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The city of Chicago's 44th Ward (boundaries pictured) is a liberal, lakefront ward...but GOP committeeman Jim Fuchs and the Chicago GOP are working to make inroads here and elsewhere, as columnist Ralf Seiffe found out during his visit to their monthly meeting.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

By Ralf Seiffe

OPINION - On Monday night, looking to shake off the remaining effects of a Superbowl party, I traveled to the Big City Tap on Belmont to take in the monthly meeting of the 44th Ward Regular Republican Organization. It did the trick.

The 44th Ward organization is under the direction of comitteeman Jim Fuchs. He’s an enthusiastic volunteer able to project his voice above the din of the saloon even when his microphone failed. The jovial crowd speculated the dead mike must be a Democrat election judge’s dirty trick so Fuchs’ ability to overcome it was taken as a talisman of future success.

Sited between Lake Michigan and Ashland, north of Diversey and south of Irving Park, the ward contains some of the city’s most revered treasures including Wrigley Field, Belmont Harbor and the North End of Lincoln Park.

It’s surprisingly large, too; if the ward was a county, it would be the 25th largest Illinois county. According to Mr. Fuch’s introduction, the ward has 38,000 voters with only 1,062 pulling Republican primary ballots in 2004. Clearly, Jim has work to do.

Before the meeting started, I had an opportunity to mingle in the crowd which revealed a wide variety of people from inside and outside of the ward. This was a very upscale crowd of urbanites who seemed to be concerned with corruption in the two Democrat administrations and the connection between public education and real estate taxes.

Andy McKenna, the Republican Party’s new chairman was the evening’s headliner.

His introduction listed a phenomenal number of good deeds he’s doing including a success with a privately-operated high school in Pilsen.

Mr. McKenna reported that the students in the government school serving that area had the highest drop-out rate in the state. When that same population began attending the Cristo Rey High School, the drop-out rate asymptoted to zero and the 98% of the graduates went on to college. “Good colleges, too.” according to the Chairman.

McKenna made three basic points and took some questions. Having just assumed the job at the party, the crowd was particularly interested in what he had to say about corruption, grassroots organization and a little philosophy about Chicago politics.

McKenna noted that the governor had a $10 million war chest and that this incredible treasure was enough to spook potential candidates from running.

In what sounded like a winning campaign theme, he asked us not to be concerned with the amount in Blago’s warchest but how it got there. Further, the best tag line in memory was “What’s the cost of corruption?”

As I envisioned that on the side of buses all over Dick Mell’s ward, McKenna began to list the possible costs of corruption along with the governor’s management failures. There are plenty including $2 million in undeliverable flu shots, the membership vacuum in the state’s senior citizens’ drug plan, the state’s financial shenanigans and his dispensing of jobs, jobs, jobs.

This was a winning tactic and it is well worth developing into a focus-tested, campaign strategy because there is not much the Democrats can do to respond.

Another of McKenna’s points was the importance of grass roots efforts.

Grassroots organizers in Southeast Ohio are why George Bush is president today and political professionals all want to emulate the last battle. The value of grassroots is self-evident but Illinois Republicans must also realize that it’s worth spending some time and media budget in actual party building activities; it’s hard to ask someone to be an “R” when they perceive that Y-A-N is what follows.

The problem is that Illinois does not have a functional party that contests Democrat office holders and ideas. In other states, where they do, it is a much simpler matter to fire up the troops and get them to ring doorbells because they understand the party’s platform---and agree. Illinois Republican strategists should spend some of those soft dollars on what they are supposed to be spent---“party-building activities”.

One other development at the ward organization’s meeting could help Mr. McKenna become a great party chairman. Tom Swiss (27th Ward GOP Committeeman) has calculated the proportion of Chicago voters Republicans must secure to win state-wide.

The analysis shows that if Republicans get a quarter of Chicago’s votes, they nearly always win. Conversely, if they get fewer than one out of six Chicago votes, they are guaranteed losers.

In the 44th ward, less than 3% of the voters pulled a Republican primary ballot. But, in the general election, more than 8,000 voted for President Bush. That’s 21% Republican; only 1,500 more turns the 44th into a contributor to a Republican Illinois. Only two conversions a day until the 2006 election will turn that trick. There must be similar stories in other ward where the three generations of Democrat damage can be repaired.

Spend a little money in the 44th, Mr. Chairman. With a little effort, you can Turn Jim Fuchs into a “wardhealer”.

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Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader.