Remap opportunity

When wards are re-apportioned, incumbents can run for re-election in any ward that includes part of their old ward.

When the far-south-side 21st ward was redrawn prior to the 1971 aldermanic election, a new 34th ward (the old one having been in the Logan Square area) was created out of the southern portion of the old ward.

21st Ward Alderman Wilson Frost chose to run for re-election in the new 34th ward. It included an area known as “The Lowlands” where he expected more support on Election Day.

He enjoyed a comfortable victory, while Machine ally Bennet Stewart narrowly defeated an Independent in a new 21st ward centered around the more reform-minded Washington Heights neighborhood.

Frost received one other, unrelated, benefit. Since the new 34th ward needed a Ward Committeeman, the Democratic Central Committee appointed him to the post. He was elected to a full term in the 1972 Democratic Primary.