Ald. Brian Doherty’s Ward Night [Cont.] / Doherty Election HQ: Thurs. Night
I need two phone numbers operator.
This is Bill Gritsonis from Alderman Doherty's office.
We were wondering, did you folks receive your absentee ballots? Okay did you? Today's the last day.
That's why I'm calling to make sure everybody sent theirs out.
Oh, you'll be able to come out and vote? Well, thank you very much ma 'am.
You guys met Annie yet? Annie, did you get on the camera? I'm probably with Rodgers, Edgars, Aldo's.
And we went to high school together and didn't know it.
I thought, we had the same friends who didn't even know it.
70s were a tough decade, wasn't it? What you have to do in the next, in the next quarter is whether you like to request the most important stuff here.
What I'm gonna do in my precinct, I'm gonna go back tomorrow and Saturday and get all my undecideds, hit them up one last time, and hopefully convince them to come our way.
And just rest up Saturday night and Sunday and Monday.
Monday night I'm going to the Bulls game.
And Tuesday morning, 5 o 'clock in the morning, just get out there and do it.
Looks like it's gonna be a good day.
Got 213 pluses, 3 minuses, and 47 undecideds.
Those are just the people I've actually got to talk to.
How many minuses did you have? Three.
Well, that's because I feed them every summer.
I have a big black party, pig, lamb, you know.
No boiled lamb? No boiled goat, no.
I got one absentee that I can't remember where I put it.
She's an old lady, she's got a bad hip.
You're joking, right? You're stirring this up.
What, are you kidding me? Come on, where'd it go? Which street was it on? I thought it was on Coil or Fitch.
Make or break you? Brian says I have to bring in 200 votes.
Otherwise, you won't pave any more of my alleys.
The streets are paved with gold up there.
Come on, what do I do with it? There hasn't been any done in my precinct, Bill.
Did you see that piece that Brian got in the...
a neighbor? Did you see that piece? No, no, hand me.
Hi, how are you doing? What was that lady in his office for? She wanted a...
she has a toy on a pickup truck and she got a ticket to a B -Plant.
She should be here any minute.
Who can I tell him to call? Hand him in, please.
You know who's on the phone? Dan Stackman.
He's been calling a lot lately, too.
Your precinct is not as happy as...
I don't know how many streets done, how many alleys done.
I have had my street done, only because Brian comes over for dinner and sees it.
But outside of that, there really haven't been any other streets done.
There's a couple scheduled for this year, but you know, they're not going to know that until after the election.
That's your blab, right? My blab was done.
Don't you know anybody or what? Oh, yeah.
Look at the streets done around mine.
Brian hasn't seen this yet, has he? What do you mean your street's done? What's in it? It was re -scarified.
Why am I honest with you? Explain it, Billy.
You do much driving? No, go ahead, Annie.
What they do is they pick up the old asphalt that's existing and they recycle it and then they put it back down again.
But it's a three -step process.
It's a long and voled, but it's gorgeous.
And it goes from curb to curb.
But what they've done is, because these streets are so old, is they just keep filling up the patch holes, the potholes with asphalt.
And they're, you know, you go and it's a bump and then the street eventually caves in and then they're doing more and it's a big mess.
So this way it's nice and smooth and it's beautiful.
Why don't you interview Frank? You know what? I'm going to run out to this house.
If I see the house, I'm going to run out there right now.
How are you going to do it? What? If I see the house, I'll know it.
What happened? What happened to what? He wants to go out and find who sent this letter.
Who sent the letter? That was the one.
It was his piece and it circled 200 streets.
Why wasn't my street done? That's what people care about.
But at the same time, there's 600 streets up here and you got to go by which ones are the worst.
And you have to go by locations.
You can't send them to the north side to do one street and all the way to the south side to do another.
So we try and do it in groups.
You know, do 10 streets in this section so that the trucks aren't going all over.
It's a long process, you know, getting these trucks up here.
So, Annie, what do voters want? Streets are not the great issues of the day that we're hearing here.
Yeah, what you're hearing here tonight? No.
The pickup truck, because they're not allowed to park up here.
And there's some wards that do allow that because they're businesses.
But this is pretty much residential so people don't want trucks parked all over.
And if you make an exception for a pickup truck for a resident, you've got to make an exception for the bakery truck too.
You know what I mean? So, but streets are a big issue.
How are you doing? I'm doing good.
Nobody's talking about, you know, you know, ideological stuff.
Well, you heard the one about the light pole, that story? This guy was putting in a driveway.
First of all, he called up screaming at us that the electrical department was out there because a light pole had fallen down and they were out there putting it back up again.
So we said, okay, we called them.
They were putting up the pole that had fallen, however they were putting it in the wrong spot, whatever.
The guy comes in and he's got pictures.
And I'm looking at the pictures, well, he's got a picture of before when the light pole was standing and when it was done afterwards.
And the ones before there was no driveway.
Now in this one there's a driveway.
So what he did was he backed up over the light pole, knocked it down and now he wants them to move it over again.
But he was, in his mind, really thought that they were doing something wrong and that he was going to put one over on us.
What was it that was really dumb things that people come in here for? You got to go on camera with that? I just did.
What are some of the crazy things people have come in here for? Make faces at the secretary.
How about the crow that was taking the school children? But Brian should go on camera with that story.
Yeah, and the pigeons, the homing pigeons.
On Canter they put in all new sidewalks.
And you have the street, and then you have the parkway, and then the sidewalk, and then the grass.
Well, he had some Kentucky, whatever, colored green, and they replaced the side with the different one.
And he legitimately was furious and wanted us to remove that and lay the same grass that was already down there.
Partly these people think that this is a serious problem, that the grass didn't match.
That's what he comes to say, my grass doesn't match.
And we had another guy who called about his sidewalk that didn't match the old, and I explained to him after a few years that rain and snow and dirt will match.
These are legitimate problems, but there's not that many.
You know, the guy with the sidewalk, just let it rain a little bit and it'll all match.
It'll be nice and, you know, same color, same texture.
I mean, if you guys will walk out of here and think of a thousand things.
The last big snowstorm we had, the trucks go down and they have their blades tilted one way or the other.
Well, the people that had it tilted this way, these people over here screamed, why can't they turn the blade this way? I said, so in other words, don't put the snow in front of your house, put it in front of your neighbors across the street.
We have that, you know, yeah, totally serious.
We had a lot of phone calls on that one.
Don't burn me, burn my neighbor.
A lot of what? Psychology, definitely.
I mean, it's amazing what the phone calls when they initially call us to when we can finally settle them down and get their name and number.
And then Brian calls them back and they're all fine.
And I think it's just because they invented it us and they've screamed at us that they've got it all out.
Now that they're fine with him.
I think there's a lot of, yeah, we should have taken shrinkless.
But you know what? A lot of them too.
You just wonder sometimes during the holidays, are they just that lonely and that miserable that they got nothing better to do the call? You know, then you feel sorry for them.
But no, no, no, it's interesting.
You guys are doing a fine job.
You'll have a few little pieces when this is done.
Everything is all right now? Yeah, we have a Monday, we have a meeting.
Pardon? Monday 27, we have a meeting for this ICG grant.
And we don't still don't know if we get this money, but we hope we do.
And the problem is now to get the place, the right place for our son.
I hope he works out, I hope everything works out for him all right.
I would like to show our deep appreciation for your help.
No, you don't have to do that.
So I will be in touch with you.
Okay, let me know what happens now.
She's got a mentally handicapped son, wants to get him into a state institution.
And we're working to get him in.
And she wanted to come and thank me, which very few people do.
If you do anything for him, they forget about it.
She always calls me on the phone and says thanks.
Hey, do your kids still love you? What kid? Oh, I have a kid? Yeah, I have a problem.
How you doing? Oh, not bad, just sitting over here at the ward office.
Yeah, the kids want to talk to me? Or are they down to sleep? All right, thanks.
What happened? Yeah, what are you doing? I miss you.
Yeah, do you miss me? I love you.
Okay, let me talk to Millie, okay? Hi.
How you doing? Okay, I love you too.
Looks like we're going to be a little late tonight, so I'll give you a call later, okay? All right.
What time are you going to sleep? I'll call you before...
All right, I'll talk to you later.
And he's still married? Yeah, no shit.
You guys ought to do a piece on political wives and husbands and widows and widows.
My mother's divorced the other day.
Pete's 45 years old and hasn't been married yet.
Well, we did stuff snorting glue, shit.
I guess he was only in there with one other guy, and there was like five or six neighborhood guys.
They took a poll to him out of the bar, huh? They wanted to do away with my polling place, Larry.
What do we got in? Oh, she wrote it.
I'm just saying that this is...
Is it senior piece? Senior piece, Sid.
I haven't seen the other piece.
Also, did you order an overall? No.
Because people call on it, they like it, but they want to know where they're going to get their free ID that he mentioned in there from you.
Remember he wouldn't fax me a copy of it? So we gave him the ID holder, but they said a free ID.
The free ID was going to come.
Well, Tom, it should have said free ID holder.
I still haven't seen the letter.
We'll send it to the Secretary of State and get him a free ID.
You got a light there? No, they're right there.
What are they doing? They're following you around.
Nobody's paying any attention to us.
Nobody pays any attention to me.
We're going to call Johnny and see if he can wrap that up this weekend if you can.
And stop in here and make sure he drops off the walk sheets so we can...
We have to close the doors again.
Hey, they're here for a duration.
Sylvester, you sent in more people.
Yeah, tomorrow he's doing a small story, but he's doing a feature at Sunday.
And sometimes they're just doing a background thing.
They dropped off our signs? Yeah.
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me.
No, this is what we used last time.
Remember we had the two bars? It looks like it.
So, he goes, give me a chocolate Sunday.
He says, sir, we're out of chocolate.
He goes, give me a chocolate shake.
He says, can you spell the band in vanilla? He says, yeah, V -A -N.
He goes, can you spell the straw in strawberry? He says, yeah, S -T -R -A -W.
He goes, can you spell the fucking chocolate? He goes, there's no fucking chocolate.
He goes, that's what I've been trying to tell you.
So Charlie at basketball, what did they say? Hey, Bill Daugherty.
How you doing? Looks like Grandma's going to be the winner again, huh? I don't know.
I put my money, you know who I think is going to be on top this time? Michael or Bill? Or yours? I mean, that'll be the three.
Do you have any numbers for me for today? Those are my four bets.
Is that the same number you had last time? Or is this no -goings? He took about half of the precincts.
For the midnight bar? Yeah, they're really cute.
How do you unblitz a precinct? About half the precincts from pay.
They made me a bet that they're going to carry by 200.
Paul Piatek? Yeah, he's been out there.
His numbers look right on target.
This guy, Nick Vasillikas, that's Billy's...
I don't even know what this guy looks like.
He's been working for us for three years.
When you see him, though, he looks good.
Let me tell you, when he does show up, the kid's well dressed.
The amount of money he's getting paid.
Is he a limber? Ernie Mancusi.
Ernie's got the double picture ID going.
He's walking around with your family picture now, too, and he's so excited.
He's so excited he got some help on election day.
He left them by himself last time in the year.
All he wants is to be let loose for lunch.
All he wants is to be let loose for lunch.
Mike Clark? They're pretty good numbers.
They're stuffing in the other office.
Are they done with the sheets, writing out the envelopes? No.
Do you need more? Yeah, compare Sean Ronan's numbers with Mike Sullivan's.
Mike Sullivan's numbers won't even mean anything.
Aunt Ronan's been working? Yeah, she's been out there.
She's been dragging Berlich out there, too.
Berlich found God for some reason.
That one's, that's another one that might come out of nowhere.
I'd throw that one in the top end, but I think they get lost in that one.
That's a 71 -people loser kicked the bucket.
You know what though? You see what he did though? He's smart.
He went and he complained to the board of elections.
He got those 70 people knocked off the roster.
So now his percentages will be higher.
Because he's got a lower voter base.
So whatever, when he gets out, everybody else will have dead people on their rolls.
We're not giving the prize though.
Sean Brown, his numbers look good.
Thanks for your good and touch with John.
So you can teach an old Democrat new tricks.
Oh yeah, but you know what? He's still looking for that Ralph piece.
He was really upset when we ran out of the Daily Doherty vote Democratic piece.
Oh, did he? He was really into that.
He was used to walking with that.
You'll have a little bit of company over there.
I want to know how the Gerty they're doing.
Are you going to win? I'm having trouble in precinct because of the target thing.
We're going to get a few no's just because of that.
We're going to get a few no's just because of the target thing.
No, you get a lot on the side because they don't know what's going on there.
But I paved those streets dude.
It's Jeff Grable and Mike Reinhardt.
Who are these guys again? Reinhardt's Park District guy that's scared he's going to lose the vote.
He's scared he's going to lose his job.
Grable is the kid that lives up in four.
Young guy? Is he employable? Yeah, part time.
Snowbird, Sunbird, something like that.
How come roughly these numbers don't jive with the phone bank? What do you mean? Well, on the phone bank they have a large percentage of no's.
But we looked at the phone bank and we think it's just an amateur phone bank.
He's dedicated to us for life.
But he broke his ankle, blitzed in the first precinct but didn't realize it.
Then he came in and it was early so I gave him another precinct.
Finally today Ronan looked at him, his ankle's out there and he's like, don't you think you should go to the hospital? I'm not sure if anything's wrong with it.
Just as he was saying that to him, the doctor called back and told him it was fractured.
What? Is Danny there? He's alright.
Brian, what are you doing? Right now we've got the reports slips.
These are the plus minus zero slips from the precinct captains, the representatives, what do you want to call them? We can usually gauge pluses as the positive, identified positive voters for us.
Minuses are negative voters against us and the zeroes are undecided.
And we use the kind of formula to keep track of it.
They usually fall within a pattern unless there's a problem in a certain area.
It's good to see if the guy's working out there because we know what the numbers should be if they fall in the pattern.
If they don't, either the guy's not working and he's making up the numbers or there's a problem out there that we need to know about.
And so far they've been pretty much on the number.
Joey Nero, but I got to check with these guys to see if, you know, I'm going through each cap to make sure that they've been in and these numbers are legit.
So we're going to try to find out who's been working, who's naughty and who's nice.
Okay, what about election day? Why wouldn't it be legit? Well, some of these guys have done this so often they could make up the numbers without even, you know, thinking about it because they know what they are.
But each election is a little different so it's hard to pick out.
But they usually fall within a pattern we could find out.
Some of these guys will just BS you and tell you they're out there and they might stick some literature in their doorway and say they're done with it.
But we know from the responses that they are and then we can match them against our phone bank responses to see if they jive.
Example, the one I found, you were Freddie roughly the other day, it's good.
Captain, his numbers are good but the phone bank numbers weren't good.
Well, when we checked to see who did the phone bank numbers, you know, maybe they were jiving with the numbers or not really writing them down correctly, not knowing what they're doing.
George? Well, it's hard, you know, it's hard enough to get good workers and volunteers so you really don't, not as good as you, Mayor.
But to dismiss people, it's not the old days where you control their livelihood like you used to.
So what you try to do is put them in something that they're capable of doing.
If they're not doing good on the phone, maybe they can stuff envelopes or hang signs or make themselves useful in other ways.
Joey Nero? Joe's been doing weekends.
He's been out there on weekends.
I don't think he comes in over the week but he's been out on the weekends.
Right above where Annie lives? 2, right in the center, up around.
It's called Norwood Health Mart.
Joe Purchill is the guy who works in the tollway.
He's been doing the condo belt.
He's trying and he's been getting in there.
Mike Carp, he's working with somebody else, right? Dave Hall.
Ask David Gawd who the three minuses of my precincts are.
That's your precinct? It's the house to your right.
It's the house to the left and the house directly across from where you live.
She's taking care of your kids.
He took an 11 pound tumor out of his mother last week so he's been kind of slowing down.
Nah, Pete's got those apartments so that'll bring him down.
Here's Delmedeco's and Tracy's numbers.
Which solvent is this in five? That's where I started from.
He still did that with a hundred pieces of literature.
He made up his own? You know what the best is? That Daly's people are laughing about that precinct.
They sent people in to work that precinct.
The head of the whole 41st Ward Daly committee is Charlie Schultz.
That's his home precinct that he's working for Daly.
We had people do the whole precinct for you and for Daly.
Neither Delmedeco or Schultz know that people were in that precinct.
And we've got a complete canvas that they did last weekend.
But he hasn't worked with them? I think he's doing it word of mouth, people he runs into.
Too many chiefs, not enough Indians.
That's why he's the head of the 41st Ward? Everybody's a coordinator.
When you guys say that somebody's in the running, what do you mean? Well, we're saying that in the running for top honors, we kind of, who has the best precinct numbers.
It's kind of usually the top ten guys are usually in the running to see who has the best numbers.
It's kind of an honor thing more than anything else.
It's a little pride thing that we have between us.
And it gets really close because some of the guys are very good in bringing the big numbers.
You know, they might win by 200, 210, 205.
So, you don't get anything except bragging rights.
But bragging rights means a lot around here at times.
Steve, are you almost done entering? Yeah.
I want to do two more for you.
What do you think turnout's going to be, Larry? I heard on the radio today it was 52, they're predicting.
I know, so up here it'll be 64, 66 like normal.
We did what, General, last time 70? General's high, higher than normal.
And the 40 first word? No, it'll be 64, 60.
What is the weather going to be? Time skill ahead.
Snow? I watched two, I watched seven, and five.
Two of them had it was going to be 50 degrees out.
And one of them said that it's going to rain in 40.
There's a front that might reach here by then, they don't know yet.
If it snows, it'll be about 58.
If it doesn't snow, you'll be in 62 to 64.
But I think it's going to snow.
You concerned about turnout? I don't think it helps as hard as nowhere to.
![Office Interview with Ald. Ambrosio Medrano [Cont.] / Ald. Brian Doherty’s Ward Night](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/7/4/4700_ca_object_representations_media_7444_medium.jpg)
![Doherty Election HQ: Thurs. Night [Cont.] / Polish-Americans Hang Signs for Granato](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/7/4/89756_ca_object_representations_media_7458_medium.jpg)