Among Hispanic politicians in Chicago and Cook County, there’s no dispute that U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-4) is Numero Uno. Gutierrez is likely to run for mayor on 2011, whether or not his on-again, off-again ally, Rich Daley, retires.
Gutierrez, age 54, rescinded his announced retirement in 2008 after concluding that, as a former congressman, he would forfeit his visibility, power base, and fundraising capability. Also, his successor in the 4th district would become an instant mayoral contender, thereby undercutting Gutierrez.
There’s plenty of dispute as to who’s Numero Dos – Number Two – among Hispanic politicians. The upcoming 2008 Democratic primaries feature plenty of contests between various protégés and allies of assorted Hispanic politicians, all of whom are jockeying to expand their power bases and/or undermine their rivals, all with a view to running for mayor, or running for an open 4th District congressional seat.
If Gutierrez is first. city clerk, Miguel del Valle, a former state senator, definitely tops the list as number two. Like Gutierrez, he is a Puerto Rican from the north side, and had a reputation as a liberal reformer and foe of Daley’s Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO)—until Daley named him clerk in 2006. Now he’s a booster of and apologist for the mayor. Del Valle is well-positioned to run for mayor, provided Daley backs him. Otherwise, in a contest featuring both Gutierrez and del Valle, the clerk would go nowhere.
Others striving to be number two include such ambitious politicians as Aldermen Manny Flores (1st), Danny Solis (25th), Ricardo Munoz (22nd) and George Cardenas (12th), Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado (8th), State Senator Iris Martinez (20th), State Representatives Susana Mendoza (D-1) and Cynthia Soto (D-4), Board of Review Commissioner Joe Berrios, who is also the county Democratic chairman and North Side 31st Ward Democratic committeeman, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Frank Avila, the only countywide Hispanic officeholder. And there’s always former city Treasurer Miriam Santos.
As of mid-2007, Berrios had $1.6 million in his campaign account – a fact that should really make him number one. But Berrios seems content to remain in the background, and promote other Hispanics – one of which is his daughter, State Representative Toni Berrios (D-39).
Among Hispanics, there is a huge ethnic, ideological and geographic fissure
—between liberal Puerto Ricans on the north side, Mexican-Americans on the west side, and relatively conservative Mexican-Americans on the South Side. Gutierrez, Berrios, del Valle, Maldonado, Santos and Martinez are Puerto Rican, from the north side. Flores and Soto are Mexican-American, from the near west side; Avila is Mexican-American from the northwest side. Solis, Munoz, Cardenas and Mendoza are Mexican-American, from the southwest side, although Munoz is an outspoken liberal. Solis is known as Daley’s “favorite Hispanic alderman.”
Just as during the second half of the 20th century, Polish, Italian- and others preferred to let the Irish keep control so as to prevent a rival ethnic group from winning the mayoralty, the same psychology applies to Hispanics: The Mexican-Americans don’t want Chicago’s first Hispanic mayor to be Puerto Rican, and the Puerto Ricans don’t want a Mexican-American.
When Gutierrez announced his retirement in 2005, Flores, Maldonado, Solis, Munoz and Cardenas jumped into the race. Flores raised over $500,000, and Maldonado solidified the north side Puerto Rican base, proclaiming himself the candidate backed by del Valle and Gutierrez. Since the north side of the 4th district casts about 25,000 votes, the south side about 18,000, and the suburbs 4,000, Maldonado was the favorite.
But that is now moot. Gutierrez is unopposed in the primary for his ninth term in 2008. First elected in 1992, Gutierrez is now the fifth-ranking Democrat on the financial services committee, chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee; 16th-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary committee, and on the Immigration subcommittee. If and when Gutierrez retires, all the prospective 2008 hopefuls will run for the job.
Here’s a look at upcoming Feb. 5 primary contests:
2nd Senate district (north of Grand from the Kennedy Expressway west to Nagle, north of Grand and south of Belmont): Del Valle represented this area from 1986 until his appointment as city clerk. He was a perpetual target of the HDO, but they never beat him. Del Valle’s longtime ally was State Representative Willie Delgado (D-3), who represented the western end of del Valle’s district (west of Kimball). Delgado was a state representative from 1998 onward, and beat numerous HDO onslaughts, usually quite narrowly. He won the 2002 primary by 24 votes.
When del Valle resigned, Berrios and Dick Mell (33rd), the principal committeemen in the area, engineered the appointment of Delgado as his replacement, and of Luis Arroyo, a precinct captain in Dick Mell’s organization, to Delgado’s House seat. Even though less than 10 percent of the district’s precincts are in the 1st ward, Flores is backing Proco “Joe” Moreno, against Delgado. Moreno is Mexican-American, and a fundraiser and precinct worker for Flores.
This is an early skirmish in the 2011 mayoral race. Berrios, del Valle and Mell must obliterate Moreno, and must nominate Delgado with more than 65 percent. For them, it’s a matter of pride. They can’t be embarrassed. Flores is attempting to expand his power base. The outlook: Delgado will win big.
20th Senate District: Mell is known as “Old Gringo” among Hispanics, due to his propensity to intervene in Hispanic contests. But Mell laid a huge egg in 2007, when he tried to oust Alderman Rey Colon (35th). Mell’s candidate was former Alderman Vilma Colom, and Mell deployed over 300 of his 33rd ward workers into the 35th ward for Colom. The result: In this Puerto Rican ward, Colon beat Colom, who was alderman from 1995 to 2003, with 62.3 percent.
The HDO exerted a major effort in 2002 to nominate Iris Martinez in the newly-created 20th District, which was 59 percent Hispanic. Martinez beat then-Alderman Mike Wojcik by 5,239 votes (61.5 percent), and was unopposed in 2004. But Martinez has alienated the HDO, and Mell is targeting her.
When del Valle quit in 2006, the state senate’s Hispanic Caucus, consisting of four members, had to choose a new member for leadership. Tony Munoz, a Southwest Side Mexican-American who was implicated in the Hired Truck scandal, wanted to be the assistant majority leader. But Senate President Emil Jones, with a 37–22 majority, picked Martinez for the leadership spot, infuriating Munoz and the HDO.
Then there’s this to consider: . Mell has two daughters: Patti, the wife of the governor, from whom he is totally estranged; and Deborah, an avowed lesbian, who wants to be a state representative. Half of Martinez’s senate district, the area north of Belmont, is represented in the Illinois house by Rich Bradley, a white first elected in 1996, and is 47.1 percent Hispanic; the southern area, represented by Toni Barrios, is 59.3 percent Hispanic.
Mell decreed that daughter Debbie shall be elected, so Bradley, who needs another year to get his maximum state pension, switched to the senate race, and was slated by the local Democratic committeemen, including Berrios.
The outlook: It will be odd for the HDO to campaign for a white guy against a female Hispanic incumbent, but they will try. Mell will also send in his troops. But Martinez will portray herself as a veritable Joan of Arc, being persecuted by a bunch of outsiders. Give Martinez a very slight edge.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District: Avila ran for commissioner in 1998, 2000 and 2002 as an independent, finally winning six years ago. His son, Frank Avila, ran in 2004 and 2006. This year, the senior Avila was slated, and faces a field of ten other candidates for three slots. It would be embarrassing to the party, and to Berrios in particular, to lose their only Hispanic countywide officeholder, but it could happen.
25th Ward (near Southwest Side, Clark to Western, south of 16th Street): Solis has been alderman since 1996, and was poised to run for Congress. But his power base has been eroding. He was re-elected in 2007 with just 52 percent. In 2008, he faces a serious challenge for committeeman. His foes include County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno, former Alderman Ambrosio Medrano (who is the current Republican committeeman), Robert Martinez and Cuahutemoc Mofrin, who got 21 percent of the vote for alderman in 2007. Moreno is a credible foe, but the large field aids Solis.
The outlook: southwest side Mexican-American rivals would like to slice Solis out of the mayoral pie, and will send in workers for Moreno. But, with his opposition divided, Solis will win with 40 percent.

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E-mail Russ@russstewart.com or visit his website at www.russstewart.com/. Russ is a reguilar columnist for The Chicago Daily Observer and a member of its editorial board..