It`s midnight in the 3300 block of North Halsted Street and it`s cold. A man who asked to be called Vince has been sitting here for hours, handing out literature to men and women who wander past his sidewalk ”Vote for Dukakis” table.
That kind of commitment must mean that he`s really gung-ho about the Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, right?
”Uh, well, yeah, I guess,” Vince says. ”Yes, I will freeze my butt off working for Dukakis, because the poor guy needs all the help he can get. But really, it`s because he`s the lesser of two evils. I`m more against
(Republican candidate George) Bush than for Dukakis.”
Groups of Chicagoans often lumped together under the label of ”Lakefront Liberal,” seem to be having a hard time getting excited about this election. From the yuppie laundromat-bars, boutiques and health clubs, to the high- rise apartments for retired citizens, to the gay bars and women`s bookstores, along with the homeless shelters of Uptown, there are few buttons, posters or bumper stickers to indicate that less than a week from now, a new president and a host of local candidates will be voted in to office.
In fact, voters in six lakefront wards normally considered Democratic strongholds, and who gave Walter Mondale a 56 percent majority in 1984, might not be so liberal this time around. Some say they might not vote at all.
Those interviewed in recent days blame the candidates for voter apathy, citing a lack of charisma and a refusal to tackle serious issues. Many of those who say they will vote also say they might remain undecided about whom to vote for right up until they step into the election booth next Tuesday.
Others are like Laurie Ross, a member of the Lakeshore Health Club, 1320 W. Fullerton Ave., who feels her vote will be wasted, since her boyfriend backs the opposing candidate.
”It`s real split,” Ross says. ”The couples we go out with are offsetting each other. We`re even debating whether to vote.”
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Dukakis was not the choice of Lakefront Democrats in the March primary. He came in third, behind Paul Simon and Jesse Jackson. Bush was top man for the Republicans, however, with 53 percent of the GOP vote.
Since the primary, workers have registered an impressive number of new voters. The 43d Ward has the most new voters of any ward in the city-6,765 according to the Board of Elections. The other lakefront wards led the rest of the city in new voters. The 44th registered 6,556; the 42d, 4,307; the 46th, 4,068; the 48th, 3,864; and the 48th, 3,251.
Ron Munvez, clad in shorts and a T-shirt with a towel drapped across his shoulders at the bar of the Lakeshore Health Club, turns his talk from the Chicago Marathon to the upcoming election. Munvez said he might vote Republican for the first time this year.
”I`m not real liberal for a Democrat, and Dukakis is a little too liberal,” says Munvez, who owns a company that sells household goods.
”I just don`t trust Dukakis,” Munvez says. ”He had to make concessions to (Jesse) Jackson. Bush is a branch of Reagan, and I don`t like Reagan. I won`t have my mind made up until that morning.”
Imperial Towers, 4250 N. Marine Dr., used to be called little Isreal because of the large number of Jewish residents who live there, residents who often deliver hard for the Democrats.
But this election, the spark and the support is lacking. Some residents feel Bush might take the majority of the building`s 900 votes.
”I`m Jewish, and I`m liberal,” says resident Jerry Goldberg. ”But I`m more inclined to vote for Bush. I don`t feel Dukakis has any emotions. I`ll decide next Tuesday.”
One of the few groups that often vote as a bloc are young gay men defining their politics by how it affects their ability to live and work openly. In 1988, they are having a tough time getting fired up about the governor from Massachusetts.
”Dukakis doesn`t really excite me,” says Jeff Wallace, sipping a drink after work at a Rush Street bar. ”But the Democrats are better on social and human issues, and Bush is such a chameleon that I just don`t trust him.”
Local political races are igniting even less enthusiasm.
”I don`t even know who is running in most of the local elections,” says Dennis Murphy, who says he has been a Democrat all of his voting life. ”The Vrdolyak-Aurelia race is a `yawn-yawn,` ” he says, referring to the contest for Circuit Court clerk between Republican Edward Vrdolyak and Democrat Aurelia Pucinski, ”and it goes downhill from there.”
At other bars and restaurants on Halsted Street and Broadway, gay men talk about what they saw as a ”nonchoice” between the presidential contenders.
”From a gay point of view, it`s scary,” says John Horne. ”When I think of Bush, I think of the possibility of concentration camps for people with AIDS. It`s like, real right wing. Like we`d be back to leper colonies.”
But for every Wallace and Horne, there are other, less open, gay men who say they are not considering gay rights or AIDS when they decide who they think should be the next president.
At a Walton Street spot just north of Bloomingdale`s, about 300 men in blue suits and red ties enjoy a Friday night cocktail hour.
Steve, who asks that his last name not be used, says he will vote his pocketbook.
”A long time ago, someone told me that the more money I made, the more Republican I would vote,” Steve says. ”I was a Democrat then, and I didn`t believe him. But I do now. It`s a struggle for a gay man, because of the human rights issues. But, bottom line, I`m a businessman, and I`m for Bush.”
For lesbians, it is a different decision. And polls that show Bush winning have many already looking ahead to 1992.
Rachel Pepper, a freelance writer and employee of the feminist bookstore Women and Children First, says: ”I just want it to be over with so we can start mourning.”
”The idea of Bush as president takes my breath away, especially with three Supreme Court openings coming up in the next few years,” Pepper says.
Suzanne Davis, executive director of the 43d Ward Republicans, hopes to lure new Republican voters from the pockets of newly renovated lakefront areas.
But Kim Young says life is not wonderful for customers at his drugstore on a seedy strip of Wilson Avenue near the lakefront. ”The very poor person, they live in this area,” says Young, a Korean immigrant with a house in Skokie. ”They say they`re gonna vote Dukakis. Reagan policy is not good for the poor people. If they go with Dukakis, something will change.”
Young says he initially backed Dukakis, but has now decided to vote for Bush.
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”Dukakis,” says Young pointing to his head, ”is very sharp. But this,” he says pointing to his heart, ”No.”