Word: vrdolyak
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...only interest the Democrats are not meeting is the personal ambition of Vrdolyak. The former leader of the Cook County Democratic machine could not win the party's endorsement for mayor--and he couldn't garner enough votes as a third party candidate to unseat incumbent Democrat Harold Washington...
FORTUNATELY for the party the needs of white ethnic and Black laborers are very similiar. Vrdolyak has refused to recognize that. Instead he has let his own distaste for dealing with Black politicians drive him from the party that strives to meet the needs of all people...
When Washington, the first Black Mayor of Chicago, first won the nomination of the party five years ago, Vrdolyak, who was a chief alderman, embarked on a political battle with his party colleague. Vrdolyak, the son of a Lithuanian saloon keeper, refused to share power on equal terms with the Blacks in the city...
...battle between the two--dubbed council wars by local comics who portrayed Vrdolyak as a Darth Vader and Washington as a Luke Skywalker who destroyed the "machine star" by hitting at its core, the mayor's office--had its final clash this past year when Washington showed that he had enough political clout to maintain his Democratic endorsement for Mayor. He then handily won the general election, defeating a Republican and Vrdolyak...
...Vrdolyak was Daley's successor but he failed to learn one of the principal lessons of the machine politician: every vote--no matter who casts it--counts toward victory...