Mayor Harold Washington Saturday demanded that former Mayor Jane Byrne halt her commercials accusing him of racial divisiveness, Byrne categorically refused and Rev. Jesse Jackson called the entire matter ”silly.”
With slightly more than two weeks to go before the Feb. 24 mayoral primary election, the two major candidates in the heated Democratic race took time between traditional campaign activities to continue to swap barbs about who was bringing racial division into a campaign that until last week was notably absent of vitriol.
And on Saturday morning, at a meeting of Operation PUSH, where the controversy erupted last Saturday when an Illinois Appellate Court judge told the crowd that any man living south of Madison Street should be hanged if he did not vote for Washington, Jackson defended the remarks as being strictly
”harmless slang” and a ”cultural idiom.”
He also said that he intends to start his own watchdog group over the election because he believes the existing group is ”inadequate” and ”has usurped the authority to be the referee and judges of the election.”
Energized last Thursday by public criticism of reports that Judge R. Eugene Pincham had made the remarks at a PUSH meeting the weekend before, and buoyed by the judgment of a self-appointed citizens` watchdog group formed to oversee the election that the remarks were ”extreme and inflammatory,” Byrne ordered the hasty development of new television commercials accusing Washington of fomenting division in the city. Those commercials also will be scrutinized by the watchdog group.
The ads picture the Chicago skyline being torn apart by a lightning bolt and replaced with a scowling photograph of Washington, as an off-camera narrator characterizes ”insults” the mayor allegedly has hurled at Byrne in recent weeks.
The commercials, which end with the new tag line, ”Jane Byrne . . . a mayor for all of the people,” are scheduled to begin airing on Chicago television stations Monday, but were previewed Friday at a news conference.
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On the defensive Friday night, Washington issued a tempered apology for Pincham`s remarks, saying, ”I am sorry because it gives the real polarizers of the city an excuse to do their worst, and today we`ve seen a perfect example of that,” referring to Byrne`s new commercials.
He continued that theme Saturday while campaigning in the north lakefront neighborhoods, considered to be a crucial swing area in the primary.
”I have done nothing and will do nothing and will tolerate nothing to make this campaign divisive,” he said. ”I regret what Judge Pincham said, and I regret it mainly because it gave an opportunity for the real polarizers to do their dirty work, and they`ve done it.”
Washington also scoffed at Byrne`s charges that a scheduled appearance at a tavern in a predominantly black neighborhood Thursday night was canceled because Washington supporters ordered the owner to call it off.
Speaking at a rally at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, 4419 N. Kedzie Ave., the mayor characterized Byrne`s new commercials as ”television ads that spew hate.”
Byrne, who spent most of Saturday walking through shopping malls on the Northwest and Southwest Sides, stopped to chat with reporters outside the El Morro Grocery Store, 3101 W. Lawrence Ave., less than a mile from the mayor`s appearance.
Byrne rejected the mayor`s ”apology,” saying she was still smarting from earlier remarks in which she complained he compared her to Adolf Hitler and Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R., Wis.).
”I`m not going to take those commercials off until he apologizes,” she said.
She said the Pincham remarks carried a threat to all voters in the city, especially blacks, and cited an anecdote when she was on an elevator: ”A black woman looked over her shoulder and then said, `I`m going to vote for you.` ”
At a South Side shopping mall, Byrne told reporters that she recently had been told by another black woman, ”I`m afraid for you to come to my home because my doorman would report me.”
”I`m not going to watch Chicago become a divided turn,” Byrne said.
”This is a free city, and it will remain a free city.”
At Saturday`s Operation PUSH meeting, held in honor of Pincham in Black History Month ceremonies, Jackson turned his attack on the Committee on Decent Unbiased Campaign Tactics, or CONDUCT, the watchdog group that issued the condemnation of Pincham`s remarks.
He said that the Pincham remarks had been misinterpreted by the media and that no person felt literally threatened by hanging if they failed to support Washington.
”The news media should take a poll as to how many people–black and white–south of Madison (Street) think they will be hung by Judge Pincham,”
Jackson said.
Pincham, addressing the group Saturday, simply thanked the crowd for the support he said he had received since he made the comments last weekend.
”I have always been an advocate for the downtrodden,” he said. ”And I can assure you that nothing has happened that will ever deter me from my role God has given me.”
John McDermott, chairman of CONDUCT, said later that his organization`s judgments ”have been balanced and fair. . . . We have been criticized by Ed Vrdolyak for being a front for Harold Washington and now we`re being criticized by Jesse Jackson for being insensitive, so maybe we`re coming out right.”
McDermott said CONDUCT has received a complaint about Byrne`s new commercial and is investigating it. He added that he had no objections to a second watchdog group being formed.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Washington appeared before a labor rally on the West Side and drew a sharp distinction between Byrne`s troubles with labor during her term and his success with organized labor.
”You can`t have it both ways,” Washington said. ”You`ve got to stand for something. The day you forget that you reward your friends and punish your enemies, you`re not going to have any power to do a damm thing.”
Meanwhile, County Assessor Thomas Hynes, whose first ballot appearance will be on the Chicago First label in the April 7 general election, dropped in at rallies and events throughout the city, stressing that he was the
”alternative” candidate to the feuding factions in the Democratic primary.
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Donald Haider, who is on the Feb. 24 primary ballot facing only token opposition on the Republican ticket, spent Saturday as he spent most of last week, giving up attempts to capture headlines and concentrating on fundraising and staff reorganization preparing to meet the Democratic primary victor in the general election.
The other Democratic contender, Sheila Jones, a disciple of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche, continued her peculiar campaign Saturday at a news conference to announce the endorsement by her mother, Florence Jagers, and reiterate her call for mandatory health screenings to detect the deadly AIDS virus.