3rd Ward

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

--Andy Warhol--

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”

--Carol Burnett--

“This isn't good or bad. It's just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.”

--Real Live Preacher--

The talking is over. The talk shows are silent. And the results are in. The majority of the 3rd ward residents that voted made a change on Tuesday night.

Before and even after the runoff election there was a lot of talk about how unfair it was that the unions “targeted” so many aldermen that did not vote their way on the big box issue. There has been a lot of talk about how outsiders were trying to “influence” the 3rd ward from afar. There has been a lot of talk about how the unions and their leadership have not acted in the best interest of the African-American community. There may be some merit to many of those things that were discussed, but I noticed that during all of the discussions about the 3rd ward runoff election something very important was conspicuously missing. No one talked about the machine.

The 3rd ward residents, just like most of the residents of the other wards in Chicago, have been held hostage for over twenty years by the incumbent protection agency that is better known as the democratic machine. The machine usually protects incumbents from removal from office via a democratic process even when that politician richly deserves it. The machine usually gives an incumbent a huge advantage in raising money and a political army to put out on the streets to do the leg work to turn out votes. This election was different. The playing field was more level between the challengers and the incumbents. And guess what happened? Change was in the air.

Many of the incumbents, Dorothy Tillman being one of them, complained long and loud over the “injustice” of the unions providing money and man/woman power to help various candidates challenge them in their respective ward races. Yet, none of them ever talked about the huge advantage the machine provided them for years. No one talked bout how the machine acts to protect incumbents regardless of whether they are doing their job and serving the people or not.

No one talked about how things usually work here in Chicago. It is all about the good old boys network. It is all about the machine. The ward organizations are designed to get the vote out for their boss. Each ward organization turnouts a number of votes regardless of what has happened in that ward. These votes will be churned up not based on issues, the votes will be produced based on protecting jobs, contracts, or access. This means that unless a challenger has the name recognition, access to money, and/or political army to match the machine then they will have little to no chance of getting elected. That is why it is so difficult for independent people who want to serve the public to break into politics in this town. That is why things rarely change.

The machine is not designed to make sure that the most creative, intelligent, and hard working public official get elected. No. It is designed to get their “guy” elected regardless whether that person is the best person for the job. Well, that changed in this election. The odds were evened. The playing field was leveled and the results reflected that reality. The wards where the people were happy with the representation by their alderman those alderman were reelected. Wards where the residents historically wanted change but had been suppressed by the establishment finally were able to seize the opportunity and they made changes.

The bottom line is that regardless of how much money was spent by either Pat Dowell or Dorothy Tillman, over five hundred more voters in the 3rd ward decided that they wanted change than wanted to keep the same old song. The 3rd ward is changing. The people that are moving here are not interested in excuses or diversions. They want results. And now after over twenty years we may very well start to see some.