Word: vrdolyak
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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...
...Vrdolyak didn't want the votes of Blacks. Daley never had to confront his prejudice because in his time the Black vote was still disenfranchised. But while Daley never dealt with the Black vote; Vrdolyak did--and this latter day boss did not adapt to let Blacks into the machine on an equal level...
...question is whether the old machine style of powersharing between different ethnic voting blocks will work to keep the city at political peace or whether age-old racial divisions will prove too strong. Will racial prejudice in ethnic neighborhoods--spurred on by the baiting rhetoric of people like Vrdolyak who has begun to reach for the Republicans in neighborhoods he used to wardheel as a Democrat--make a white-Black sharing of power impossible as long as the Blacks are dominant...