[Chicago mayoral primary 1987]

News report on the 1987 Chicago Mayoral election.

00:00Copy video clip URL News anchor Dick Johnson says Cook County Assessor Tom Hynes is officially out of the Democratic Mayoral Primary tonight. He will run as a candidate in the new Chicago First Party.

00:12Copy video clip URL Hynes blasts the issues of competing candidates. Mayor Washington, meanwhile, refuses to comment on whether or not he’ll stay in the Democratic Primary. With Hynes out it appears to be Edward Vrdolyak versus Jane Byrne versus Harold Washington. The Mayor says he’ll run on his record. Byrne says his record is the issue. Hynes will be in with a new party and thinks Washington doesn’t have a chance to win. Vrdolyak says he’ll be on the ballot as well and casts Hynes as a spoiler who came in late.

01:30Copy video clip URL Vrdolyak says four years ago Hynes and Washington were great names in Chicago politics. But Washington is leading the polls now. His enemies will watch him closely for a slip.

01:55Copy video clip URL A journalist says Vrdolyak thinks crime is the biggest issue right now in the city and will hire 1700 new police officers if he’s elected mayor. Murder, assault, and robbery are up in Chicago because they don’t have the manpower to fight crime. The police force is seven hundred officers short. He says Washington made a campaign promise to hire 1,000 officers. Washington denies promising to hire that many.

02:59Copy video clip URL END