It has all of the trappings of a political fable: the ambitious daughter of a longtime Democratic family transforms herself into a Republican to seek greater glory, only to face the wrath of a dynasty that could find no room for her.
But that is the real-life story Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Aurelia Pucinski, the daughter of a former Democratic congressman and alderman, will set up Thursday when she announces that she will switch parties and seek the GOP nomination for County Board president.
“In a county like this, with its Democratic traditions and heritage, even within her own family, it’s a dramatic and drastic move,” said former Democratic Senate President Philip J. Rock, a longtime friend and mentor.
Pucinski notified allies of her intention to switch sides through telephone calls Wednesday.
Upon her announcement Thursday, to be attended by top Republicans, including Gov. Jim Edgar, Pucinski immediately becomes the presumptive GOP nominee against the winner of a Democratic primary pitting incumbent County Board President John Stroger against Commissioner Cal Sutker.
That portends a high-profile clash between the children of two Democratic patriarchs: Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of the late Richard J. Daley, who is strongly for Stroger; and Pucinski, whose father, Roman, was a loyalist in the old Daley machine.
The move is a marriage of convenience for Pucinski, 50, in her third term as circuit clerk, and for Republicans, who have not held the County Board presidency since Richard B. Ogilvie won it in 1966.
For Pucinski, the Republicans offer the opportunity to seek the higher office she craves. As a Democrat, she was cocooned within the party and was rarely on anyone’s agenda.
For Republicans, Pucinski is a high-profile trophy, a tremendous Democratic vote-getter who could help the statewide GOP ticket and a candidate who does not shy from a political fight.
Her candidacy also will help Republicans combat a perceived gender gap among women voters.
“If there is a gender gap, this should help us close it,” said Herb Schumann, the Cook County GOP chairman and a county commissioner.
But for some Democrats, Pucinski’s move represents betrayal. That is especially true for party leaders such as House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) who worked hard to get her slated for re-election as circuit clerk after she lost to Stroger in the 1994 primary for County Board president.
It also is expected to prompt Daley to take a bigger role in the 1998 primary and general election to ensure that Stroger wins re-election.
A victory by Stroger, an African-American who has strongly supported Daley over the years, would lessen the prospect of a serious challenger emerging from the black community in the 1999 mayoral election.
“I think the Republicans get an excellent candidate. I think in terms of retail politics–of somebody willing to go out and press the flesh and work from dawn until dusk seven days a week– she’s probably the hardest-working person I’ve ever had experience with,” said Steve Brown, a spokesman for Madigan and a former Pucinski consultant.
“The downside is that she disappoints a lot of people,” Brown said. “Part of her problem will be in trying to overcome the question of whether this is an opportunistic move on her part. People will wonder why she couldn’t remedy the ills she saw in county government and the Democratic Party from within.”
But Thom Serafin, a Pucinski adviser who made the first overtures to GOP officials, predicted that the move will not alienate voters.
“The Republicans have been very willing and open and have been encouraging her for several weeks. They are offering her an opportunity to go out and talk to the people of Cook County and dialogue the issues,” Serafin said.
Pucinski’s feud this summer with Chief Cook County Judge Donald O’Connell in a dispute over lost court files was an added factor in her defection to the Republican side, those close to Pucinski said privately.
O’Connell and other judges said the disarray had resulted in lawsuits being improperly dismissed and orders of protection being prematurely vacated, among other problems.
While Pucinski acknowledged that errors did exist in the millions of court records maintained by her office, she said the mistakes were not so troublesome or pervasive as O’Connell contended.
But Pucinski found few leading Democrats taking her side in the argument.
Now, the most pressing question facing Pucinski is whether her decision is an act of political expediency to gain the County Board presidency or if she is truly subscribing to Republican ideals.
“I think she’s trying to get ahead–no matter how she runs,” said Richard Szaflarski, 66, a retired warehouse worker, as he sat in the J.J. Snack Shop in Pucinski’s home 41st Ward on Chicago’s Far Northwest Side.
Noting the court-records squabble, Szaflarski asked: “If she didn’t keep the records straight, how’s she going to run the county?”
But Al Wrobel, 69, a retired car salesman, was enthusiastic about her candidacy: “I think it’s the greatest! She’s going to make it–heavy,” Wrobel said. “She’s known throughout the area.”
Indeed, since she began licking envelopes and passing out literature for her father when he gave up his newspaper career for public office in the late 1950s, politics has always been a part of Pucinski’s life.
A lawyer, married for more than two decades to James Keithley and the mother of three children, Pucinski had long been viewed as a rising star within the Democratic Party.
In 1980, she was elected as a Jimmy Carter delegate to the Democratic National Convention, receiving more votes than any other elected delegate in the nation.
Four years later, she opened her own law firm and was top vote-getter among Democrats for election to the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago. Then, in 1988, she won her first term as circuit clerk.
But she has two high-profile defeats: the 1994 loss to the Daley-backed Stroger and, in 1986, despite her expected name recognition, she lost the Democratic nomination for secretary of state to a follower of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.
Pucinski also knows that Democrats who jump to the GOP do not always enjoy storybook endings. Even her father once thought about it for a 1983 bid for mayor but didn’t jump or run.
After defeating former Mayor Jane Byrne in the 1988 primary for circuit clerk, Pucinski beat former Democratic Ald. Edward Vrdolyak, who ran as a Republican in the general election.
And a Vrdolyak protege, former state Rep. Sam Panayotovich, was trounced by Madigan forces in his bid to remain in the General Assembly after becoming a Republican.
Still, since the courts are expected to uphold the end of straight-party punch balloting, which has long benefited Cook County Democrats, Pucinski’s name recognition could encourage crossover support from the ethnic conservatives.
“She’s very able,” Rock said. “I would not sell her short nor do I sell her short.”
