Acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer, embroiled in controversy and exhausted by opposition, took on the formidable task Wednesday of overcoming the hostility of many Chicagoans and the indifference of many others.
The enormity of his challenge was evident even before he was elected at 4:01 a.m. Wednesday by a 29-19 vote of a City Council that had been taunted for hours by a predominantly black crowd that viewed him as an old-line politician and an unworthy heir to the political mantle of the late Mayor Harold Washington.
Their opposition to Sawyer, who received his vote and those of only 5 of the council`s other 18 blacks, had been building for days and it continued after his election. It was symbolized by the message found scrawled Wednesday morning in red magic marker on the office door of his 6th Ward Democratic organization at 221 E. 79th St. It said:
”No deals. You`re a traitor to Mayor Washington`s dreams.”
Sawyer, the longtime 6th Ward alderman until his election as acting mayor, vowed immediately after his election to continue the policies of the late mayor, who died one week earlier. But by Wednesday evening, Washington`s former allies were staging a rally that some saw as the beginning of a mayoral campaign by Ald. Timothy Evans (4th), Sawyer`s opponent in the raucous council election for acting mayor.
”Evans! Evans! We want Evans!” the crowd of 500 chanted as the late mayor`s council floor leader entered a ballroom in the Belmont Hotel, 3170 N. Sheridan Rd.
Evans strode down the aisle and embraced Ald. David Orr (49th), who had stepped down as interim mayor earlier in the day and handed the gavel to Sawyer. Orr told reporters that the purpose of the rally was merely to generate support for the continuation of Washington`s programs.
”But Evans could be a very attractive candidate,” he said.
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Evans told the crowd of lakefront independents that he will wait to see Sawyer`s agenda before deciding whether to run for mayor in 1989.
”I will sit down and talk to Mayor Sawyer about his agenda, and if it`s not a good one, I`ve got some work for you to do.”
He added: ”If they attempt to turn the clock back, it won`t work. They may have the (mayor`s) seat for a day or two, but the foundation for that seat is in this room. That seat can`t be stable unless they push the agenda forward.”
If Sawyer`s selection withstands possible legal challenges, he will serve as acting mayor until a special citywide election in April, 1989, although halting efforts are underway to persuade the Illinois General Assembly to order an earlier election.
Evans, who spent Wednesday lounging around his South Side home in striped pajamas and a robe, said he had received numerous phone calls from volunteers offering to work in his campaign if he decides to run for mayor.
”I think the future is very bright,” he said. ”I`m examining my options. I`m confident our vision will reach its fruition within a reasonable time.”
Cook County Sheriff James O`Grady, a Republican, also has said he is considering running for mayor. State Sen. Richard Newhouse (D., Chicago) and State Comptroller Roland Burris, a Democrat, also have been mentioned, though Burris is a longtime political ally of Sawyer. Former Mayor Jane Byrne, a candidate for Cook County Circuit Court clerk, said Wednesday that she does not intend to run for mayor in 1989.
Sawyer promised Wednesday that he would soon begin the healing process.
”Yesterday was a political contest and I think we`ll all come together now,” he said, shortly after arising on three hours` sleep in his third-floor apartment in the 7900 block of South Indiana Avenue. ”The first thing we`ve got to do is meet with church leaders, business leaders and community leaders. People have to come together and join hands in peace and love.”
But Sawyer did not spend his first day in office reaching out to disaffected blacks and political independents. True to his reputation as a diligent, low-key politician, he devoted most of the day to mastering the details of government.
He took phone calls at his home from Joseph Cardinal Bernardin and George Dunne, president of the Cook County Board and chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. He met at home with Sandra Watkins, a staff member in his ward office, and with aides to Ald. Edward Burke (14th), a political opponent of Washington who helped engineer Sawyer`s City Council victory.
Shortly after noon, he was driven to the mayor`s office on the fifth floor of City Hall where he met with top aides to the late mayor, including Chief of Staff Ernest Barefield, Corporation Counsel Judson Miner and top administrative aides Brenda Gaines and Kari Moe.
Also in the meeting were Al Johnson, chairman of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority responsible for building a stadium for the Chicago White Sox; Jesse Madison, executive vice president of the Chicago Park District; and Sid Ordower, a veteran political organizer.
The only close political allies of Sawyer in the meeting were Ald. William Henry (24th), who organized Sawyer`s campaign for acting mayor, and Ron Robinson, the City Council`s sergeant-at-arms and a top lieutenant in Sawyer`s ward organization.
Barefield said later that his staff is putting together briefing papers listing issues the acting mayor should be concerned about in the next several weeks and that Sawyer intends to meet with the late mayor`s office staff and Cabinet on Thursday.
”Your urgency is not his,” Barefield told reporters. ”He has a government to run.”
Barefield said Sawyer has asked all of the late mayor`s top aides ”to stay in place and continue to work for him,” though he acknowledged that
”nothing in life is permanent.”
Late in the afternoon, Gov. James Thompson paid a courtesy call on the acting mayor and later told reporters that he offered Sawyer his support and cooperation.
”We`ll keep the politics to the election time and we`ll keep governmental cooperation in the meantime,” said Thompson, who frequently quarreled with Washington over state-city relations. ”I`ve known the mayor for a long time. I like him, and I respect him.”
Thompson also said he opposes moves to advance the next mayoral election to early next year from April, 1989, as now scheduled-a measure that proponents say would provide greater political stability for the city.
”I don`t think there`s any need for a special election now that we have a mayor elected by the City Council who, I presume, will move forward,” the governor said. ”It is my belief that such a bill would not pass.”
After the meeting with Thompson, Sawyer left through a back door to avoid reporters. Later Wednesday evening, he ducked in and out of a memorial service for Washington at Holy Name Cathedral and a fundraiser at the Chicago Theatre for Holy Angels Church, which burned down in June, 1986. During his five-minute appearance at the fundraiser, he embraced Rev. George Clements, the church`s pastor, but ignored the pack of reporters that followed him.
The quiet of Sawyer`s first day in office contrasted sharply with the turmoil of his council election only several hours earlier. In a city noted for its love of rough-and-tumble politics, the events in the City Council chamber Tuesday and early Wednesday provided thousands of Chicagoans with a closeup televised view of activities generally confined to back rooms.
And what they saw was raw political power playing at its ultimate, complete with death threats, insults, shouting, arm-waving, boasts and bravado in the chamber. Thousands of people stood outside City Hall, chanting ”No deals” and ”We want Evans.”
Sawyer`s election was delayed for hours by his temporary reluctance to seek a vote because of an absence of support by the majority of black aldermen, and then by parliamentary maneuvering by allies of Evans. Realizing that Sawyer had garnered the necessary votes for a victory, they tried to lay the groundwork for a possible legal challenge on the grounds that the council`s rules were violated by the Sawyer forces.
An unruly crowd jeered Sawyer`s supporters and, at one point, waved dollar bills, as if to suggest that aldermen were seeking to enrich themselves by voting for him.
Ald. Sheneather Butler (27th), a Sawyer supporter, retorted by waving a fistful of dollars at the crowd. One demonstrater responded by throwing a fistful of quarters that struck Butler and Ald. Anna Langford (16th) and Terry Gabinski (32d).
When Gabinski demanded that police remove the man from the gallery, the crowd began yelling: ”Police brutality! Police brutality!”
Two shifts of 150 police officers each had been dispatched to City Hall to control a crowd that had been urged to demonstrate by allies of the Washington administration during a rally the previous night.
Five people were arrested: one for battery, one for theft after he allegedly stole a police officer`s bulletproof vest and the others for disorderly conduct.
After his election, Sawyer took to the podium to try to calm the crowd and the council and to try to erase the public image of political wheeler-dealer that had been slapped on him by his opponents. They depicted Evans, Washington`s council floor leader, as the best alderman to carry on the policies of the late mayor.
That image was enhanced by Sawyer`s negotiations for the support of white ethnic aldermen, who, for three years, had controlled the council and blocked Washington`s programs.
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Amid boos from the often unruly gallery, Sawyer was escorted from his aldermanic seat on the council floor by two police bodyguards to the chair of City Clerk Walter Kozubowski, where he officially resigned as an alderman and was sworn in by the clerk as Chicago`s acting mayor.
Sawyer then addressed the aldermen and the gallery, pledging that, in spite of the controversy, he would continue to carry on the traditions of Washington.
”I promise to continue the programs and the policies of our great mayor,” he said. ”I thank those who supported me and extend my hand to those who did not.”
”There will be no cronyism or favoritism. A system of `who you know` and `what`s in it for me` will be forever put to rest,” the new mayor said.
”The sacrifice of the late mayor shall not be in vain,” he said.
Outside the building, the crowds, which had shrunk substantially since mid-evening Tuesday when an estimated 4,000 filled a block-long stretch of LaSalle Street, booed and jeered when they received word that Sawyer had won the post.
Ald. Jesus Garcia (22d), an Evans supporter, climbed up onto a wooden reception desk in the City Hall lobby to address the crowd there after the crucial vote was taken.
”This is one of the saddest events in the glorious recent history that our great leader helped to create,” Garcia said, and then he went on to predict that the political battle is not over in Chicago.
”Brothers and sisters, 1988 will not be so great,” he said. ”However, brothers and sisters, I know with the power of the people, 1989 will be just fine.”
The criticism of Sawyer continued later Wednesday, particularly among blacks. Wesley South, general manager of WVON-AM, which has a large black audience, said the station had received 120 calls in a seven-hour period Wednesday and ”without exception, every caller was pro-Evans.” He said callers described Sawyer as a sellout, traitor and Uncle Tom.
White aldermen appeared to be having less difficulty defending their support of Sawyer than did black aldermen. They said their constituents had praised them for standing up to civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who gave indications that he supported Evans during his four-day peacekeeping mission to Chicago last weekend, though he publicly endorsed neither candidate.
”Most of the calls are saying: `We`re glad you stood up to Jesse Jackson. We`re glad you didn`t cave in to the mob,` ” Ald. Roman Pucinski
(41st) said.
S voted for Sawyer
+ Did not vote
Others voting for Evans
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