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Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff |
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Two Old Foes Face-Off in the 35th Ward
Produced by Mike Rhee on Thursday, April 12, 2007
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35th ward |
There's a rivalry on the Northwest Side of Chicago that's been brewing for nearly a decade. It takes place in the 35th Ward, which is located roughly West of the Kennedy Expressway, between Belmont and Armitage Avenues. Since 1995, two aldermen have run the ward: Vilma Colom and the incumbent, Rey Colon. The run-off on Tuesday will mark the third election these two candidates have fought for the same seat. That's right, Colom vs. Colon, Round Three. Chicago Public Radio's Mike Rhee reports.
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A week before the election, at a last-minute chips-and-dip fund-raising event, 35th Ward Alderman Rey Colon reminds his supporters why they're there.
COLON: You know I gotta tell you that, if you would've asked me if I would've been in this run-off I would've said, 'No, I got it, there's no way that I could be in a runoff'. But here I am. And the reason I am is because 272 people didn't come out and vote.
It took Rey Colon two tries to unseat Vilma Colom and become alderman. He lost to her once in 1999, then beat her, handily, in 2003. Rey Colon billed himself as the independent, anti-Machine candidate.
CAMPBELL: ...the maverick guy who was going to go in there and shake up the good ol' boys club, and get things done for the 35th ward.
That's Tim Campbell. He used to support Rey Colon. And if you can't tell by the tone of his voice, he's disappointed. Campbell owns a two-flat in the Avondale neighborhood that faces a large, empty lot.
CAMPBELL: I call it my field of dreams. Nothing has happened over there. And I have a feeling if Rey wins again, it'll sit another four years.
Campbell says the alderman hasn't done enough to develop more business in the ward in places like this, while he's allowed condo after condo to go up all over the neighborhood. Campbell also says Colon broke a major promise: that he would listen to the residents of the ward.
(Sounds of BINGO)
On a recent weekday afternoon, Rey Colon makes a visit to a local senior center. He says he's devoted to residents' input.
COLON: The community is actually on the front line of dealing with development issues and negotiating what that's going to look like. Out of 241 zoning changes that have occurred since I've been alderman there have been two occassions where I've actually decided against the committee.
Colon says he's still as independent as he was from day one, even though he says he's voted with Mayor Richard Daley more than 70-percent of the time. He's also taken tens of thousands of dollars in union contributions. As in other city run-offs, Colon's support for big box wage reform has won him strong support from the unions.
COLON: In order to be a successful alderman you have to do a good job fundraising, and in order to run a successful campaign to stay in the job of alderman it requires fundraising also.
COLOM: I learned from my mistakes.
That's Vilma Colom, former alderman of the 35th ward.
COLOM: I learned that the most important endorsement for a candidate is the people who live here.
We're at Colom's campaign headquarters, and it's, in a word, humble. What looks like a former convenience store has been hastily converted into a working office. During Vilma Colom's two terms as alderman, the ward was mostly made up of working-class Latinos and Eastern European immigrants. Colom allowed a Home Depot to go up in the ward, and some saw that as a green-light for gentrification. She was also criticized for being a brash, insensitive leader, who followed the wishes of long-time Chicago Alderman Dick Mell. Mell's campaign continues to finance Vilma Colom, but she insists she's not a puppet.
COLOM: And so I really resent that every time we talk about me running that it comes back to the same cycle. There's nothing wrong with your friends helping you, and I consider the Mell family very close friends. I consider them family to me.
Colom admits she may have been too loyal to too many people last time around. She says she would like to see the ward maintain its smaller-scale housing, and not become overcrowded. She also says she'll listen more to residents. Ironically, that's the same argument Rey Colon used to unseat her four years ago.
SOTOMAYOR: I truly believe that there's, for me, there's no difference.
That's Miguel Sotomayor, the third-place candidate from February's election in the ward. Sotomayor says that both campaigns have basically turned to mudslinging. He says he probably won't vote on Tuesday. But Colon and Colom will keep trying to convince other, more likely voters, that they're different, and that they'll truly represent the ward.
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