Sore Losers

WHEN CHICAGO MAYOR Jane Byrne last week announced her intention to run for re-election as a write-in candidate, following her February 22 defeat in the Democratic primary. Chicago's crumbling Democratic party fragmented further. Her intentions drew sharp criticism from local and national Democratic leaders who are supporting Rep. Harold Washington (D-III.) in his effort to become Chicago's first Black mayor. But at the same time, two prominent Chicago Democrats voiced their decision to endorse the Republican candidate, Bernard E. Epton, in the mayoral election April 12.

Byrne had pledged after her primary loss to support Washington, but characteristically, changed her mind. Washington said he was "thunderstruck" at the mayor's decision, but in perspective, her action doesn't seem all that shocking. Four years ago, at the beginning of her term, Byrne had done a similar flip-flop, with less fanfare.

Then, Byrne had just nosed past former Mayor Michael Bilandic, owing the narrow margin to a severe snowstorm and the largest Black voter turnout in the city's history. Byrne immediately thanked her Black constituency and pledged that she would meet with Black leader Rev. Jesse Jackson and others, to hear their views on how the city would work with Blacks in mind as well.

But instead of following up on the plan, Byrne went straight to the Democratic machine. Chicago politics confirmed much as they had before, with Byrne's major efforts going towards patronage jobs and making Chicago the first "designer" city all its trappings personalized with her name tag. There was Mayor Byrne's Clean Up Green Up effort to clean up the city, a Mayor Byrne's Taste of Chicago, a Mayor Byrne's Chicago Fest, and to top it all off, Mayor Byrne's Kool Jazz Fest, for which she disputed naming rights with the promoters of the national tour.

Only when the Rev. Jackson and a group of other Blacks organized a boycott of Chicago Fest--protesting Byrne's appointment of two whites to the Board of the Chicago Housing Authority, which controls predominantly Black housing projects--did the partying stop. That was just the beginning of the Black movement that booted Byrne out of the primary last month.

Washington's victory would ordinarily assure his position as the first Black mayor in the city's history. In Chicago, every Democratic primary winner in the past 50 years has won the April election. It seemed natural, then, that Byrne should support Washington and accept her loss gratefully. After all, in 1979 when she defeated Bilandic, she had done so as a reform candidate, just as Washington did, and like him she had won because of the enormous percentage of Black votes she received. In February, Washington got 80 percent of the record-breaking 85 percent Black vote.

But the tinge of racism that clung to the primary battle has raised nervous speculation about the city's chances. The weekend before the election, Cook County Democratic Chairman Edward R. Vrdolyak allegedly announced to white precinct leaders on the city's Northwest side that the primary had become "a racial thing" and contended that it was a battle between Byrne and Washington. "I'm calling on you to save your city, to save your precinct," he was quoted as saying. Nor had the Democratic organization rallied around Washington, mainly because of opposition in many of the city's white neighborhoods to electing a Black as mayor. Some of his most vocal white supporters are those who contend that the city's Democratic party is going to shambles anyway, so Washington might as well be in charge. Even after the city's voters had made their choice clear, newspapers have continued to write about Washington as if there were a chance to unseat him, mentioning in the same breath Washington's conviction after 18 years of failing to file his income tax, and his current proposal for raising the city's taxes.

Even more alarming is the extent of media attention Byrne's write-in campaign is receiving. Though newspaper and television political sages continually emphasize that her campaign would probably be illegal--Byrne plans to make stickers and name-stamps available to voters so they can stamp her name and an X on the ballot--the same commentators are taking care to clarify step-to-step voting procedures for writing in a candidate--in case someone wants to. And the fact that the Superintendant of the Chicago Park District Edmund L. Kelly, the largest patronage dispenser next to Byrne, decided to endorse Epton a few hours after Byrne made her announcement, and long-time machine power Aid. Vito Maraulo also jumped on the Reagan bandwagon, only serves to chip away at already-affirmed Democratic support for voter-endorsed Washington.

BECAUSE EPTON has made it clear that his plans for the city are nearly identical to those proposed by Washington, one can only assume that Byrne and other party jumpers are motivated solely by political and racial motives. Byrne, predictably, denies the race factor. "I am not running for Blacks or for whites, the Democratic Party, or the Republican Party, or any political organization," she announced. Washington, who has not mentioned the racial implications of her candidacy, speculated that Byrne is driven by political motives: "She has money left from her $10 million campaign fund and the only way she can spend it is by continuing her efforts to get re-elected."

In the end, Byrne will probably manage only to make herself appear more racist. If she is taken seriously in the election--and in a city so easily spurred by racism, there's a good chance she will be--she will take votes from Epton before she cuts into Washington's Black voting block.

Washington, the underdog throughout the primary, spent less than $500,000 in his campaign, did not have the Democratic Party support, and got only the endorsement of a limited circulation Black community newspaper. But what Washington got was, and still is, far more important. He won the support of the voters, and despite the antics of Byrne and other Democrats, he probably still has them.

Byrne's escapades will only re-emphasize to voters the reasons Washington won in the first place. He has 20 years of a shining political career behind him and all the proper local qualifications. Born in the city's Cook County Hospital, he graduated from Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable High School (named after the city's first settler, who was Black) and Chicago's Roosevelt University and finished eighth in his Law School class at Northwestern. The factors that built him his solid Black support are not going to go away. And for Byrne and other party-jumping Democrats, busily throwing a loser's tantrum, their bigoted view of the word race has lost them all chances for winning the mayor's race.