Election Results '99: Black Ward Organizations Languish

By: Alysia TateIn an Uptown storefront on the North Side, campaign volunteers smoked cigarettes, sipped beer and celebrated a victory over an opponent who touted her endorsement by Mayor Richard M. Daley. At a Woodlawn beauty salon on the South Side, another group shook red-and-white pompoms in their triumph over City Hall.

But their bloodshot eyes revealed how hard they had worked.

In the 5th Ward, which covers Hyde Park and South Shore, Leslie A. Hairston hand-shaked her way over incumbent Alderman Barbara Holt, even using a hand-held counter once used by the late Mayor Harold Washington to meet her quota of talking to 100 voters daily.

In Uptown, 46th Ward Alderman Helen Shiller, whose lonely votes against Daley’s budget four times running earned her the title “Miss 49-to-1” among some, said she mobilized grass-roots volunteers to counter Democratic Ward Committeeman Sandra M. Reed’s political connections.