"It All Boils Down to Jobs, Jobs, Jobs"

Jesse and Amy Moore listen to the Republican candidates at the Gurnee American Legion Hall. Marc Albetario, right, leans out so he can see the candidates. José MoréŽ/Chicago News Cooperative

Finishing his breakfast at Valois Restaurant in Hyde Park last week, Craig Woods, a 55-year-old pipe fitter from Lake County, had to be reminded that there is a primary election on Tuesday. He said he tried to forget unpleasant subjects — like politicians and the “promises they always break.”

“As far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Woods said, “they should outsource all the politicians. The country needs jobs, but all the politicians care about is the banks. The politicians are running America into the ground.”

As voters prepared to head to the polls this week, interviews across the Chicago area show, candidates must fight to win voters’ trust. Incumbents, in particular, seem most likely to face a backlash.

From the streets and barbershops of President Barack Obama’s Hyde Park to a conservative candidates’ forum in Gurnee; from a coffee shop in Zion to a working-class neighborhood in Jefferson Park, there was a consensus: throw out those in charge and keep a close eye on the ones who might replace them.

The anger was bipartisan. So was the deep sense of fear about the national economy and its repercussions here in Illinois. People said they were tired of war and terrified of terrorists, fearful of losing their homes and their livelihoods. Locally, concerns ranged from the corruption in Springfield to the privatization of Chicago’s parking.

And everywhere, the four-letter word on everyone’s lips was “jobs.”

Ed P. O’Toole, 58, a retired mailman sitting on a bar stool in Jefferson Park, said he used to measure weakness in the economy by the number of unemployment checks on his route. “It never got as bad as it is today,” he said.

Mr. O’Toole comes from a military family, and said he wanted his elected officials to take better care of veterans, create jobs and make health care more affordable.

Leon McGee, 76, a retired chemist from the South Side, was born at the tail end of the Great Depression and cannot remember a worse economy. “We’re like a third world country,” he said.

On Jan. 23, about 65 people went to the wood-paneled Gurnee American Legion Hall for a Republican candidates’ event sponsored by the Northern Illinois Patriots, a Tea Party group. Among them were Amy and Jesse Moore of Zion, who have a 2-year-old daughter and a mortgage they struggle to pay.

“We are wondering, Where is our money going?” said Mrs. Moore, 28, a self-described staunch pro-life voter. “What are we paying taxes for?”

Mr. Moore, 28, lost his job in 2005, but quickly found work in Lake Bluff as a machinist. Mrs. Moore is a full-time mother. They said they considered themselves lucky even though their home had plummeted in value in the six years since they bought it.

“We wish we had never bought the house,” Mrs. Moore said. “We’re stuck now.”

She leaned forward in her seat as the candidates, including Dan Proft, a contender for governor, and Maria Rodriguez, the hopeful for the Eighth Congressional District, spoke and fielded questions about the economy, protecting gun rights and their plans to clean up corruption in a state where one in five former governors in the past century have wound up behind bars.

“I would end the practice of committing felonies by the governor’s office,” Mr. Proft said. “I promised my mom I wouldn’t go to federal prison.”

In nearby Zion, Rhonda Janus, 57, owner of the shop It’s All Good Coffee and Espresso, wants tax breaks for small businesses like hers, paid for by cuts in the size of government.

“When we prosper, we’re anxious to see others prosper,” Ms. Janus said. “We’re not hoarders, and our government seems to be hoarders.”

Democratic politicians also face an angry electorate. When Daniel W. Hynes, the state comptroller and candidate for governor, made a campaign stop at a Riverdale hair salon recently, Donnie Hackler, a barber, was blunt. “We’ve heard all this before,” Mr. Hackler said.

Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, also a Democrat, was sitting at a restaurant in Tinley Park recently when a woman came by to offer sympathy. “You’re certainly catching a lot of heat,” she said.

The diverse breakfast crowd at Valois, a restaurant in Hyde Park, matches the name of a popular item on the menu: The Everything Omelet. Seated around the scattered Formica tables on any given morning are police officers and civil rights leaders, military veterans and university professors, retired chemists and construction workers, Asians and Latinos, blacks and whites.

One morning last week, as customers contemplated voting, their sense of anger seemed rooted in causes nearly as diverse as the lives they lead.

Mr. Woods, the pipe fitter, grew up in the city as the son of a Chicago policeman and voted for Mr. Obama for president. His friend Mike Taylor, a 54-year-old pipe fitter from McHenry County, did not vote for Mr. Obama. Even so, Mr. Taylor said, he is willing to give the president “a fair shake,” because, “I think he’s really trying and he’s a real smart guy.”

“But everybody is frustrated with the economy,” Mr. Taylor said. “If he can turn this mess around, I’ll vote for him.”

A few tables away, Neka Borders, 33, a chef, and Robert Quashie, 45, a marketing consultant, agreed that they were both angry and scared at the direction in which the country seemed to be going.

“I don’t feel the president has lived up to the promises he made to the people,” Ms. Borders said. “But he’s done very well by the corporations.”

As for Tuesday’s primary election, Ms. Borders said she had not started paying attention and might not vote — a sad first for her.

“I’ve unplugged,” she said. “I don’t watch the news, read the papers. Right now, I’m so disappointed in how the government is being run from the head down. I haven’t wanted to face the local political banter. I’m turned off by the politics of the politics.”

Charles Holt, a retired tobacco salesman and a Vietnam War veteran, sat at his usual table near the front window, so he could keep a lookout for any police officers checking the parking meters.

“The meters are what I’m angry about,” Mr. Holt said. “All these increases when you got everybody laid off, it’s crazy.”

“Put the meters at the top of my list, too,” said his friend Drew Thomas, a retired postal worker and Army veteran.

“Mark my words,” Mr. Holt shot back. “The parking meters are going to be the downfall of Mayor Daley.”

Mr. Drew shook his head in agreement.

“If I was to start a group, the name of it would be the Outraged Party,’ Mr. Drew said. “We’ve got so much corruption and waste. Whoever heard of giving bonuses to people who ruin their own companies?”

Both men, however, said it was unfair to blame Mr. Obama for the messed-up economy. He has been in office only a year; give him time, they said.

“I feel sorry for Obama,” Mr. Holt said. “Every time he turns around, there’s another crisis.”

Mr. Holt and Mr. Thomas parted company when it came to Tuesday’s election. In the race for president of the Cook County board, Mr. Holt said he had voted early and for the incumbent, Todd H. Stroger. Mr. Thomas said he had voted for Alderman Toni Preckwinkle.

Their friend Mr. McGee, the retired chemist, said it did not matter, because “all politicians start off 50 percent rotten and get worse from there.”

A half-mile west down 53rd Street, Robert Hunter was giving a haircut to Anthony Mayo, a retired police lieutenant. Mr. Hunter has cut hair on that block since 1955.

“If there was plenty of work, nobody would care what crook was in office,” Mr. Hunter said. “A pocket full of money makes everybody happy. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a national election or who’s going to be dog catcher, it all boils down to jobs, jobs, jobs.”