Knocking out a rival

50th Ward Democratic Committeeman Jerome Huppert (who also served as a Cook County Commissioner) faced a serious re-election challenge in the 1980 Democratic Primary from Alderman Bernard Stone, a fellow Machine pol whom he had backed in three previous Aldermanic elections.

Stone had threatened to run for Committeeman in 1976, halting only when Mayor Richard J. Daley forced him to back down. But with the Mayor’s death later that year, he was free to try again. Huppert was no longer protected but he filed nominating petitions, anyway.

Not having a powerful leader to intercede on his behalf, and realizing he wasn’t likely to beat Stone, Huppert then chose State Senator Arthur Berman, arguably the most popular elected official in the ward, to run, too. He hoped Stone would withdraw when faced with such a formidable candidate. Berman would then remove himself from the race, as well, leaving Huppert uncontested for re-election to his party post.

But Stone held his ground. So, when Berman withdrew, he was replaced by his colleague, State Senator Howard Carroll, a surprising choice since the new candidate’s legislative district only included a small part of the ward and he was far less well-known than either Berman or Stone. Huppert then withdrew and backed Carroll.

Knowing it was near-to-impossible for precinct captains to have legitimately obtained a huge number of petition signatures for three different candidates (Huppert, Berman, and Carroll) within a short period of time, Stone challenged Carroll’s filing and forced many precinct captains to testify at hearings to defend themselves against charges of petition fraud, angering most of them in the process. So, they campaigned harder against him.

Although Carroll was endorsed by the 50th ward Democratic Organization, the group was actually divided. Still, he emerged with a small, but comfortable victory (A third candidate received enough votes to keep Carroll below 50%). Carroll and Stone made peace afterward and the party division disappeared.

The disappearing process was accelerated when the number of voting precincts was suddenly reduced by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, an administrative act that was long overdue. With fewer precincts in the ward, fewer precinct captains were needed. So wherever possible, a precinct that had been worked by a Stone supporter was divided and its contents distributed to precincts that had been worked by a Carroll supporter. Thus, the party could dismiss Stone supporters because it no longer needed them.