Word: epton
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Still clearly behind in a city in which voters are overwhelmingly Democratic and 41% are black, Epton, a millionaire lawyer, nevertheless now has a fighting, if slim, chance. Running on the slogan, EPTON FOR MAYOR-BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, he assailed Washington's conviction in 1972 for income tax evasion and added: "If it were my minority group, I'd be ashamed of this candidate." Said Washington: "If they [blacks] get the feeling that this is going to turn into a race war, then it might turn bitter, evil and angry...
Before last month, Chicago's Bernie Epton was a nobody. The sparse press coverage given the Republican contender for mayor was often limited to observations about how little respect Epton got, even from members of his own party, who not long ago convened in Chicago without inviting him to join party officials on the dais (he sat in the back of the hall). But that was before Harold Washington's upset win in the Democratic primary...
...with next week's election condensed to a one-on-one battle. Epton's campaign has been marked by the use of ads that overtly seek to stir up fear and hatred at the likelihood of a Black man serving as mayor. One particularly offensive television ad has an ominously becoming voice warning Chicagoans to "Vote for Epton--before it's too rate...
...Epton and his supporters have tried to explain this and other virulent attacks on Washington as responses to his less than angelic past, which features a 30-day jail sentence for failing to pay about $500 of taxes and a temporary disbarment. Oddly enough, many of the people who stress Washington's tax evasion are the same ones who stood silently for decades, blithely watching the infamous Chicago political machine commit every conceivable brand of corruption and electoral fraud. Washington's 30 days should definitely be remembered by voters--they are an ugly blotch on his record--but the sudden...
...they seek. Prejudiced whites in Chicago and New York, in their fearful haste to bar Blacks from positions of political authority, condemn residents of those cities to suffer under the uninspired, under-prepared men of mediocrity they throw in as buffers. The sooner demagogic purveyors of racial fears like Epton and Koch are made unwelcome, the sooner "merit" can truly improve the quality of leadership in America...