Much is at stake.
On Tuesday, Cook County Democratic voters will nominate their candidate to replace County Board President George Dunne and to win control of the jobs, contracts and political power that come with being chief of a $1.6 billion county government.
Those same voters will choose a candidate for state`s attorney, the job that launched Richard Daley on the way to becoming mayor. And they could deal the county Democratic organization one more setback, by voting for a handful of independents.
Yet, at 7:50 a.m. last Thursday, prime time for talk radio, one of Chicago`s top black stations was holding forth on health foods. The other was talking to the owner of a black car dealership about business.
A week earlier, empty seats had outnumbered spectators at a University of Chicago candidates forum. Only 60 people bothered to come, and a dozen of them were classmates of Richard Phelan`s son, Mark.
It seems that not many people are paying attention.
Chicago voter registration is at its lowest level since 1942, when official recordkeeping began. Suburban registration is up, but not by much. Public opinion polls have tracked a remarkably high number of voters who haven`t made up their minds about the county elections.
By contrast, interest in Du Page County politics appears to be growing. A strong Republican primary challenge to County Board Chairman Jack Knuepfer and several hot primaries for seats in the state legislature have experts predicting a much heavier than usual voter turnout.
Experts predict that, in Cook County, the turnout will be higher than it has been for the last three non-presidential primaries. Nevertheless, 260,000 Chicagoans who voted in the last Democratic primary for mayor won`t vote for the second most important office in local politics, if the projections hold up.
Voter interest traditionally lags in a primary, particularly when there is no mayoral or presidential race. This primary, though, marked the first time in 21 years that the County Board presidency was wide open, and it was expected to draw more interest.
The reasons it hasn`t are many: a highly negative campaign waged by the Democrats running for the job, the lack of a high-profile primary for governor or senator, no strong political personalities, and a spate of cash-poor campaigns that haven`t had the money to buy the television ads that would have increased visibility for the entire election.
And in Chicago, where voters are being asked to go to the polls for the ninth time since 1986, many people are just bored with the whole process.
Voters have not been pressed to get excited about county politics for a long time, and the candidates have not persuaded many voters that this year should be any different.
Not all of the reasons for disinterest are negative, however. Although overtones of race slipped into the campaign rhetoric late last week, there has been relatively little race-oriented dialogue in this election, and that helps to dampen some political fires.
Former state Appellate Judge R. Eugene Pincham doesn`t draw much support from whites but, like former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, he also doesn`t draw much enmity. Cook County State`s Atty. Cecil Partee, with the Democratic organization`s backing, is likely to get significant white support.
Likewise, blacks haven`t focused on one political enemy, as they could when Edward Vrdolyak ran the opposition to Harold Washington. Phelan, County Clerk Stanley Kusper and state Sen. Ted Lechowicz each have a share of black support.
Some key political figures, including the mayor of Chicago, are standing on the sidelines. Daley has publicly vowed not to get involved in the Democratic primary, although Pincham contends that Daley is covertly working for Phelan.
Many of Daley`s top allies also have given financial support and advice to Phelan, apparently with the mayor`s blessing.
Three prominent black candidates are running in the Democratic primary:
Pincham, Partee and Ald. Danny Davis (29th), a candidate for county treasurer. Yet there is a quiet on black radio and on the streets that would have been unthinkable in recent past campaigns.
Late last summer, it appeared that issues might be created over the ouster of Chicago Public Schools Supt. Manford Byrd Jr. and hearings into alleged police brutality.
But the brutality issue burned out, largely because Daley`s political opposition quietly left the debate. Jesse Jackson dropped the crusade for Byrd and ultimately reached an accommodation with Byrd`s replacement, Ted Kimbrough.
A Pincham victory in the primary would place him in a position to speak for black Chicago, but by running he has already threatened the political futures of some other black leaders.
Ald. Timothy Evans (4th) has endorsed Pincham, but Pincham has also installed a two-time Evans` aldermanic opponent, Toni Preckwinkle, as a campaign organizer in the 4th Ward. Allies say Evans isn`t likely to run for mayor again, but if he does, Pincham could stand in his way. If Evans faces Preckwinkle for alderman again, she could benefit from her ties to Pincham.
Campaign insiders whispered for weeks that some of Evans` allies, including Aldermen Dorothy Tillman (3rd) and Bobby Rush (2nd), were not supporting Pincham, although Rush insisted Saturday that he is working for the former judge and has placed his name on election day materials for the 2nd Ward.
The confusion, the threatened political careers and a general exhaustion of the black-versus-white political argument all have contributed to the lack of election fervor.
”I just don`t see the excitement out there,” said Wesley South, general manager of WVON-AM. ”Politics in any community is like a rubber band. You just can`t stretch and pull and stretch again without people getting tired sooner or later. The elastic could be used up.”
Conversely, white voters haven`t been spurred to oppose Pincham. Daley is riding high in popularity, and there is a sense that his re-election is inevitable, so the possibility of a Pincham campaign in 1991 doesn`t provoke deep concern.
Indeed, Daley could benefit from some victories by political independents. Three potential rivals, Pincham, Davis and Ald. David Orr
(49th), could win county offices that would probably preempt them from immediately running for mayor.
Fallout for Daley might come if Pincham wins the Democratic primary, then loses the general election because white Democrats flock to the Republican candidate, state Sen. Aldo DeAngelis (R-Olympia Fields). Daley doesn`t need a stirring of black-white factionalism shortly before his re-election campaign. But that`s not an issue on the front burner now, and Pincham has not provoked much antipathy.
”He`s not that well-known. He`s not that visible, and no one`s on TV hooting and hollering in the City Council,” explained a Northwest Side precinct captain.
Elsewhere in the city and the suburbs, it`s much the same. A last-minute television blitz might stir some interest along the lakefront in the race between U.S. Rep. Sidney Yates and Chicago Ald. Edwin Eisendrath (43rd). But the preeminent race, for County Board president, hasn`t convinced many that there is something dramatic on the horizon.
”I couldn`t tell you the first thing about them, and I`m not motivated enough to find out about them,” said Leo Martin, a public relations executive from Wilmette who generally follows local politics closely.
”It`s like baseball managers. They reach into a hat and pick out someone from the same dozen guys,” he said. ”They`re all uninspiring.”
