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Vote tells story: Dorothy Tillman's council run nearing end
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Candidate
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| Contributor | COSDem |
| Last Edited | COSDem Apr 18, 2007 01:31am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Chicago Tribune |
| News Date | Wednesday, April 18, 2007 07:30:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Dorothy Tillman joined the Chicago City Council 23 years ago with a hat on her head and her fists held high.
Late Tuesday, Tillman went home quietly, saying her race in the 3rd Ward was too close to call.
Tomorrow we will know whether I am the alderman or not," she told her supporters.
But by midnight, with all precincts counted, unofficial results showed she trailed labor-backed challenger Pat Dowell by 666 votes.
Dowell declared victory even though Tillman declined to concede.
Tillman had to fight to get onto the City Council after Mayor Harold Washington nominated her to fill the 3rd Ward seat in 1983.
Frequently touting her links to Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Tillman, 59, spent her career advocating for African-Americans, whether it was passing a slave-reparations ordinance or fighting for blacks to win city contracts.
But her critics said that while Tillman was long on civil rights, she grew out of touch with ward residents, failing to lure retail development or deliver nuts-and-bolts services expected of an alderman.
Even her cornerstone project, the Harold Washington Cultural Center at 47th Street and King Drive, was marred by controversy. One of Tillman's daughters runs the facility while also operating a catering service that supplies food for it. Critics said the center was underused and did little to attract businesses to the "blues district" promoted by Tillman.
Tillman dismissed the criticism and said she was building a cultural base for African-Americans just as other ethnic groups have throughout the city.
She had a history of difficult re-election campaigns, winning in a runoff election in 1995 and narrowly avoiding runoffs in 1991 and 2003. |
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