If political conventions indeed have become a four-night series of television programs, the working title for next Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention should be “Real People.”
All day, Democratic leaders will be fanning out around Chicago to try to put a face on their agenda, which they have dubbed “Families First.”
At night, they will recount their experiences, combined with videos of other Americans, as their political antidote to the House Republicans’ Contract With America in 1994.
Families First is the centerpiece of the Democrats’ effort to retake control of Congress, and one that, so far, President Clinton’s re-election campaign has talked very little about. How it is received, both in the city and across the country, could be at least a small measure of how congressional Democrats will fare in the fall.
House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri said Mayor Richard Daley had suggested the party “get out of the building,” meaning the United Center, to use the city and its people as a testing ground for the plan.
“The point is that Democrats have a modest, realistic, practical agenda,” Gephardt said. “What I am trying to get across is that if you vote Democratic for president and for Congress, here is what we are going to do and how it relates to your everyday problems and life.”
Gephardt and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota will be the traveling hosts for a series of four forums.
The first will be at the Ounce of Prevention Center, on the South Side, to discuss Democrats’ plans for children-only health insurance. The senators then travel to DePaul University’s Loop campus to talk to college students about Democrats’ tuition proposals.
The third stop will focus on Medicare and pensions at the Copernicus Seniors Center on North Milwaukee Avenue, and the forums will conclude with a town hall-style meeting at Humboldt Park Fieldhouse.
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Gephardt and Daschle will speak about their experiences that night at the convention.
Not funny: On Monday, the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, a group called White America Unite and its leader, Bill Kay, were scheduled to demonstrate at 10 a.m. in the city’s officially designated protest pit outside the United Center.
But any white supremacists planning to show up will be disappointed. White America Unite and Bill Kay exist only in the practical-joking minds of Bill Kazupski’s acquaintances.
Kazupski, a Chicago police detective, calls himself a “middle-of-the-road-kind-of-guy” who has no desire whatsoever to protest, let alone participate in the typically vitriolic and ugly rallies organized by white supremacists.
Besides, he’s working the convention for the police.
But he is somewhat of a practical joker, and he suspects someone decided to turn a nasty one on him by writing Bill Kay and White America Unite on a protest application, then listing Kazupski’s post office box and telephone number.
First reporters started calling. Then the city’s official protester packet arrived in the mail.
Kazupski trudged down to City Hall and officially removed himself and the organization, such as it is, from the protest list.
Kid concerns: The five Democratic women of the U.S. Senate will appear before the convention Wednesday night to discuss children’s issues. Addressing education, Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois will lead the mini-caucus, which also includes Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, and Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both of California.
Close contact: Following a federal court order to give protesters closer contact with delegates to the Democratic National Convention next week, city officials announced Monday that they have made space for about 20 protesters at a time directly across the street from the United Center’s main entrance.
The city originally had made space for delegates no closer than about a block away from the arena.