Race for Mayor of Chicago Tightens

CHICAGO--Mayor Eugene Sawyer stepped up the pace of his campaign yesterday, buoyed by late poll results showing him closing in on Democratic rival Richard M. Daley one day before a court-ordered primary election.

"We're going to get our people to knock on doors all during the day today and tonight and tomorrow morning," Sawyer said during a campaign stop at a West Side high school, one of at least 10 campaign events during the day.

Sawyer, the city's second Black mayor, was joined by Jesse Jackson at the school. He later campaigned at a public housing project, two senior citizens centers and other spots.

Daley was busy, too. The son of legendary Mayor Richard J. Daley visited restaurants, shook hands with commuters at elevated train stations and walked through neighborhoods in a frenetic final day of campaigining.

"I'm campaigning very hard," Daley assured reporters as he made one of more than 15 planned campaign stops.

Residents in the nation's third-largest city vote today to fill the vacancy left by former Mayor Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor, who died in November 1987. The Illinois Supreme Court last year ordered the special election to fill the last two years of his term.

Sawyer, who was elected acting mayor by city officials days after Washington's death, has been struggling to keep the seat. But as election day neared, he steadily closed on Daley, the Cook County state's attorney.

Poll results released yesterday showed Sawyer seven percentage points behind Daley.

Before the last two weeks, the campaign had been relatively free of the racial rancor that had marked recent mayoral elections. Since then, Daley has been accused of being a racist and Sawyer's camp used a videotape in which Daley appears to tell a predominantly white audience that "you want a white mayor."

Daley denied making the statement. His supporters say the candidate, who is well known for garbling his syntax, slipped and inserted an extraneous word that sounded like "what," not "white."

The election marks the fifth time in two years that Chicago voters have been called to the polls, and some residents appear to be turned off by the campaign.

The Board of Election Commissioners predicted 68 percent of the city's 1,549,367 registered voters would go to the polls.

Although early polls showed Daley far ahead of Sawyer, both candidates said the latest results confirm what they maintained throughout the campaign--today's vote would be close.

Daley and Sawyer are the top contenders in the four-way Democratic primary today, while three candidates are running on the GOP ballot.