ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART
In politics, a month is a lifetime, a year is a millennium, and 2010, when the next census occurs, is an eternity. Voters forget, situations alter, and current problems, and conventional wisdom, invariably change.
Politicians on Chicago’s Northwest Side are already nervously pondering, or eagerly anticipating, the impact of the next census on their respective wards. At least one Northwest Side white ward, probably the 38th, will be dismembered in order to create a new Hispanic-majority ward.
The city’s geographic area west of Western Avenue and north of North Avenue – known as Jefferson Township on tax records -- contains all or parts of 15 wards. It includes all of the 41st, 45th, 38th, 36th, 39th, 33rd, 31st, 30th and 35th wards, and parts of the 50th, 40th, 29th, 26th, 37th and 1st wards.
The 29th and 37th wards have a black majority, and an exploding Hispanic population. After the 2010 census, the city council remap will combine those two wards, creating a new Hispanic-majority ward, and another pitting Aldermen Ike Carothers (29th) and Emma Mitts (37th) against each other in a black-majority section. Mitts is a protégé of Carothers, and he helped her get elected. She will certainly step aside.
The 26th, 30th, 31st, 33rd and 35th wards have a solid Hispanic majority, and will retain their Hispanic aldermen. The 1st Ward’s Hispanic majority is declining rapidly, with a white majority imminent, but that won’t threaten Alderman Manny Flores. The far northwest 41st and 45th wards are still all-white, with a minimal Hispanic presence. But there is a growing Hispanic population in the 39th, 40th, 50th, 38th and 36th wards.
Ongoing Northwest Side demographic change, particularly the burgeoning Hispanic population in the area south of Addison and east of Central, will surely necessitate the creation of another Hispanic-majority ward. That means that the white areas from the 36th and 38th wards – represented, respectively, by Aldermen Bill Banks and Tom Allen – will be collapsed into one new ward. And, if it comes to a confrontation, Banks will win.
The elongated 38th Ward extends from Kedvale (4100 west) to Octavia (7300 west), between Belmont (3200 north) and Gunnison (4800 north), with many dips and turns, and includes Mayfair (north of Schurz High School), Portage Park (west of Laramie and south of Montrose), Chopin Park, Dunham Park, Mount Olive Cemetery, and the old Chicago-Read facility along Forest Preserve Drive. According to sources in the ward, the Hispanic population his grown to almost 80 percent in the area from Cicero to Laramie, between Belmont and Irving Park – which is the corridor that attaches Portage Park to Mayfair. That area will definitely be appended to the 30th Ward in the remap. And Mayfair will be part of the a new 45th or 39th ward.
The Belmont-Central area, once a mecca of Polish-American immigrants, has evolved into a Little Mexico. The area between Cicero and Narragansett, from Addison to Belmont, is now heavily Hispanic. Polish residents have moved west and north into River Grove, Elmwood Park, Franklin Park, Schiller Park, Harwood Heights and Niles. In the next remap, Belmont-Central will be part of a new Hispanic ward.
The 38th Ward has long been the fiefdom of the Cullerton Clan. In the 76 years since the ward was created in 1931, in roughly the same area, a Cullerton – or Cullerton Clan member – has been alderman for 72. In fact, since 1871, when Eddie Cullerton was elected alderman on the West Side, and had a street named after him, a Cullerton has been in the city council for 119 of those 136 years.
The legendary P.J. (Parky) Cullerton was elected the ward’s alderman in 1935. In 1955, Cullerton aligned himself with a then-obscure South Side mayoral contender, Richard J. Daley, and hit the jackpot. After Daley won, he made Cullerton county assessor in 1958. After P.J. resigned, brother Willie became alderman, and served until his death in 1973. P.J. Cullerton was 38th Ward Democratic committeeman from 1932 until his death in 1981.
Willie’s successor was nephew Tom Cullerton, the city’s assistant chief electrical inspector when he won the 1973 special aldermanic election. After P.J.’s death, Tom became Democratic committeeman. Tom barely survived tough aldermanic contests in 1987 and 1991. He died in 1993, and Mayor Rich Daley named attorney Tom Allen as his replacement. Allen is part of the Cullerton Clan, at least by affinity. His wife’s sister is married to Tim Cullerton, Tom Cullerton’s son, who was, until his recent retirement, the city’s chief electrical inspector. Tim has no political ambitions, although his children might.
Allen was easily re-elected as alderman in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007. Allen, age 55, is presently seeking slating as the Democratic nominee for State’s Attorney in 2008. “I’m happy as alderman,” said Allen, but, he added, being state’s attorney would be the “fulfillment of a dream.” Added Allen: “I’m not now ready to be a judge,” for which he could slated if he wanted.
After Tom’s death, daughter Patty Jo (P.J.) Cullerton became Democratic committeeman, and has held the job since 1993. P.J. carried on the family business, working for the county assessor’s office, rising to become manager of technical review, and then shifting to the Cook County Forest Preserve District, as assistant to the superintendent. After 30 years on the county payroll, P.J. retired in 2005.
Should Allen be elected to another office, and resign, his successor as alderman would surely be P.J. Cullerton. “There are many qualified people who could replace (Tom),” said Cullerton, but she didn’t name one. She is daily at the aldermanic/Democratic ward office on Irving Park.
If the 38th Ward is strangely configured, so, too, is Banks’ 36th Ward. Much of the old 38th Ward, the area west of Harlem and north of Belmont to the city limits, is now in the 36th Ward. The old 36th Ward, prior to the 1990s, was south of Belmont and east of Harlem. The current 36th runs south to North Avenue, between Narragansett and Harlem, and then follows Belmont west to Cumberland and the city limits, curving in a crescent from Austin westward and then northward to Lawrence.
According to sources in the 36th Ward, the Harlem-Narragansett corridor south from Belmont contains an eclectic demographic mixture: It is Hispanic and Polish from Belmont to Diversey; it is overwhelmingly Hispanic from Diversey to Grand; and it is white and black from Grand to North, with the blacks primarily east of Oak Park, and the whites west.
The next remap will surely slice the area south of Belmont off Banks’ 36th Ward, and the area east of Central off Allen’s 38th Ward. That means the creation of a new white-majority ward running from Central to Cumberland, north of Belmont. The white, upscale area where Allen lives, around Portage Park, will be appended onto Alderman Pat Levar’s 45th Ward.
The bad news is that, if P.J. Cullerton replaces Allen as alderman, she would be remapped into a ward with Banks, who would be unbeatable. Cullerton resides in the Harlem-Forest Preserve Drive area, around Chicago-Read.
The good news is that the next Chicago aldermanic remap would not be effective until 2015. Hence, if Cullerton is appointed to replace Allen anytime before 2011, or if Allen remains as alderman, either would run for election in 2011 in the ward’s present boundaries. The 2011 municipal election will occur in February, with a filing deadline in December 2010. The 2010 census figures won’t be disseminated until mid-2011. So the 2011 ward races will be run in the existing wards.
If Allen is at risk, then Alderman Dick Mell (33rd) is at requiem. When Mell leaves, a Hispanic will win the seat. But as long as he runs, Mell can’t be beat. Mell’s 33rd Ward, which runs from Belmont to Foster, east of the Chicago River to Central Park, is now over 60 percent Hispanic. Mell, the father-in-law of Governor Rod Blagojevich, is known as “Old Gringo” among Hispanics, and the bulk of his precinct captains are Hispanic.
Mell, age 68, has been alderman since 1975, and Democratic committeeman since 1976. Without Mell’s sagacious advice and political assistance, Blagojevich would never have risen from assistant state’s attorney to state representative to congressman to governor. Now, according to sources close to Mell, he is ashamed that he did so.
Mell’s wife died in 2006. His aldermanic chief-of-staff, Chuck Lomanto, is his presumed successor if he resigns during his term. That will not occur. Mell will run again in 2011.
The bottom line: The 2010 census will be in effect for the 2012 ward committeeman races, but the 2000 census will be in effect for the 2011 aldermanic races. My prediction: The Cullerton Clan’s dominance will terminate in 2015, which means 84 years in the 38th Ward, and 126 in the council.
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