Illinois's 1st Congressional District - Politics

Politics

Democrats routinely dominate the political landscape in the district, with the main focus of competition being the party primary. Only twice since 1966 has a Republican candidate for Congress received over 20% of the vote, and the Democratic nominee has topped 80% in every presidential race during that time. The district's expansion into the suburbs in the 1990s has incorporated a population that has voted Republican more often; Republican support has passed the 10% mark, and George W. Bush received 17% of the vote here in 2004. His was the best showing by a Republican presidential candidate in the district in over 40 years.

Within the context of Chicago politics, the district has been noted since the early 1970s for its opposition to the city's Democratic machine. William L. Dawson, U.S. Representative from 1943 to 1970, had maintained the district's loyalty to the machine under Mayor Richard J. Daley. His successor Ralph Metcalfe initially continued that stance but publicly broke with Daley over an incident of police brutality in 1972, establishing a rift that has remained over the years. The civil rights leader Jesse Jackson organized campaigning for the 1972 reelection of U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy against machine-backed Chicago Alderman Roman Pucinski, and also for Bernard Carey for Cook County State's Attorney; Percy and Carey, both liberal Republicans, won their races.

When Metcalfe died less than one month before the election in 1978, Democratic party officials named loyalist Bennett M. Stewart to take his place on the ballot. Republicans replaced their candidate with A.A. "Sammy" Rayner, the anti-machine former Democratic alderman. Despite the campaign support of Jackson for Rayner, Stewart won the election, although Rayner did get over 40% of the vote. Jackson's forces helped Percy gain reelection to the U.S. Senate over the machine-backed Democrat.

Stewart served only one term, as machine opponent Harold Washington won the 1980 congressional nomination handily. He left Congress in 1983 upon being elected Mayor, after winning a contentious three-way primary with 37% of the vote. His successor in Congress was union organizer Charles Hayes. Hayes lost the 1992 primary to Bobby Rush by a 42%-39% margin following the House banking scandal, in which it was revealed that Hayes had 716 overdrafts on his congressional checking account. Rush had previously lost the 1988 and 1990 primaries to Hayes.

Rush was a co-founder of the Illinois Black Panthers in 1968, establishing a program for free breakfasts for poor children and a clinic for sickle cell anemia screenings. He became a Chicago alderman from 1983 until his election to Congress, and was an ally of Mayor Washington in the Council Wars of the 1980s. He has maintained a solidly liberal voting record in Congress, consistently voting the Democratic position over 90% of the time. When he has broken from the party, it has usually been to take even more liberal positions, rather than that held by Republicans. Rush opposed incumbent Richard M. Daley in the 1999 election for Mayor of Chicago, but despite the support of fellow congressmen Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Danny Davis, he was backed by only three out of 50 aldermen and lost the election by a margin of 72%-28%. He had a 55%-45% advantage among black voters. Barack Obama opposed Rush in the 2000 congressional primary, but Rush emerged with a 61%-30% win over Obama. Redistricting following the 2000 U.S. Census moved Obama's home into the 2nd district, although he has since moved back into the 1st district.

In Congress Rush has focused on urban revitalization issues, and he was a staunch supporter of gun control efforts before his adult son Huey (named for Black Panther leader Huey Newton) was killed in a 1999 mugging. Rush has generally received perfect ratings of 100 from labor groups including the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, and occasionally also from Americans for Democratic Action, the ACLU and the National Abortion Rights Action League. He received corresponding 0 ratings from the American Conservative Union in six of his first 12 years in office.