Chicago’s Daley Wins Primary; Runoff in Council Races Likely

On a frozen primary day marred by historically low turnout and claims of rampant polling place intimidation, Mayor Richard M. Daley won an easy victory toward a third term while several candidates linked to street gangs neared winning enough votes to assure runoff elections.

Daley, whose powerful campaign organization was buttressed by endorsements from Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun and 100 black ministers, took more than 68% of the vote against Joseph Gardner, a water commissioner who barely mustered 31%. Daley could face a stiffer challenge in the general election from independent candidate Roland Burris, a former state attorney general, who, like Gardner, is African American.

Although final tallies were not in, at least two City Council candidates with ties to gang leaders appeared close to depriving incumbents of the 50% vote mark they needed to win their races outright.

In the city’s poorest ward, the third, incumbent Alderman Dorothy Tillman was having trouble holding off a strong run by Wallace (Gator) Bradley, a self-avowed former Gangster Disciples leader whose campaign organization is staffed with former and current street gang members. Bradley, who managed only 350 votes last election and was among four challengers this time, amassed a respectable 30% to Tillman’s 48%.

In the 16th Ward, Hal Baskin, another challenger with gang support, was also nearing a runoff election against incumbent Shirley Coleman, election officials said Tuesday night.

Those races were among several contested City Council campaigns marred by complaints of gang harassment, prompting officials to dispatch 400 county prosecutors and scores of election monitors to polling places.

“We’ve had people who were working all day long who have seen guns and have been intimidated,” Coleman said.

Prosecutors scrutinized claims that gang members were “hanging out near some of the polling places and intimidating people as they went to vote,” said Mary Bucaro, who is head of the Cook County state’s attorneys’ election fraud unit.

In contrast to the mayoral election, the council races are nonpartisan.