In Chicago — (excluding a very few precincts) — there are no real general elections — the real elections are in the democratic primaries and due to the low vote totals in primaries — the democratic machine can reliably handpick (again with very few exceptions) the candidates by turning out the faithful through the patronage system. The citizens are culpable in this, as they do not turn out to vote for primaries and as they will not vote for a candidate who does not have Democrat listed after their name on the ballot. So really the dead vote and the illegal immigrant vote are not that essential to getting politicians elected in Chicago. Where the dead vote and the illegal vote are important are in statewide elections to ensure that Democrats maintain control of statewide offices, including the two US Senate seats. The number of voters in Chicago and Cook county area have increased vs. the number of voters for the rest of the state in just the last decade making it harder and harder for any republican or third party candidate to get elected to statewide office. In an effort to remain a viable party in Illinois republican candidates north of I-80 in the collar counties surrounding cook county have resorted to becoming the Rino party (republicans in name only who support much of the same policies endorsed by the Democrats). Conservative or libertarian candidates have their base of support in central and southern Illinois — thus the real divide in Illinois politics is not Democrat vs. republican so much as Chicago area vs. downstate. Both democratic and republican parties are controlled by politicians out of Chicago and the Chicago collar counties respectively.
The gun control debate is a divisive issue in Illinois though the reliably anti-gun sentiment of Chicago voters has had seen some erosion of late. At recent CCW law forums, (the pro-ccw forces in the state have started having public forums on the issue to develop more grass-roots support through education, discussion, and debate), have seen a growing number of Chicagoans and Chicago area voters who are beginning to change their mind on the issue. This is likely due to education combined with the publics growing frustration with the cities ineffectiveness in dealing with violent crime. I believe this mirrors a national trend towards a greater public acceptance of guns and gun rights — especially the right to self defense.
So I do quibble with the idea that a 45 to 0 vote truly reflects the sentiments of Chicago citizens and that the mayor and the city council are just playing good politics with their vote on the new gun law. While a majority of the citizens of Chicago proper no doubt do support banning or heavily restricting guns — it is a weaker majority than in the past and it is a majority who do not see guns or gun control as a top priority issue. The top priority issues are jobs, drugs, gangs, and violence — and they do not see gun control as being able to significantly impact gangs or gang violence.
As for the politics being played — Daley and the Democrats in Chicago are not using the gun issue to win elections because gun control is popular with their constituents’ — rather they are trying to use the gun control issue to deflect criticism in regards to their inability of deal effectively with the gang and violent crime problem. So far, that seems not to be working so well.
Lastly, the primary reason for the vote and new gun law legislation is simply that Daley and the leaders in the democratic party in Chicago — really do believe in gun control — Daley and the members of the city council do not trust or respect the citizens of Chicago or the state of Illinois to have guns. Daley is vehement on the issue and even if he were to lose votes over it he would still support gun control.
The fact of the matter is that if Daley ever wanted to, he could change his position on the gun issue 180 degrees and not materially suffer in terms of his election prospects. This is true for pretty much all pro gun control advocates nationwide. Support for gun control, however wide, is not that deep — gun control supporters for the most part are not single issue voters and/or the issue of gun control is not usually a critical factor in determining the ultimate choice of who to vote for, for gun control supporters. The same is not true when it comes to RKBA advocates — there single issue voters are common and the support is much deeper and growing wider.
This new gun control law and vote is just Daley’s desire to continue to deny and inconvenience as much as possible gun owner’s and RKBA advocates. The city council is Daley’s handpicked rubber stamp and members would only oppose him on minor issues of disagreement between liberal democratic views within the party — gun control is not one of those issues.
