Mayor Harold Washington had just a few hours Wednesday to bask in his Democratic primary victory before fresh challengers launched the general election campaign with a vengeance.
Cook County Assessor Thomas Hynes and Ald. Edward R. Vrdolyak (10th) hit their first campaign stops shortly after sunrise, insisting that former Mayor Jane Byrne`s loss to Washington Tuesday hasn`t dampened their chances of knocking off the incumbent.
With 98 percent of the 1.1 million ballots cast counted, Washington led by an unofficial margin of 573,962 to 504,275. The 69,687-vote lead translates to a 53.1 percent to 46.7 percent spread, much closer than most polls had predicted.
Washington, at a City Hall press conference, said he expected ”some substantial support” in the general election from Byrne backers, and criticized Hynes and Vrdolyak for ”abandoning” the Democratic Party to run as third-party candidates.
Hynes will appear as the Chicago First Party candidate. Vrdolyak won nomination against a write-in candidate as the Illinois Solidarity Party candidate.
Washington, joking about his poor totals in many predominantly white wards said, ”Everybody doesn`t love me. Sometimes it boggles the imagination to realize it, but it`s true.”
Turning more serious, Washington added, ”This wasn`t black versus white, that wasn`t it at all.” He also asked reporters not to dwell on the black-white split in primary balloting.
Earlier, on national television, Washington said that he won partly because voters didn`t accept the efforts of opponents to tar him as a divisive force.
”We didn`t prove to be the ogre that we were painted by some people. As a matter of fact, just the opposite,” Washington said. ”Race relationships should be the . . . topic of the future. Not racism, but race relationships.” The topic of the immediate future, however, will be the April 7 general election that features three challengers to Washington.
Republican Donald Haider easily won his party`s nomination with 70 percent of the vote. But the Republican primary, where fewer than 20,000 votes were cast, again proved to be a minor-league affair compared with the Democratic contest.
In other Democratic primary races, City Clerk Walter Kozubowski easily turned back a challenge from Gloria Chevere, who was endorsed by Washington, and William Walls III, a former aide to the mayor.
City Treasurer Cecil Partee handily defeated Thomas Corcoran, a Chicago Park District employee from the Northwest Side.
Six crucial runoffs April 7 will determine control of the Chicago City Council, although Washington predicted that he would have at least 26 supporters in the 50-member council.
Washington now has or is expected to have 22 aldermanic supporters, but the anti-administration bloc also has 22 in its column.
Three incumbents were ousted in the Tuesday election: Aldermen Marian Humes (8th), Gerald McLaughlin (45th) and Aloysius Majerczyk (12th).
While Washington made the rounds of television and radio stations early Wednesday, Vrdolyak and Hynes were hustling to reach disenchanted Byrne supporters as quickly as possible.
More Top Picks Best Kids Study Desks For Homeschool
Hynes began shaking hands at a Chicago Transit Authority stop at 95th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway shortly after 7 a.m and Vrdolyak spoke to a downtown businesswomen`s group about an hour later.
Both candidates are likely to get pressure from national Democrats to drop out of the race and will face the job of convincing voters that Washington, as the Democratic nominee, can be defeated.
Mayoral campaign officials announced that Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul Kirk will be in Chicago Saturday to attend a ”unity
breakfast,” signaling that the national party will fall squarely in Washington`s camp.
Hynes, a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, is likely to feel the more intense heat to drop out of the race.
Vrdolyak, the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, already has served notice that any pleas for him to leave the race will fall on deaf ears. Both candidates may have a tougher job convincing Byrne`s supporters that Washington still can be defeated.
Byrne remained out of public view Wednesday after making a late-election night concession speech to supporters that Washington termed ”gracious,”
although she did not refer to him by name nor give any promises of support in April.
However, her political coordinator, State Rep. Alfred Ronan (D., Chicago), said Wednesday of Washington: ”No way anyone will beat him now. The only way was in the Democratic primary.”
The Democratic nominee has won every mayoral election since 1931, when Anton Cermak rode into City Hall on the votes of what became the most powerful big city political organization in the country.
”The bottom line is, Washington has obviously done something to get the majority of the people for him. Maybe I need to open my eyes and see what he`s done,” Ronan said.
Ronan also called on the mayor to reach out to white voters and their political leaders. ”The big mistake he made four years ago was, he didn`t try to work with people,” Ronan said. ”Now he`s got a new opportunity. He should try to heal the wounds and head the city in the right direction. If he does that, a lot of people would support him.”
Despite Washington`s contention that the black-white split is overemphasized, voting clearly followed racial lines, with Washington scoring massive majorities in black wards and Byrne piling up overwhelming margins in white wards on the Southwest and Northwest Sides.
There had been suspicions during the campaign that some of the Democratic organization`s powerhouse ward committeemen might not deliver on their pledges of support for Byrne and hold back for Hynes in April.
But they did deliver, and big–in the 11th Ward stronghold of the Daleys, Hynes` 19th Ward, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan`s 13th and Ald. Edward Burke`s 14th.