Back when the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and his powerful political machine ran Chicago, winning a Democratic nomination was tantamount to victory in the general election. These days the machine is falling to pieces, and candidates have little to lose by running without its support. The point was made abundantly clear last week when Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor, kicked off his campaign for a second term by threatening to skip the Feb. 24 Democratic primary altogether and run as an independent in April's election. Not to be outdone, a brigade of would-be successors, all lifelong Democrats, proclaimed that...
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