Political priorities

In the 1980 Democratic primary, former State Representative Ellis Levin wanted to ensure there would be Committeeman battles in all of the wards in his district when he waged a comeback race, as the Machine cared more about those offices than about his and were expected to work harder against those challengers than against him. So, he backed existing candidates and recruited others where none had surfaced on their own.              

Ronald Weiss, an aide to former Alderman Solomon Gutstein, entered the race in the 40th Ward, Adrienne Goodman, a long-time Independent leader, in the 44th, Jerome Orbach challenged his Machine ally in the 46th, and two-time Regular candidate Arnold Levy ran in the 48th. There was no challenge in the 47th, but that covered only a small part of the district. 

Levin won by a huge margin and the Committeeman candidates all lost.

 Excerpted from “Chicago Political Stories” at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/994143