Slating them, anyway

After Mayor Harold Washington won control of the City Council in 1986, White Democratic Party leaders began to feel the need to back his allies, many of whom were Independents.

Washington’s following in the Black community was nearly unanimous, and White party pols who dominated the slating process wanted to capture those votes and started to accommodate the Mayor’s faction, even after his death. So, they made some behind the scenes decisions.

In 1990, the three Cook County Commissioners who had beaten Machine candidates in the previous election – Jerry “Iceman” Butler, Charles Bernardini, and Bobbie Steele - were slated for re-election.

And in 1994, Cook County Clerk David Orr, who had served a brief stint as Acting Mayor in 1987 while serving as an Independent in the City Council and had beaten the Machine candidate to win his first countywide contest, was slated, too. So was Cook County Commissioner Maria Pappas, who had also beaten the Machine in her successful race.

In previous years, all these office holders would have been challenged by “blue ribbon” candidates in their next election. But party leaders didn’t want to muster the resources to try to defeat the incumbents and alienate their substantial constituencies. Whites did not always want to be seen fighting against Blacks and possibly never again receive their votes. And party leaders didn’t want to risk defeat.

So, they decided, behind the scenes, to back some of the Independents, hoping they might co-opt a few of their followers, and maybe weaken their opponents’ desire to engage in primary election battles.