* The Tribune reports that election day absenteeism by city workers was way down this year…

Four years ago, more than one of every three workers in those city departments targeted by prosecutors were absent from their jobs on Election Day, according to newly released city records analyzed by the Tribune.

But on Feb. 27, the absentee rate plummeted by almost half, to 18 percent from 34 percent. […]

In Streets and Sanitation, 677 workers, or 20 percent, took off on Election Day 2007. Unlike in 2003, employees were more likely to miss work on the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas in 2006.

For the other four departments targeted in the federal investigation, this year’s Election Day did not even rank in the top five for days missed the prior year

* Paul Green had an analysis of Mayor Daley’s win in the Sun-Times today…

…Daley’s original 1989 electoral winning coalition of white ethnics, Latinos and lakefronters (the 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 46th, 48th and 49th wards) has held steady in their overwhelming support for the mayor. Second, Daley’s mayoral opponents have been, as they were in 2007, African-American, and once again these foes centered their energy mainly in the black community. Three, Daley’s support among African-American voters has grown and though in 2007 it was less than in 2003, it still was politically massive. […]

As in the past, Daley’s strength centered on his rock solid electoral base. Margin-wise (based on Brown’s and Walls’ combined vote) seven of his top 11 wards were on the city’s Northwest and Southwest sides (19th, 23rd, 13th, 41st, 45th, 11th, 36th), three others were along the north lakefront (42nd, 46th, 43rd) while the remaining ward was the Far North Side 50th. Each of these wards gave Daley 6,000-plus vote margins.

Daley’s best African-American margin wards were the West Side 29th Ward led by the mayor’s ally Ald. Ike Carothers and the South Side 16th Ward. Among Hispanic wards, another longtime Daley supporter Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward — Pilsen) and 31st Ward Ald. Ray Suarez (Near Northwest Side) produced the biggest margins for the incumbent.

Percentage-wise, Daley had three wards provide him with 90-plus percent of their vote — 14th, 11th and 13th. All three of these Southwest Side wards are located in Daley’s former home base and are led by such Democratic notables as City Council Finance Chairman Ed Burke (14th), the mayor’s brother and Cook County Commissioner John Daley (11th) and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (13th). Besides Burke’s ward, other top percentage Hispanic Daley wards were the 12th, 31st and 30th. In all the mayor captured 80-plus percent of the vote in 20 wards besides his 90-plus percent big three.

* I held up this entire post until I could do some follow-up work on a startling Beachwood Reporter story today. A nameless writer, who didn’t cite a single source, either on the record or off, claimed without qualification that Alderman-elect Brendan Reilly was already breaking a major campaign pledge…

[Reilly] hasn’t even been inaugurated yet and he’s already sanctioned a controversial new development in the very style of his outgoing predecessor, Burt Natarus. […]

Reilly is going to begin his term by tearing down a fortress of a building with no apparent discussion. […]

So the first act of our new alderman - I mean the new Prince of Downtown - is to advocate for a developer and campaign contributor from Kenilworth (which ironically wants to save its historic structures and ban demolitions) and an Evanston-based tax-exempt university, ignoring the sentiments of his tax-paying constituents and two non-profit preservation groups that seldom advocate for the preservation of the same structure.

Even though there were no actual sources cited by the anonymous writer, for a moment I seriously considered retracting my endorsement of Reilly that I wrote earlier this year. So I got ahold of the alderman-elect and let him have it but good.

Reilly, however, flatly denied everything in the report. Rather than take the time to write them all up, here are some of my notes from the conversation, which I also shared with the Beachwood Reporter’s publisher…

factually incorrect. could not be further from the truth. i’m not sold on the proposed development.

met with planning commission this morning and asked about the project. still gathering the information i need to make an informed decision.

needs to be thoroughly vetted by the community. when i said i wanted a transparent process i meant it.

i didn’t sign off on a demo permit

meeting with all parties. i have yet to speak on this issue. haven’t taken any position yet on a project. it will get a full debate in the community.

[the article was] way, way, way off base and insulting.

instructed developer to meet with entire neighborhood.

not told anyone that i’d sign off on it. i have not made a commitment one way or another.

In other words, Reilly says he didn’t “sanction” the project and he didn’t “advocate for a developer,” as claimed in the article above. Until I see some actual proof from the anonymous BR contributor, I gotta figure that there’s no there there. On the other hand, if Reilly lied to me for the first time in his life today (and we go back a long, long time), his life will be hell. That’s a promise.

* Oops. I meant to blog this fascinating column as well by Thomas Schaller on the collapse of the political center…

Sure, millions of Americans refuse to register with either of the major parties, and they avoid the labels “liberal” or “conservative” to describe themselves ideologically. But what matters more than how they fill out registration forms at their county board of elections or define themselves when pollsters call is the policy opinions and attitudes they espouse and how those opinions translate into votes.

On that score, Mr. Abramowitz demonstrates that not only are liberals and conservatives voting more predictably for Democrats and Republicans, respectively, but their social and economic attitudes are becoming more internally consistent. He says it is easier today to predict, say, how a voter feels about stem cells based on her position on tax policy.

“To a much greater extent than in the past, voters’ opinions on economic, cultural and foreign policy issues are closely interconnected with Democrats overwhelmingly on the liberal side of almost every issue and Republicans overwhelmingly on the conservative side of almost every issue,” Mr. Abramowitz says.

America seems to be coming to the end of a period of partisan dealignment that began with the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. The so-called vital center is collapsing.

Go read the whole thing. Fascinating stuff.