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The real electoral surprise last week was not in
Chicago, where five tired old incumbent hack aldermen went down to defeat.
The big shocker was the Carbondale mayor’s race, where Sheila Simon
— daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon — was trounced by
Republican incumbent Brad Cole. Simon lost by a dozen points. Back in the
multicandidate February primary, Simon scored well over 50 percent, and
Cole finished in the mid-30s — but Cole staged a remarkable rebound
with the help of the Illinois Republican Party and top state legislators. House Republican Leader Tom Cross had made the race a
priority because he was worried that Simon might run for the House if and
or when state Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, moves to the Senate. The GOP
dumped a ton of money and staff into the race — a move that was
almost completely ignored by the local media, which instead concentrated on
Simon’s high-visibility support from people such as U.S. Sen. Dick
Durbin and Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Cole ran a very good, professional race, but
Simon’s effort was exposed as amateurish and underfunded.
Simon’s campaign generated support from Democrats from all over
Illinois who were excited about the possibility of watching her move up the
ladder, but Cole was endorsed by both the Southern
Illinoisan and Southern Illinois
University’s student paper.
Simon waited way too long to go negative, and when
she finally did she muffed the charge; immediately after criticizing Cole
for some questionable expenses as mayor, she was forced to admit that she
had approved those same expenses herself as an alderman. Cole was a deputy
chief of staff for George Ryan and had even defended Ryan during the
campaign on a Chicago radio show, but Simon failed to use that hefty
political bomb. In Chicago, the five hack aldermen — Madeline
Haithcock (2nd Ward), Dorothy Tillman (3rd), Shirley Coleman (16th),
Michael Chandler (24th) and Ted Matlak (32nd) — all lost their runoff
bids. The biggest surprise may have been Matlak, whose ward
was flooded with precinct workers from just about every white
political-machine organization in the city. The 32nd has been controlled by
the machine for almost 80 years, going back to former U.S. Rep. Dan
Rostenkowski’s father, but Matlak didn’t bother much with
constituent services and was no longer a good fit in a ward that had been
completely gentrified.
Tillman lost by about eight points, despite being
endorsed by just about every black political leader in the city of Chicago,
including U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. Haithcock was trounced by more than 30
points. Ald. Berny Stone (50th) held on to defeat the
hard-charging Naisy Dolar 53-47. Stone ran a pathetic campaign in
February’s first round, but he brought in some top-notch people
(including former House staffer and Statehouse lobbyist Mike Noonan) and
strongly defended his record, something he didn’t do before the
February vote. The biggest Chicago winner was probably the unions,
which backed several victorious candidates by financing their races and
providing precinct workers and direct mail. Although their candidates won,
specific union issues weren’t really part of the actual campaigns
— so the unions have some new friends but no clear mandate for
passing their agenda.
The biggest loser was the old-time black political
machine, which suffered devastating losses with the ouster of Haithcock,
Tillman, Chandler, and Coleman and the loss of Darcel Beavers during the
first round of voting, back in February.
Obama, who styles himself as the epitome of a young,
black “new politics” candidate, did not endorse a single one of
the bright, new, independent-minded aldermen who will be taking the helm of
black wards on the South and West sides. Count him as a big loser. Mayor Richard M. Daley is also generally counted as a
loser, mainly because of Matlak’s defeat. Daley had made that a race
a top priority, sending in gobs of troops and money. Daley did balance that
loss by helping the broken-down warhorse Stone hold on to power for another
term. Mostly, though, the mayor, buffeted by scandals and several ongoing
federal investigations of his administration, had no political coattails.
For the first time in his entire career, he may have even been a liability.
Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political
newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2007.
