Cook County Board member Daniel O`Brien has launched the first media campaign in the crowded Democratic primary contest for county board with a set of radio spots that include comic Aaron Freeman in a partisan rerun of his
”Council Wars” routine.
One ad attempts to link O`Brien with Mayor Harold Washington, though O`Brien, a longtime party regular, has never been allied with the mayor and is running with the support of Chicago Park District Supt. Edmund Kelly, 47th Ward Democratic committeeman and a Washington opponent.
O`Brien, one of five incumbents dumped by Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th), Cook County Democratic Party chairman, from the Democratic county board slate, begins radio ads Monday on 13 stations. In the ads, ”Darth Vrdolyak”
descends on the board amid heavy breathing and campy organ music.
”Greetings, gentlemen, allow me to present to you some of my political droids. I have chosen them to be the new commissioners of the Cook County Board,” Freeman says, reprising the ”Council Wars” routine that drew widespread attention shortly after Washington was elected.
A dissenter is heard being choked off as he says Vrdolyak ”can`t dictate the makeup of the county board.”
Another 30-second spot, done to a rap beat, says: ”Harold is taming Vrdolyak`s strut; now Eddie wants his county cut. He`s taking his guys from the council pot and dumping them onto the county spot. Eddie hates our mayor and poor folks cryin`; that`s why he`s out to stop Danny O`Brien.”
The $15,000, one-week radio campaign could help give O`Brien an early edge in a field of 31 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination in the March 18 primary for the 10 Chicago seats on the county board.
The field of contenders resulted largely from Vrdolyak`s move to oust five board incumbents to make room for Aldermen Frank Stemberk (22d), Michael Nardulli (26th) and Frank Damato (37th)–who chose not to seek re-election to the Chicago City Council after the court-ordered remap of seven wards–and former State Rep. Marco Domico (D., Chicago) and West Side precinct captain Rose-Marie Love.
A U.S. District Court judge has ordered that special elections for alderman and committeeman be held in the seven wards, also on March 18. As a result of lawsuits contending that the city`s 1981 remap discriminated against blacks and Hispanics, the boundary lines of the seven wards were redrawn. The results prompted some incumbents to step down or seek election elsewhere.
