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Rockford analysis

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Chuck Sweeny has a very good analysis of the Rockford mayoral race.

By 2001, the local economy was tanking and the anti-Democrat vote mushroomed to 61 percent. That year, Democrat Doug Scott was elected mayor with just 37 percent of the vote. Independent Morrissey got 26 percent; Republican Dennis Johnson got 35 percent.

Scott didn’t understand this trend toward removing the ruling Democratic machine that had been in place in one form or another since 1973, when school principal and 1st Ward Ald. Bob McGaw became the first Democratic mayor in modern times.

Scott never tried to win over enough Morrissey or Johnson voters to earn re-election. Scott insisted that managing basic city services well during a recession and the July 5, 2003, windstorm was a darned good job.

People didn’t think good management was good enough in 2001; they didn’t think so last week, windstorm or not. But the Illinois Re-publican Party, stung by its collapse in 2004, was in no position to help Rockford GOP’ers bankroll a mayoral candidate, and the local party is in nearly as bad shape. The party couldn’t field a candidate until the last minute.

So, this year’s race amounted to a rematch between Scott and Morrissey, but this time with a weak Republican nominee who lacked her own party’s support — Gloria Cardenas Cudia managed just 4 percent of the vote. […]

Morrisseyâ€™s message

Morrissey added GOP voters to his liberal, yuppie base by promising progressive conservative change. Isnâ€™t that an oxymoron? Not really.

Morrissey offered progressive activism on jobs, neighborhood revitalization, downtown development and education. He promised to crusade for better housing and safer streets for the cityâ€™s poor.

But he also declared a conservative, pro-business doctrine to grow the tax base and was solidly against casino gambling. That was a smart position to take. A Chicago newspaper poll last year found that two-thirds of Illinoisans oppose more gambling.

Morrisseyâ€™s Roman Catholicism also was front-and-center: schooled at Holy Family, Boylan High, Notre Dame. Sicilian mom, Irish dad. That appealed to social conservatives.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 11, 05 @ 12:30 am

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