Political party people - Chicago Democrats

After considerable discussion, the Independent Precinct Organization (IPO) opted to make no endorsement in the 1977 mayoral primary election, so I felt free to do whatever I wanted.

I drove to the 41st Ward Regular Democratic Organization office, mayoral headquarters of Ald. Roman Pucinski (who was running against Acting Mayor Michael Bilandic) and volunteered to work my precinct in the 50th Ward for him.

I let them know I was the IPO Electoral Action Director, so they wouldn’t find out later and think I had tried to conceal my identity. I knew they didn’t trust outsiders.

They welcomed me as a volunteer and asked if I would be willing to serve as 50th Ward Coordinator. I was surprised by that question. They were offering a leadership spot to someone they didn’t even know who had just walked in off the street. And they used grassroots lingo when describing the position.

I told them that most of the volunteers in my organization were either backing Harold Washington or sitting out the race. There were very few people I could bring with me into a campaign.

“That’s OK,” the top guy answered. “We’ve got lots of names in the ward we can give you. Just call them.”

So, I agreed and asked when they held meetings of Ward Coordinators so I could clear my schedule for those.

“Meetings?” he said, as if I had barged into a room where I hadn’t been invited. “We don’t have any meetings.”

Well, of course they did. How else could they manage their citywide precinct operation? I realized they thought they were doing me a favor by letting me help them. They weren’t going to tell me about any meetings until they believed I had earned the right to know.

Pucinski bigwigs never called me to find out how many volunteers I had recruited, how much campaigning had been done, which precincts were covered, or to obtain any feedback at all. And they didn’t give me any direction, either. I wasn’t surprised. I think they were waiting for me to tell them what I was doing, as if I had to prove myself worthy of their attention.

So, I worked my precinct and recruited volunteers to leaflet most of the 50th ward. On Election Day, I carried my precinct by a huge margin. And Pucinski won the ward.

So, I brought the list of election results to HQ and showed them to the chief precinct honcho.

“Oh!” he exclaimed. “Yes! This is very good!” he said, as if surprised that I had really done my job.