Can the votes of a handful of Chicago and Cook County residents change Illinois?
We are about to find out.
Winning 22 percent of the vote is not usually considered an overwhelming
mandate, but winners write the history books. And Democrat Mike Quigley’s congressional primary victory last week is already being touted as an occasion
worthy of at least a chapter.
Cook County Commissioner Quigley defeated 11 candidates, including two state
legislators, to win the 5th Congressional District special primary election
last Tuesday with 12,100 votes. His smart, well-managed campaign was vastly
outspent by his top two opponents.
Quigley successfully tapped into rising voter anger in the wake of Rod
Blagojevich’s arrest, Roland Burris’ U.S. Senate appointment and, most importantly, Cook County Board President Todd
Stroger’s tax hikes and innumerable missteps.
This is not rocket science. Freshman Rep. Mark Walker (D-Arlington Heights)
spent several months last year carrying a petition from door to door against
Stroger’s tax hikes. Stroger and Blagojevich were the objects of attack by both parties
last year, quite often with success. And with the economy in freefall, voters
are even more sensitive to tax increases than before.
For whatever reason, no other top-tier Democratic candidate used these potent
issues until it was too late. Quigley went into the race leading in all the
polls partly because he was widely seen as a Stroger nemesis and a budget hawk.
He sent out early, unanswered and well-done direct mail which burnished his
reputation further. His twin newspaper endorsements, based mainly on his
independence and anti-Stroger and anti-tax ways, made it impossible for one of
his opponents to tie him to Stroger with a last-minute TV ad.
Last Tuesday was the first time Democratic voters have had an opportunity to
express their outrage at the dismal state of their party’s affairs. The humiliation many Democrats have suffered after the ecstasy of
Barack Obama’s win apparently proved too much to bear.
The two candidates most closely affiliated with the regular organization
received a combined 29 percent of the vote. Quigley even won some wards that “reformers” normally don’t, and finished a close second in several more.
In other words, the vast majority of Democrats told their precinct captains “no.” That doesn’t happen too often, to say the least. Several people who walked precincts last
Tuesday reported witnessing a tangible anger at the doors. Quigley was the only
candidate who really expressed any outrage at the current situation, and it
worked.
So, is Quigley’s win the start of something new or just a fluke? Well, the district does
include some of the more liberal areas of Chicago. And, of course, this was a
special election, not the “real” thing. But the serious mistakes by those in charge are coinciding with an
obvious decline in the regular organization’s strength.
Even if this is not a shift, politicians are sure to take notice, particularly
state legislators who are likely to face a tax-hike vote within weeks. Quigley
brutally attacked two of his state legislator opponents for supporting a small
local sales tax hike to bail out public transit agencies.
Gov. Pat Quinn is probably closer to Quigley in populist temperament and
ideology than anyone, but he, too, is faced with the uncomfortable task of
raising revenues in what appears to be an increasingly hostile environment.
Some voters might have ignored Stroger’s perceived incompetence if it wasn’t for the fact that his incompentence was subsidized by tax hikes.
Maybe voters will calm down by next year. Or not. President Stroger appears set
to run for reelection, so he’ll be a constant reminder of the Democratic Party’s mistakes. Blagojevich’s new “tell all” book is expected to arrive on newsstands by then, accompanied by yet another
national media tour. And then there are the potential state tax increases which
won’t help matters much.
That angry fire could spread and burn a while longer.
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.
