The Making of a Litmus Test

Chicago's mayoral race goes down to the wire, and the mire

There may be other issues in the Chicago election in addition to the fact that Democrat Harold Washington, 60, an undistinguished Congressman with a disconcerting disregard for filing income tax returns happens to be black, and that Republican Bernard Epton, 61, an equally undistinguished former state legislator happens to be white. But it was getting increasingly hard to find any. The racial partisanship that dragged the mayoral race to a new low last week removed any doubt that next Tuesday's election was, alas,...