We observed with regret the defeat of the Polish candidate running for the seat in the House of Representatives vacated by Rahm Emmanuel.

Viktor Forys, a Polish physician and resident of Chicago, undertook the difficult task of running for a political office. We waited a long time for an ambitious person of Polish origin to emerge on the political scene – first on the local level, then rising so that our ethnic group would have their own representative in the government. For years we have been encouraging the young generation of Polish-Americans to take up the challenge.

When it came down to taking action, however, Poles proved not to be ready for the challenge; no social organizations, or the traditional – now disinterested – Polish American Congress (PAC), or individual members of the Democratic Party did anything to support Dr. Forys’ candidacy.

Dr. Forys himself was very optimistic about his chances. His calculations were simple: there are 19,000 registered voters of Polish origin in the district for which he was running. In order to win in the primary, which took place on March 3, he needed close to 12,000 votes. (Mike Quigley, commissioner of Cook County in Illinois, won the seat with 11,000 votes). To achieve victory, Forys needed discipline and the will to break the traditional stagnation among us, in order to mobilize all of the Polish electorate.

Both the PAC and the Polish media in Chicago could have played a big role in promoting our candidate for the seat in the House of Representatives; in fact, the role they played was insignificant. Hardly anybody paid attention to the shy doctor who was brave enough to face the challenge. Even though he was a novice on the political scene in Chicago, an area marked by corruption, the trade of lucrative positions and functions, and despite the Blagojevich scandal, Forys’ odds of winning were pretty high; candidates outside the political “establishment” were pretty much favored during this year’s primaries and escaped being tarnished by Blagojevich, unlike “establishment” politicos.

Unfortunately, Dr. Forys was treated with reserve and suspicion by the Polish community. On one hand, Old Polonia – third- and second-generation Polish Americans – traditionally lacks trust in the newcomers. On the other, the newly immigrated Poles, generally discouraged from politics because of their experiences in Communist Poland, do not believe in their own “folks” occupying government offices in the United States. As a result, Dr. Forys was left to fend for himself.

No one will stand a chance to be elected after Dr. Forys, unless the candidate can manage to break trough the inertia among the Polish voters, and unless the long-time wall between Old Polonia and the new immigrants is pulled down. PAC, a national organization, should come forward with the initiative to unite Poles. Unfortunately, PAC’s allegiances are with Old Polonia.