Since 1993 the Hispanic Democratic Organization has been the school-yard bully of Chicago politics, gleefully beating up independents on behalf of Mayor Daley’s political machine. But in the last few weeks HDO’s leaders seem to have settled on a new tactic for silencing local independents–honoring them.
HDO was created ten years ago by Victor Reyes, then a Daley political aide and now a lawyer-lobbyist and chairman of HDO (he didn’t return calls for comment). Working with Al Sanchez, commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation, Reyes pieced together a patronage army large enough to dominate Chicago’s growing Hispanic communities. According to a recent Chicago Tribune expose, HDO has a force of about 1,000 city workers, most of them laborers, who loyally pound the pavement, knowing their jobs depend on their ability to bring out the vote.
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At last year’s fund-raiser, held at the House of Blues, HDO raised about $500,000. “With the support of the mayor and the Hispanic community, HDO plans to launch campaigns for several candidates throughout the Chicago area,” the organization proclaimed in a press release hyping the event.
Besides, Flores points out, he’s not the only recently elected independent on the HDO list. “Did you talk to Rey [Colon]?” he says. “He signed it too.”
The independents’ supporters have had a mixed reaction to the decision to help with HDO’s fund-raiser. One of Flores’s former campaign aides, who asked to be anonymous, praises the first-term alderman for being “pretty slick,” then adds, “Manny’s playing the angles, and I’ll tell you what–you need to play all the angles. I mean, Manny’s a young rookie alderman. He’s not really from Chicago. He’s from Du Page County. He’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing. So he’s making friends. These guys, maybe they’ll help him some. You should do whatever you have to do to get ahead, except sleep with the devil.”
The younger Avila says he won’t make peace with HDO until the organization changes its ways. “It’s slavery,” he says. “Maybe some of them have gold chains, but it’s still slavery.”
