Poles apart - Chicago Poles lament loss of political clout

CHICAGO -- For decades, Polish restaurants, bars and bakeries dominated the main corridor cutting through the heart of Chicago's northwest side, where immigrants shared a love for the old country and a loyalty to politicians with names like Rostenkowski.

But along Milwaukee Avenue these days, as one observer notes, "pierogies are bumping up against the burrito shops."

It's an appropriate symbol for the political fortunes of Chicago's Poles: They're feeling squeezed out. Gone from the political scene are Polish names from the past who found success from City Hall to the U.S. Congress, embodied best by former House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, who was a potent symbol of the community for more than 30 years.

It's a trend that continued during the March 19 primary: Polish-Americans lost tough contests for Congress, the state Senate and the Cook County board.

"The Polish community has no political voice any more," lamented T. Ron Jasinski-Herbert, who works for the Chicago-based Polish National Alliance, a fraternal benefits organization. The Polish population here, once touted as the largest outside Warsaw, now clings to a few seats in the City Council and the state legislature.

Others garner attention

The community gets passed over when political appointments are made and government money doled out, with the attention going instead to other ethnic groups such as blacks and Hispanics, Jasinski-Herbert said. Not that others don't deserve what they can get, he said.

"But it shouldn't be done at the expense of anybody else -- in this case, us."

The reasons for the erosion in political power are many: a declining population base as Poles move from the city to the suburbs; ward and legislative remapping that has carved up the community; a culture that values economic success over political power.

"It's not a way of life for Polish-Americans," said Aurelia Pucinski, the daughter of former alderman and U.S. Rep. Roman Pucinski, who served the area for decades. "It's not part of the culture as it is in some other ethnic groups like the Irish."

Aurelia Pucinski, who served as clerk of the Circuit Court in Cook County and is currently running for a seat on the Appellate bench, said the dominant Democratic Party in Chicago has long taken the Polish community for granted. She switched parties for just that reason, and believes this latest election served as a wake-up call to others.

"The community has been made very alert to the disrespect and are very agitated," she said.

No coalitions

But Pucinski and other leaders in the Polish community acknowledge they are to blame for not building coalitions with other ethnic groups or even among themselves. This divisiveness was evident earlier this month when Polish American Congress President Ed Moskal, a strong supporter of Polish-American congressional candidate Nancy Kaszak, made comments about her Jewish opponent that many perceived as anti-Semitic.

In his speech at a celebration honoring the Revolutionary War general Casimir Pulaski, Moskal suggested that Rahm Emanuel had a greater allegiance to Israel than the U.S., and in reference to a Polish magazine that sold ad space to him, said "there are those among us who will accept 30 pieces of silver to betray Polonia."

The next day Moskal denied the remarks were anti-Semitic and said there was "no way in hell" he would apologize. He said he got a standing ovation that day and received calls and e-mails of support from many in the community.

Kaszak, who lost the race for the seat once held by Rostenkowski, repudiated Moskal's remarks and rejected his endorsement. Other Polish-Americans lined up against him, saying Moskal does not speak for the community and is symbolic of the lack of leadership that has led to the current political drought.

"He has an aging, declining cadre of supporters. He has his little core group," said John Pikarski, an attorney who was chairman of Emanuel's campaign and is co-chairman of the National Polish American-Jewish American Council. "The more educated and younger -- and by younger I mean under 60 or under 70 -- clearly do not respond to him."

Need new leaders

Pikarski believes Chicago Poles could again be a political force, but that Moskal and his supporters are standing in the way by discouraging the development of new leaders, "largely out of fear."

"Public service must be cultivated, and unfortunately our brightest and best are not entering into it," he said.

According to estimates from the 2000 census -- the final figures have not been released yet -- more than 200,000 people of Polish descent live in the city and about 550,000 in Cook County.

At Keepers, a northwest side bar where the only two beers on tap are Polish and the patrons order in their native tongue, Jasinski-Herbert contemplated what could be accomplished if that still-significant base could be organized. An alliance with the large Mexican population in Chicago would get Chicago's Poles back in the game, he said.

"Then we could take City Hall."