• Steve Bogira
  • Frank Tooley, who does odd jobs at New Beginnings Church, stands in the church lobby just after a poll closed in the lobby Tuesday. Behind him are canned goods the church is collecting for a Thanksgiving food drive, and a motorcycle it will auction off to raise money for a community center across the street.

Chicago stuck to its faith in the governor’s election Tuesday, overwhelmingly blessing the Democrat, Pat Quinn, citywide—but the Magnificent Mile opted for a higher power.

The 42nd Ward, which includes the North Loop, River North, the Fulton River District, Streeterville, and the Gold Coast, is Chicago’s richest. All four of the wards in which the Winnetka Republican did well are predominantly white and include the city’s most affluent areas.

Rauner’s support from a few notable African-American ministers in Chicago didn’t translate into many African-American votes. In the city’s black wards on the south side, Quinn’s percentages were in the mid-90s, as they were four years ago. Voters in these precincts have been unwavering Democratic parishioners for decades; a Democratic candidate would be lucky to get as much support from his friends and neighbors as he or she can count on here. (Quinn’s home precinct on the west side gave him 86 percent.)

I asked him who he thought was more likely to improve the employment picture, Quinn or Rauner. He said he didn’t have much faith in either candidate “doing what’s necessary to make that happen. It’s something you just hope and pray for.”

The city’s Hispanic vote isn’t as easy to gauge, since Hispanics aren’t concentrated in wards as much as African-Americans are. The predominantly Hispanic wards on the southwest side were a breeze for Quinn, but not the gale he got in the black wards. Quinn won 84 percent in the 22nd Ward (South Lawndale), which is 87 percent Hispanic and 8 percent African-American. In Alderman Ed Burke’s 14th Ward (Archer Heights, West Elsdon, Brighton Park, Gage Park), which is 80 percent Hispanic and 17 percent white, Quinn got 74 percent. In the 12th Ward (McKinley Park), which is 82 percent Hispanic, 9 percent white, and 7 percent Asian, he got 78 percent.