways,” Kleppner said of Daley. “The one thing he has to avoid is sparking the black community in such a way that their (voter) turnout will go up.”

Kleppner said, though, that no matter how successful Daley is at reaching out to blacks, he does not believe Chicago is ready to move beyond race as a factor in mayoral elections. Blacks will not embrace Daley in large numbers, no matter what he does, he said. “The best he can hope for is indifference,” he said.

One Daley move that appears to be generally thought of as a stroke of political genius was engineering the selection of Cecil Partee, a black, to replace Daley as Cook County state’s attorney.

“This is a harmless kind of thing,” Kleppner said. “Blacks can’t yell and scream. They’re getting a black in that office for the very first time. (But) it’s not someone who has a great deal of support in the black community. . . .

“The blacks Mayor Daley is going to now come out of the old machine, like Partee. They don’t really have roots in the black community anymore. . . . They’re not part of the younger cadre. They’re not people blacks would choose as their leaders at this point.”

Creating Dissension

Grimshaw, calling the selection of Partee “a diabolical and brilliant move,” said: “It’s all designed really, I think, to discombobulate the black base. I think (Daley) wants turmoil and dissension within the black community.”

Turmoil and dissension is what led to Daley’s easy victory this year. Daley faced only one black candidate, Sawyer, in the primary and only one, Evans, in the general election. But black voter loyalty was so split and animosity between the Sawyer and Evans camps was so great that neither man ever had a chance of uniting his voter base.

Now Chicago blacks are looking for new leadership. Evans has hinted that he might run again in 1991, but some black leaders are discouraging him.

“We might need to look outside the ranks of professional politics,” said Palmer.

Kleppner agreed, saying that none of Chicago’s black aldermen or congressmen appear to have real leadership at this point. “They have to identify some major leaders,” he said.

Times researcher Tracy Shryer contributed to this story.