Will 3rd Ward politics affect Obama's presidential race?
Obama is set to endorse the always controversial 3rd Ward Ald. Dorothy Tillman in her runoff against hard-charging independent Pat Dowell. Obama isn't alone. Almost every black political, religious and civil rights leader in the city is lending support to Tillman, who scored just 43 percent in the first round of voting, finishing a mere 400 votes ahead of Dowell.
About the only major political figure not backing Tillman right now is U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who just helped elect his wife, Sandi, to the City Council. Jackson said this week he plans to put at least 150 foot soldiers into the 3rd Ward come Election Day, but he tried to downplay the fact that this is the first time he and Obama have ever opposed each other in a local race.
To say Dowell's supporters are confident of victory would be an understatement. They have polling showing her leading Tillman by over 20 points -- and a whole lot more after voters are fed additional information.
Her blatant nepotism at the taxpayer-bankrolled Harold Washington Cultural Center (one daughter is the executive director, another is the "education coordinator" and a son is a former board member of a not-for-profit Tillman founded to oversee the facility) and Tillman's vote to give herself a pay raise are just two of the many poll questions that drive the alderman's support into the ground.
Tillman has redeveloped her once-destitute ward, an almost Herculean, decade-long task. She has always insisted on using African-American contractors, architects, etc., believing the revitalization of a black neighborhood ought to benefit black business people. Bronzeville's storied 43rd Street is springing back to life with a new entertainment district. Lots of new, more upscale people have moved in, but the pace of change has not kept up with high expectations. Also, Tillman's once-solid base among the ward's poorest residents has evaporated as those loyal voters were forced out by urban renewal.
Tillman's friends promise a hard-fought campaign, but even they realize that times have changed. Machine stalwart Bill Beavers found that out the hard way this month when he tried to install his daughter Darcel in his former City Council seat. Beavers thought his aging street organization and the old-style tactics that had served him so well over the years would carry the day. But Sandi Jackson used modern campaign techniques, battle-hardened foot soldiers and tons of well-produced direct mail to bury Ms. Beavers by more than 23 points.
A lot of the old-timers on the City Council still seem to believe fervently in the long-dead myth of their organizations' invulnerability. That hubris contributed to several first round setbacks, including downtown Ald. Burt Natarus' outright loss and 32nd Ward Ald. Ted Matlak's forced runoff. Tillman's more realistic friends are trying hard to convince the alderman's longtime advisers that she has to change course right now if she hopes to survive.
Bill Beavers is helping Tillman, and that's one reason Jackson has jumped into the race. Two of Jackson's oldest political nemeses, Bill and Bob Shaw, are also backing Tillman, providing even more incentive.
On the other side of the coin, Mayor Daley's organization is lending Tillman a hand, at least partly because Daley wants to make sure Jackson's influence doesn't spread any further than it already has.
Jackson says he understands why Sen. Obama would back Tillman. The alderman was one of Obama's earliest supporters in his U.S. Senate bid. But others are wondering how Obama's decision to back such a die-hard proponent of slavery reparations will play in Iowa and New Hampshire. They may have a point.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.