Chicago is as unique politically as it is architecturally.
We know it's the architectural Athens of the country, of the world perhaps.
And so its politics is unique in that it's the last big machine place.
And the machine at this moment is in a shambles, is pretty well demolished.
The machine as we've known it from the days of Richard J.
Daly before that, Ed Kelly, before that when it first came into being with Anton Cermak, who you recall was shot when he was with Franklin D.
Roosevelt and whose last immortal words were, I'm glad it was me instead of you.
And though his grammar may have left something to be desired, nonetheless he is immortal.
But the machine was a combination of Irish primarily, always the Irish.
And Gus Savage and a number of other people and I worked on Harold Washington, persuaded him in 1977 that he should be the challenger for mayor against Michael Blandick.
And we were successful in persuading him and the campaign was put together that was you know, rag tag in a lot of ways, but it was a stage setter for what was yet to come.
You know we carried five or six wards, got you know 10 to 15 percent of the black community.
But the most important thing about that campaign was that it laid a foundation for independent politics for what was to come.
In 79 we went for Jane Byrne in a very, very big way, but I think we recognized that this was not quite the same dimension.
Jane was a vehicle, at best someone who could be a transition figure in the breakdown of the machine, but it was just a fantastic victory when it finally occurred.
I think it surprised most of us who perpetrated it.
And well here we are.
Harold Washington is about to be re -elected.
We had this amazing victory in 1983, one that turned out to be in its own way as big a surprise, but an even greater event than the remarkable thing for myself as well as a lot of the old soldiers is that we are sort of here running what I guess one has to call an insurgent incumbent campaign.
There is much of the style and approach of the insurgent here, the independent, running with a man who is about to become, if he is not yet, an institution.
And I think that's kind of unique sense for those of us who still like to use the word independent, which is a term that has turned over a lot in Chicago politics, but I guess we like it.
The machine in Chicago these days is really more of a mindset than the kind of organization that we came to know and love or despise back in the days of Ed Kelly and later Richard Daley.
The machine mentality exists in all of its perpetrators today, the Rodoliax, the Burks, the Hardigans, all of those guys.
When I began there was a machine, but it wasn't the Daley machine at that time, it was called the Kelly -Nash machine, or as those of us who opposed it back in the 40s referred to it, the Nellie Cash machine.
That was boss Pat Nash of the party and Mayor Ed Kelly the mayor.
In 1955 it became the Daley machine, perfected.
Mayor Daley was often called the last of the old -time bosses of a city, but in fact, as Sidney Lenz pointed out, he was really the first of the new -time bosses.
Mayor Daley was the guy who was able to take the classic, the traditional depression -style political machine of the New Deal, the welfare machine, and turn it into something very special by bringing in the traditional opposition of the business and financial community, State Street and LaSalle Street as we call it here in Chicago.
He forged a unique alliance of business, financial community, the political machine that was non -ideological, the small portion of the political party that was ideological, i .e.
democratic, to some extent even liberal -democratic, along with labor and finance and business.
He had a coalition in Germany in the 30s without any pejorative, was the same grouping that Hitler was able to put together for his new Germany, a remarkable alliance.
This is what gave him virtually absolute power for so long, and that was the machine against which many, many people other than perennials like myself began to rebel against in the 60s.
In the 60s, the issue was civil rights when the black community began to break away from the Daley machine and certainly the anti -war movement in the later 60s.
I think the behavior of Daley's police at the 68 convention was what was responsible for breaking away a lot of then liberal Democrats who sort of didn't like the way Daley behaved, but after all he could steal enough votes to elect John Kennedy, and so they stayed with him.
What political scene here does this show? Chicago from other cities.
I think the last of the big cities were the last of the big machines, and now the machine is demolished because of the changing demography of the city, because of the influx starting with World War, end of World War I, a bigger one after World War II, and finally people coming in, and being aware of power for the first time.
Chicago was known for its plantation politics when Mayor Daley was there and before him Ed Kelly, because they had their plantation boss, a black man named Bill Dawson.
He swung all the votes for the machine and the blacks had no say they had no feeling of self -esteem or of power.
Along comes not Washington, Harold Washington, he was just there, but they were ready.
The Civil Rights Movement of course had a lot to do with it.
We can't overestimate the effect of the Civil Rights Movement on the awareness of black people.
That awareness going to the polls with Washington, Harold Washington, the chemistry was just right.
Not only was he a congressman, but he was aware of issues, key issues of the world as well as the city, and somehow it worked just right.
The machine as we've known it, the ethnic groups as part of it, formed by the way by a bohemian and not an Irishman, Anton Cermak got the machine together, the ethnic groups with a plantation boss.
And then came Ed Kelly during World War II and Roosevelt and finally the man who sat it out as Mike Royko points out in that remarkable boss, sat out all the others and became the mayor himself, Mayor Daley.
You know as Mike points out, the name Mayor Daley is one word, it's an eponym, but you'd say Mayor Daley Blanda, kids would say, Mayor Daley Kelly, Mayor Daley Byrne, but they can't say Mayor Daley Washington.
So in any event, it's a very exciting moment I think, and I find rather exhilarating moment for the city, the end of what was accepted as a way of life.
Who would have dreamed 10 years ago, as it was 10 years, Chicago would have a black mayor.
You think of Chicago as geographically a demographic, the most segregated big city in the country.
You could ride down South State Street beginning with the biggest housing project in the world.
I think it'll be an easier term and more and more whites will find the city will not explode, city will get along.
Garbage picked up on time.
He's not King Canute, but he did stop the waves for a moment, you know, and in any event, I think there'll be more of a modus for them.
You also, has put it, the most open administration within memory.
In that sense, it's more important than reform as we use that word, is that voices will be heard that hitherto voice less.
How about the criticism that...
Of course, we hear this all the time.
Of course, he'll bring people who are more amenable to him than old hacks.
Will he have some hacks of his own? Undoubtedly, but over, far overriding that, they're wrong because the machine, as we know in the past, I would choose, of course, you see, my two favorites, of course, would be Mike Royko and Nelson Algren.
Way back years ago, of course, Finley Peter Dunn, when the Irish immigrants first came to Chicago, Finley Peter Dunn created the Mr.
Dooley, the bartender with a guy named Hennessy, and in Irish dialect, he would talk about the city and power.
He would coin the phrase, the Supreme Court follows the elections, you know, but that was...
But today, Royko, of course, boss has created the best book, I think, on city power written.
Algren is the bard.
He would lyricize, in his lyric fashion, he would make us aware of the city behind the billboards.
And when Nelson said, to use his phrase, perhaps, you know, you, there may be about Chicago, there may be a lovely, a lovelies, but never a lovely so real.
It's like being in love with a woman with a broken nose, that's it.
In love with a woman with a broken nose, there may be lovelier lovely, but never lovelies so real.
And that's Chicago.
Okay.
So Washington says there has to be a transitional figure between the old daily matriarchy and the new politics of people, sisterhood, brotherhood, and you can go...
Okay.
So it turns out that Washington is a transitional figure.
His politics is daily -esque and his movement progressive.
You can go to his campaign headquarters even now, and there's the third floor where people dress like people in ordinary street clothes, and you go to the fourth floor and they're all in the political uniform with suits and ties, and his administration is divided between his third and fourth floor.
But I think he's brought new people.
People from the streets have come into city hall politics, and the future will be determined on if he is able to control his own people.
I think the fight in the next administration for him will be not from his enemies, but his friends.
His enemies were predictable and he held them in control.
He won't be able to hold his friends in control, the new people that he's brought into politics, and this is going to be ready for more people government, and that could be his problem.
They always say Chicago politics is...
all the world's a stage, and Chicago politics is a stage, but it's like theater, it's like sports, and I always...
I can say that in writing and as a metaphor.
You pick a man or a person to lead by their abilities, their experience, their know -how, and their background.
Well, I'm going to tell you that there's no contest in this election, because the present mayor of Chicago, the present mayor of Chicago, and I give this analogy every place I go, let's go back...
Yes, uh -huh.
Hello, good...
Hello, good...
Hey, hey.
Hello, dogs.
Hey, good looking.
Hey, where am I? There we are.
Very good.
Hey, hey.
Put your hands back around me.
Hey, hey.
Mr.
Staples.
There we go.
Big hand.
Oh, law abyss.
There we go.
Black and white issue.
This is an issue to unite Chicago for the good of all the citizens of all of them.
If you start a campaign dividing a city, you're going to do nothing more than what we've already seen, and quite obviously, it hasn't worked.
I'm not going to do that.
Yes.
You do talk about uniting the city, I guess my question is...
...
where the crime rate is higher and they are the victims.
Oh, hey.
Oh, hey.
Hey, hey.
Hey, hey.
Hey, hey.
Hey, hey.
Hey, hey.
Hey, hey.
The new Bible.
The true squad.
Oh, oh.
Bottom line.
There she goes.
After you left your career, one of the doctors got me and wanted to know...
I hesitated to tell you that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The temple has worked.
And guess who? Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Arrow, arrow, arrow, arrow.
Arrow, arrow, arrow.
...
across the board.
There has been some minor controversy over the last two days because my predecessor, Dr.
Hugh, she always had trouble with numbers, and I was coming out in abundance.
We had a campaign, you know, and I know it.
It's not the question of raising the total money that's the problem.
It's how you raise that money, who you get that money from, and the method in which you do so.
We came into office.
That was your call.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
If you could vote, who would you vote for? Ms.
Byrne.
Same.
Ms.
Byrne.
All right.
We asked the committee and decent, unbiased campaign tactics to investigate whether or not Jane Byrne's campaign is using tactics to win votes on the basis of fear.
If so, we consider the tactic dangerous.
Thank you.
What role did the mayor's office play in this news conference? This is not a role.
The mayor's office has not played any role in this conference.
This is a group of concerned citizens of the city of...
If the board's ruling goes to the courts, are you confident that it will be upheld? I'm confident that it will be one -on -one, February 24, Harold and Jane, and I'm confident to say that I'm going to win.
And you're confident that those signs, petition signs will be upheld? I believe that...
Eddie! Eddie! Go get him! April 7th, Berdolik! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! He doesn't know how to manage, administrate, govern, direct their guy.
And he has no plans.
Well, we've got a plan for him.
It's called early retirement.
That's our plan for him.
Stand by the statement I made.
...because all people like you, not the fat war chest, or the...
and all of Chicago, at the end of this, will still have to go back to the fact that we must, the United City, that we must work on bringing jobs here.
Harold! Harold! Harold! And that's Jenna Rosenstein.
What's she talking about? I don't want to put that in the bill.
I just was telling Jenna about all the wonderful events we had in the city.
And how it could prove I'm sorry.
Let me hear you whisper that you love me too.
Keep the light glowing in your eyes so blue.
Thank you.
Bless all of you.
Thank you.
Bless all of you.
I know, we gotta get going here.
All the way.
Thank you very much.
You can get people back.
Huh? Yes.
These are the folks that opened the office.
Leo and Sharon Petsunas and my wife.
Thank you.
We really needed it.
Don't forget about us.
Hi there, how are you? I need your help.
I'm Jenna.
I'm a friend of the President of Chicago.
I need your vote.
Thank you.
How are you? Nice to see you.
What are you buying? This is the one.
See? Hi, how are you? Those colors are great on you.
Red, yellow, and gray.
They're great on you.
Thank you very much for inviting me to come to your church.
As I said in my last stop, there was a meeting held in my office about two weeks ago.
Two and a half.
And a group of ministers came.
And their message to me was that day, that you should come to the black community and the church is the house of God.
Amen.
We want to send the message back to Reagan and to the Republican Party.
We are not better off now than we were four years ago.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Lord of the house, Lord of the house, the home of the free, Lord of the house, Lord of the house, the home of the free.
What a place.
Hey, Paul.
Got the arrival.
It's not a prison.
It's a prison.
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! We gotta stay steady! Steady truck! Move ahead, please.
Keep moving ahead.
Faster! You gotta move it faster.
Not as late.
Kill somebody! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! It is my pleasure now to introduce you to the host county's chairman, the first county party of the world, and chairman of that county party, Edward Rebellion! So in this election, we're not gonna ask you to vote for a party or a person.
We're gonna ask you to vote for your son, for your family, for your neighborhood, for your city, for your county, and for your state.
Because it's the right thing to do.
With the Republican Party, with the Republican Party in the last four years, we have seen the state income tax go up 24%.
The Secretary of State is from Illinois, and the Secretary of Agriculture is from Illinois, and you know what we got? Nothing! And don't you believe what they say.
Watch what they do.
Ronald Reagan said I won't cut Social Security when he tried, we caught.
He said I won't cut Medicare, and he did.
And next to me...
...
