Word: sawyerism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Last week it appeared that the fabled boss's firstborn son might be the next occupant of the office in city hall from which hizzoner presided for 21 years. In a Democratic primary notable for its racially polarized voting, Cook County State's Attorney Richard M. Daley defeated Eugene Sawyer, a black who took over as mayor 16 months ago, after the death of Harold Washington, Chicago's first black chief executive. Daley's 55%-to-43% victory makes him an odds-on favorite in the mayoral election next month. It also set up a showdown between...
...white voters than black ones. Washington was able to win two terms by putting together coalitions combining virtually all black voters with about one-fifth of whites. But that coalition broke apart last week as 91% of whites opted for Daley and 94% of blacks cast their ballots for Sawyer. Turnout was a ho-hum 64.5% (compared with 74% in 1987), and the falloff in black districts was an especially sharp...
Many blacks have not forgiven Sawyer for the manner in which he became mayor. Backed by 23 whites on the 50-member city council, he prevailed in a raucous all-night session a week after Washington's death. Supporters of Alderman Tim Evans, an ally of Washington's, smelled a sellout. Shouting "Uncle Tom Sawyer!" they asked, "How much, Sawyer? How much?" as they threw coins at him from the gallery...
...Sawyer, a former chemistry teacher who, like Evans, got his political start in Daley's machine, never managed to recover from that inauspicious beginning. So inarticulate that he was dubbed the "Mumblin' Mayor," Sawyer made a few creditable appointments. But he also proved indecisive, delaying for a full week the firing of a subordinate who had made blatantly anti-Semitic speeches. Sawyer was reduced to claiming that he had accepted the keys to city hall in order to achieve gains for blacks. "Had I not taken those keys," declared Sawyer, "the ethnic rainbow we see would not be there...
Daley and Sawyer are the top contenders in the four-way Democratic primary today, while three candidates are running on the GOP ballot...