Savor this, atrocity buffs: It was the year they shut down the government and no one noticed. All because Newtie had to sit in back of the airplane. He quickly pulled himself out of that pile of doo-doo by telling us that the monstrous murder of a pregnant woman in the west suburbs was the result of liberalism and the welfare system. Sort of like when Richie Daley told us that the Cook County medical examiner was to blame for the 500-plus heat-related deaths this past summer.
Son of Somebody
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We set a world record for candidates with criminal records during the aldermanic elections this year. No fewer than four ex-cons were on the ballot in as many wards–two of them backed by gangs. Wallace “Gator” Bradley ran against Dorothy Tillman in the Third Ward and told reporters, “I’m a Gangster Disciple, OK?” Later he claimed he was being sarcastic. The threat of Bradley strengthened the remarkable though undeclared alliance between Daley and Tillman, who prevailed. One ex-con did win–Alderman Walter Burnett in the 27th Ward. Burnett was backed by a different gang: the Democratic regulars.
One of the gangbanger aldermanic candidates, Hal Baskin in the 16th Ward, introduced us to a new psychosexual slant on violent crime. Incumbent Shirley Coleman was once married to killer-rapist Hernando Williams, who was executed this year. Why did Williams turn to crime? “[Coleman] may not have been giving the man what he needed at home,” suggested Baskin, “and that is maybe the reason he went out there on one of those rape sprees.” For his insights the voters rewarded him with about one-third of the vote.
Scary Gary
Carol Moseley-Braun, celebrating another year without an indictment, continues to prove she’s the best junior senator money can buy. First she finagled a multimillion-dollar tax break for the Tribune Company and a needy minority entrepreneur named Quincy Jones. Coincidentally, Moseley Braun was later featured in a cozy cover story in the Tribune magazine (endorsement soon to follow) and treated to a beaucoup-bucks fund-raiser in Hollywood sponsored by Jones. Then she became the only Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee to side with the multinational drug company Glaxo Wellcome in a patent dispute with a local drug firm. If the Illinois firm had won, it would have put a generic ulcer medication on the market at half the cost of Glaxo’s–helping local business and giving financial relief to the poor and the elderly Moseley-Braun claims as her constituency. The head of Glaxo let her use its corporate jet plane, donated $10,000 to her various campaigns, and paid her $15,000 for a speech–which would have been illegal had it not been paid during the period after her election but just before she was sworn into office. This was the first year Moseley-Braun raised more than she spent, and she still has a 1992 campaign debt exceeding a half million bucks. The federal investigation into her campaign fund continues.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustrations/Tony Griff.
