The shrinking mayoral campaign
November 10, 2006
Four events Thursday conspired both to intrigue students of Chicago
politics and to delay (if not stifle) a debate that would benefit
this city:
- Mayor Richard Daley became an even stronger favorite to win another
term as mayor when his two most prominent potential challengers, U.S.
Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Luis Gutierrez, said they won't run. Who
can blame them? With Democrats set to control Congress, both House
members stand to gain decent committee or leadership assignments.
That leaves Daley with only two announced rivals, neither of whom
approaches the stature of Jackson or Gutierrez: Dorothy Brown, clerk
of the Cook County Circuit Court, and Bill "Dock" Walls,
a one-time aide to the late Mayor Harold Washington.
- The audience at a Chicago lunch sponsored by the Illinois Campaign
for Political Reform, a nonpartisan watchdog group, heard a candid,
even stirring talk titled "Fitzgerald on Fitzgerald." Former
U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald recounted why and how he chose New York
federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald as his candidate for U.S. attorney
in Chicago. Peter Fitzgerald was determined to attack the Illinois
culture of political sleaze by recruiting a U.S. attorney who would
eviscerate public corruption here. Thus did Patrick Fitzgerald, who's
never run for office or passed out palm cards at a Chicago ward breakfast,
become the most powerful force in Illinois politics. (Anybody want
to argue with that?)
- A lawyer for Donald Tomczak, once a top City Hall operative, suggested
in federal court that his client was a product of "old Chicago"
who didn't change with the times. Tomczak had pleaded guilty to taking
some $400,000 in bribes through the city's corrupt Hired Truck Program.
He's also admitted that he helped rig city hirings and promotions
to benefit political workers. Now he's off to federal prison for 47
months. But the "old Chicago" pleading at Tomczak's sentencing
evoked an argument that's been a consistent loser for defense attorneys
in Chicago corruption cases. Nobody wants to hear that crimes are
OK because systemic cheating is so quaint.
- After Tomczak's sentencing, federal prosecutor Patrick Collins hinted
that more depth charges will fall on City Hall. Asked for his reaction
to the "old Chicago" comment, Collins said: "I don't
think anybody--the judge, certainly not the government, the agents,
I don't think anybody with common sense buys into it as an excuse.
... Clearly, some of Mr. Tomczak's crimes were condoned, they were
facilitated and I believe in some respects they were honored by high-ranking
portions of the City of Chicago." That reiterated, even strengthened
what Collins and Patrick Fitzgerald have said before: They're not
finished climbing the ladder at City Hall.
To connect these dots: Even as FBI agents and federal prosecutors
circle City Hall, Chicago is less likely to have the robust mayoral
debate over "waste, fraud and abuse" that Jesse Jackson
Jr. had championed. Maybe Dorothy Brown will provoke that debate.
Or maybe Chicagoans don't want to hear it. Maybe the organized City
Hall cheating of job applicants, honest contractors and city taxpayers
doesn't matter. The city looks good and for those who know how to
work it, it works. What a quiet race for mayor won't answer, though,
is why a clean city can't have a clean government.
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
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