For years politics in East Village and Ukrainian Village was dominated by one man: Big Dan Rostenkowski. Inheriting the 32nd Ward Democratic organization built by his father, longtime alderman Joe, he held office—state rep, committeeman, congressman—for more than 40 years.
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Rostenkowski and Gabinski controlled their villagers with the stick of brute force and fearmongering and the carrot of services like garbage collection and snow removal. On election day they sent out thick-necked patronage workers to lurk outside polling places, passing out palm cards and intimidating the locals so they wouldn’t stray from the fold. If intimidation didn’t work, there was always the race card. During the 1983 mayoral race, Rostenkowski and Gabinski put their support behind every white candidate who ran against Harold Washington—even a Republican, Bernie Epton. It was their way of letting the little people know they weren’t going to let the blacks take over.
His old organization, however, held on for another decade or so. In the early 90s, during the redistricting the City Council undertakes every ten years, the area had been split into two wards, the First and the 32nd. East Village went into the First Ward, in part because Gabinski didn’t want to have to deal with all the yuppies moving in there. But Ukrainian Village stayed where it was, though it took some gerrymandering to keep it there: the southern boundary was extended two blocks south along Hoyne to hook the area to the rest of the 32nd, which had been extended far enough north to encompass parts of Lakeview and Roscoe Village. (One local wag calls the neighborhood the “balls of the ward.”)
Matlak’s challenger, a little-known reformer named Scott Waguespack, managed to force Matlak into a runoff—a sure sign that the old machine was sputtering. Without Tomczak to help him, Matlak didn’t have the usual election-day muscle, and Waguespack won a narrow victory thanks to big turnouts in Bucktown, Lakeview, and Roscoe Village, where voters were pissed at Matlak for his prodevelopment zoning changes.
