Primary Results: Guzzardi wins big, Preckwinkle’s phony progressives lose
Illinois’ March primary elections demonstrate that new, independent forces are emerging on the Chicago political scene. Both the old machine politicians along with the old line so-called “progressives” are being swept aside. Young activists, like Will Guzzardi and his supporters, along with newer progressives like the eight members of the Progressive Reform Caucus in the City Council are fighting to build a real independent political movement in Chicago.
Will Guzzardi’s 60% victory (in the 39th state rep district) showed how a grassroots, movement based campaign can defeat the state (Madigan) and Cook county (Berrios) Democratic machines. Toni Berrios, daughter of the infamous chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, Joe Berrios, couldn’t come close to winning even with the low voter turnout. With patronage jobs shrinking, the old machine operation isn’t what it used to be.
Some of the more opportunistic politicians have recognized this and as Guzzardi’s campaign picked up steam, they moved to support him. However, in this election, opportunistic progressives didn’t fool many and were quickly defeated.
Green Beginnings: The roots of Guzzardi’s victory go back to 2008 when Green Party candidate Jeremy Karpen challenged Toni Berrios for the 39th district seat. He challenged again in 2010 and though, as a Green, he couldn’t gain a winning margin of votes from union members and regular Democratic voters, he did get 35% of the vote, the highest percentage ever won by a Green in Illinois. Karpen’s effort galvanized a political base in the Logan Square area and among progressive activists outside the district including some from PDA-Chicago. Those beginnings contributed directly to Guzzardi’s 2014 victory. Justice Party supporters can learn much from this experience. Progressive victories result from long term political base building, community involvement and the building of personal relationships.
Beyond Guzzardi’s win, what proved most interesting were the moves by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to position herself as the progressive alternative in a possible run for mayor. Her strategy seemed to be to elect allegedly progressive allies who will support her in the election. That strategy stumbled in the primary election.
Preckwinkle endorsed Toni Berrios in the race against Guzzardi probably with the intention of lining support from Joe Berrios and Mike Madigan for her Mayoral run. But the attempt to remake Toni Berrios as a progressive, clearly failed. The progressive electorate in the 39th ward rejected Berrios overwhelmingly.
Preckwinkle’s backing of Edwin Reyes for County Board in the 8th district also didn’t come close to winning. Here the attempt to paint Reyes as a progressive running against Luis Arroyo Jr., son of machine honcho Luis Sr. fell flat. Most likely voters saw little difference between Reyes and Arroyo. Preckwinkle also backed Blake Sercye for Cook County Board in the 1st district and Josina Morita for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Both lost.
One of Preckwinkle’s endorsed candidates, Christian Mitchell narrowly defeated Chicago Teachers Union-endorsed Jay Travis for state rep in the 26th district. But Mitchell, the corporate Democrat, had the backing of many wealthy Republican donors including Lester Crown and Bruce Rauner. Moreover, Mitchell split the progressive vote by gaining endorsement and support from the Sierra Club and Chicago-based National People’s Action. So it’s unclear whether Preckwinkle’s endorsement played much of a role.
Before the election, Preckwinkle was leading Rahm in polls, but the primary election results may well weaken her candidacy among progressives and possibly the general electorate.
The political space being carved out by progressives in Chicago is creating space for new political alignments to form. Local Justice Party supporters should move quickly to take advantage of this opportunity by identifying and supporting progressive independents who want to run in the 2015 municipal elections. Those elections will be non-partisan, which actually benefits new parties because they can publicly support good candidates and use those races to build name recognition and attract supporters.
Chicago progressive can be proud of the movement we are building. But this is only the beginning on the long road to political independence and political power.
