Jesse Jackson flew into Chicago on Friday to pay his respects to Harold Washington and assumed a pivotal role in the mayoral succession derby before even stepping out of the O`Hare International Airport terminal.
In a scene reminiscent of politicians jockeying for position near a mayor at a St. Patrick`s Day parade, Ald. Timothy Evans (4th) and Ald. Eugene Sawyer (6th), contenders for the post of acting mayor, stood shoulder to shoulder with Jackson while numerous other politicians pressed in behind him and television cameras recorded his arrival.
Evans and Sawyer waited anxiously for Jackson`s commercial flight from Frankfurt, West Germany, to arrive, aware that their respective bids to be selected acting mayor could hinge on how they are viewed by the nation`s most visible black figure.
Ald. Danny Davis (29th), who declared his candidacy Friday for City Council selection as acting mayor, stayed at City Hall rather than join the milieu. ”I don`t need to go to the airport. I`ve been meeting with Rev. Jackson for 20 years,” he said.
Jackson held five separate, private meetings involving Evans, Sawyer, Hispanic leaders and other supporters in a conference room at the airport`s International Terminal.
Later, about 16 aldermen met late into Friday night with Jackson in a campaign office at 30 W. Washington St.
Although Jackson has spoken favorably of Evans and is expected by many to join Washington administration figures in pushing for Evans` selection by the council, he made no endorsement during an airport news conference.
”Whatever decision we make will be a collective one,” Jackson said.
”We want to keep the team together. Hopefully, by tomorrow morning, there will be a more fitting decision as to what the recommendation of the alderpeople will be.”
But Evans` closeness to the mayor, his support from many of those identified with the reform movement and his popularity at Operation PUSH, Jackson`s widely known community organization, appears to give him an edge for Jackson`s support.
The council by law can elect an acting mayor who would serve until a special mayoral election, which is likely to be held in 1989. Interim Mayor David Orr will retain that post until an acting mayor is chosen. That decision could be made as early as Tuesday. The victor will need the votes of at least 26 of the 50 aldermen.
Jackson said he is not interested in running for mayor.
And Orr vowed to block any attempt to hand the post of acting mayor to someone from outside the council. Some have suggested that an alderman could resign so a high-profile politician could be appointed to that seat, then be selected acting mayor.
”I will not go in for that chicanery,” said Orr, who would have to submit a name to the council for such a scheme to work. ”I would not appoint anyone from whatever side for that purpose.”
Orr was one of dozens of political leaders who conferred with Jackson in the meeting that started at the airport and went well into the night.
At the airport, nearly 20 politicians-congressmen, state legislators and council members-crowded around the exit from the customs area of the terminal as they waited for Jackson`s arrival. Airport security guards and Secret Service agents newly assigned to protect the Democratic presidential candidate had trouble keeping the group from flooding the arrival area.
The jockeying for position continued in the motorcade. State Rep. Carol Moseley Braun (D., Chicago) forced her car into the tail end after police tried to block her way, then relented.
Despite the homage to Jackson, several black leaders who support challengers to Evans said Jackson should not try to anoint a candidate for mayor.
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”He should pray for us and he should give us advice and counsel, but he shouldn`t tell us who should be the mayor,” said Ald. William Henry (24th), a key ally of Sawyer. ”That should be left up to us.”
Freshman Ald. Keith Caldwell (8th), who has also lined up with Sawyer, said he would listen to Jackson`s advice but didn`t expect to change his mind. ”Rev. Jackson is an extremely important individual, but in this matter, he is a citizen of Chicago, and his voice should be listened to just as I would listen to my ward,” Caldwell said. ”Gene Sawyer embodies those qualities that can bring our city together.”
Sawyer is believed to have support from 10 aldermen, including himself. They are: Henry, Caldwell, William Beavers (7th), Lemuel Austin (34th), Robert Shaw (9th), Jesse Evans (21st), Allan Streeter (17th), Ernest Jones (20th) and Sheneather Butler (27th).
Evans is also believed to have strong support from 10 aldermen, including himself. They are: Dorothy Tillman (3d), Helen Shiller (46th), Orr (49th), Bobby Rush (2d), Lawrence Bloom (5th), Luis Gutierrez (26th), Raymond Figueroa (31st), Jesus Garcia (22d) and Juan Soliz (25th).
Sawyer`s aides believe they may be able to win over Soliz, despite the four Hispanic aldermen`s vow that they will vote as a bloc.
Evans also picked up support from influential black independent leader Lu Palmer, who said Friday that an informal poll found that callers to his weekly radio program ”overwhelmingly” supported Evans.
Sawyer allies meanwhile bristled at suggestions that he would represent a return to Democratic machine politics.
”The old administration is trying to make us look like the old guard,”
Henry said. ”But Gene Sawyer was the first to support Harold Washington, he started the movement, not anybody else.”
Sawyer was the first alderman to endorse Washington and delivered whopping vote totals from the 6th Ward for the mayor.
Others suggest that Sawyer`s forces may try to compel Jackson to stay neutral in the race by threatening not to work for Jackson`s presidential campaign delegates in the March, 1988, Illinois primary.
Davis said he didn`t believe Jackson would make a pitch for a particular candidate. ”I don`t think he would want to be a kingmaker,” Davis said.
He said he has made no efforts to drum up commitments from other aldermen but is expected to get support from Ald. Ed Smith (28th) and Ald. Percy Giles (37th). Ald. Marlene Carter (15th) and Ald. Anna Langford (16th) remain uncommitted.
That leaves 25 aldermen from lakefront and white ethnic wards as the balance of power in the race to succeed Washington. They have hardly given up on fashioning a coalition that could elect a white mayor.
Aldermen from the white ethnic wards are expected to caucus on Saturday in an attempt to reach a consensus on a candidate. Names being considered include Ald. Richard Mell (33d), Ald. Michael Sheahan (19th), Ald. William J.P. Banks (36th) and Ald. Terry Gabinski (32d).
As the battle of succession headed into a weekend of clandestine meetings and telephone calls, strategists from several camps attempted to predict what Jackson`s formidable presence will mean.
Although he had conferred with black leaders by telephone en route from an aborted trip in the Middle East, he also has been in touch with such white leaders as Ald. Roman Pucinski (41st) and Pucinski`s daughter, Aurelia, who was slated by the county Democratic Party as its candidate for clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court.
Jackson indicated that he will support the entire county Democratic slate, which could help Pucinski in the black community and possibly pull some whites toward a coalition with a Jackson-backed candidate for mayor.
If Sawyer can hold 10 black votes in line through the weekend against pressure from Jackson to join Evans, he could be in position to claim the mayor`s chair.
Sawyer forces believe the white ethnics won`t reach a consensus and couldn`t fashion a 26-vote majority if they did. Therefore, many of them, Sawyer`s thinking goes, will respond to the strong overtures from his camp.
Those overtures are likely to include a promise to scale back the $2.7 billion budget and $84 million property-tax revenue increase proposed by Washington.