People forget that Patrick Fitzgerald has a day job. While I don't think that Chicago is ready to see the Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. ascend to the throne, Fitzgerald may yet be successful in nudging Daley from office.
Will Daley surrender?
July 24, 2005
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Advertisement
Aldermen who once cowered at his feet are now talking openly -- at least among themselves -- about his political survival and possible replacements.
A City Hall Cabinet filled with stand-ins for those who have walked the plank are afraid to say a word or make a move for fear they, too, could be thrown overboard.
With every new indictment, cooperating witness or scandal-induced headline, efforts to recruit blue-ribbon replacements become infinitely more difficult.
For a mayor who, not too long ago, was riding the waves, Richard M. Daley suddenly finds himself captain of a sinking ship.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald added more water last week when he charged Daley's patronage chief and others with close ties to the mayor's Bridgeport power base with presiding over a "massive fraud" in the last decade -- complete with sham interviews, altered test scores and color-coded charts of clout-heavy sponsors -- to rig city hiring in favor of politically connected applicants.
If there were a prosecutorial penalty for piling on, Fitzgerald would be in danger of getting flagged.
He has already convicted James Duff in a $100 million minority contracting fraud, uncovered an alleged heroin ring operating out of the city's Jardine water filtration plant, and charged 30 people, 21 of whom have pleaded guilty, in a Hired Truck investigation that has now branched into city hiring.
The multiple investigations -- and an internally uncovered payroll scandal that snared John Daley's brother-in-law -- have cast a pall over City Hall and the mayor who has presided over it for 16 years.
The mayor's worried friends now refer to what one called the "long stare" that shows how distracted Mayor Daley has become. They talk about their concern for the mayor's health and the health of his wife, Maggie, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2002.
Still in the race?
But it's a testament to Daley's power that even now, people are unwilling to have their names attached to open talk about his demise.
"For the first time, I would not be surprised either way" if he decides to run for re-election or walk away in 2007, said a Daley confidant who asked to remain unnamed.
"As much as he loves this job, it's becoming very difficult for him to do this job. You will see an unbelievable fight over the budget in the fall. The aldermen are both disgusted and see an opportunity for themselves to be more powerful. All of it makes it difficult and less fun to do his job. And, quite frankly, he has one more problem: attracting really good talent to help run the city. He can't do it himself."
A former city official, lucky enough to get out before Fitzgerald tightened the noose, said Daley is "happiest when he's sitting in his office going over a neighborhood redevelopment plan and figuring out how the pieces fit, how to finance it and get community groups on board.
"But it's difficult to concentrate on that right now. There's a melancholy. People are very depressed, very sad about their colleagues getting caught up in this. It's not fun to come to work. Everybody's scared. You don't know where this is going or who could be wearing a wire. I doubt there is a person in that administration who hasn't thought, 'Will I be questioned?'"
Attorney John Schmidt, a longtime Daley family friend who served as the mayor's first chief of staff, was out of the country when Fitzgerald dropped his hiring bombshell.
'I love this job'
But Schmidt said he saw the mayor a month ago and found him "energized, engaged in the city" and consumed by the formidable job of righting the ship.
"I don't have any sense that this threatens him in his mind or psychologically depresses him in some way that would cause him to think about not running. I don't think anything other than some evidence of personal corruption by the mayor -- which I do not think is going to be discovered because I don't think it exists -- should be reason for him not to run for re-election," said Schmidt, who advised the mayor on the $1.83 billion privatization of the Chicago Skyway.
"It's not a good thing politically to have substantial corruption discovered in your administration. But he's going to run for re-election on his whole record, which I think is incredibly strong. I don't think there are very many people who think any other mayor would have done a better job of avoiding this kind of corruption. It's a hard thing to do."
Late last week, Daley responded to the hiring scandal with a bold but incomplete plan to turn hiring and promotions over to a three-member panel of political appointees akin to the U.S. Civil Service Commission. The mayor's stated purpose was to shield city employees from charges of political favoritism now that Fitzgerald has "criminalized" Shakman violations.
The proposal drew immediate fire from aldermen who must approve it and don't want to relinquish control, and from attorney Michael Shakman, who filed the landmark lawsuit that was supposed to end political hiring and firing.
Engineering the announcement along with mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard were a powerful tandem of Daley advisers: longtime political consultant David Axelrod and Dana Herring, the mayor's reclusive "man in black" who serves as the maestro of message, shaped by polling and focus groups.
They were apparently more intent on stopping the political bleeding than on answering the myriad questions raised -- like how the plan would work, how much it would cost, how it would guarantee diversity in a majority-minority city, and how a commission whose chairman is handpicked by the same mayor whose administration allegedly schemed to undermine Shakman could possibly be insulated from politics.
Like a coach afraid of losing his sinking team, the mayor also held a Cabinet meeting last week to rally dispirited department heads who thought things were looking up when Chief of Staff Ron Huberman arrived to clean house, only to watch another shoe drop.
And Daley openly acknowledged that voters are wondering whether he has the stomach to stay and fight.
"I think I have the greatest job. I love this job. I love what it's all about. Sometimes you're in the mountains and sometimes you're in the valley. ... People are looking at me, whether I can accept the challenge when it comes to serious allegations that are presented in my administration," he said.
Even before the Hired Truck scandal branched out into city hiring, Fitzgerald's pursuit of City Hall corruption had changed the way the mayor interacts with the media.
Daley used to pride himself on being the nation's most accessible public official. That was his standard line whenever a mayoral challenger would demand campaign debates.
Now he makes frequent out-of-town trips and limits access at home.
Health issues
Concerns about Daley's health are not unfounded.
Five years ago, the mayor was rushed to the hospital with what he thought was a heart attack. It turned out to be hypertension that close associates believe was stress-induced. They note that the episode occurred on the day the Chicago Sun-Times exposed how mayoral pal Oscar D'Angelo had engineered a deal to put two friends of Maggie Daley in business as part of a lucrative bookstore concession at O'Hare Airport.
"He's a pretty tough guy, but there's no doubt this s - - - will wear you down. One look at his face will tell you that," said one of Daley's closest advisers.
But the mayor's political fate ultimately rests with Fitzgerald and how many more people around Daley he manages to snare.
The feds already have 30 cooperating witnesses, including five former city commissioners, four former and two current personnel directors.
Ousted patronage chief Robert Sorich, whose father was Richard J. Daley's photographer, spent years as personal driver and 11th Ward secretary for John Daley, the mayor's brother. John Daley also has sold insurance to several of the major players in the Hired Truck investigation.
"The aldermen are privately saying he's a goner. But a lot has to do with what happens over the next six months. If John [Daley] and Tim [Degnan, former Daley political enforcer] go down and the mayor is left alone in a bunker, I don't see how he can go" for re-election, said a veteran City Hall observer.
'He's stubborn'
"Maggie will probably tell him, 'As much as you love the city, it's too much. Forget the legacy. Walk away.'"
Another mayoral confidant said Daley is "prepared to ride it out," but he might have to consider "the public's appetite" for Chicago-style corruption.
"Clearly, they're getting full. But, he's stubborn," the source said.
Yet another trusted adviser said Daley would wait until "late next spring" to decide whether to stay or go.
"One day, my sense is, he probably says, 'F - - - you, I'm running.' The next day, I figure he says, 'F - - - you, I'm not running.' . . . Unless it's impetuous, you can't make a decision on something a year and a half away in the middle of this now," the Daley confidant said.
A former staffer, who knows and admires Daley, said, "If he decides not to run for re-election, it will be one of the saddest days of his life. Obviously, there have been sadder days. He's lost family members. But it will be one of the sadder days because his identity is so uniquely entwined with the City of Chicago. When you think of Chicago, you think Mayor Daley. He has loved getting up in the morning and dealing with everything from potholes to reforming the public schools. It's impossible to envision him ever doing anything else but being mayor."
Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), Daley's lifelong political rival, who has overcome conflict-of-interest allegations of his own, is one of those who could be poised to pounce if Daley walks away. But for now, he's keeping his powder dry and his $2.5 million campaign war chest earning interest.
"I don't think any of this suggests that the mayor has done anything improper -- unless I'm missing something," Burke said.
"All one needs to do is look around and see what a beautiful city we have, the kind of pride people take in the city. The improvements that have been made in the educational system. The public schools are starting to turn the corner. The Police Department and the Fire Department are the best in the nation. It's obviously a clean city, a progressive city. He's got a record that he's content to run on. ... The people that I talk to in my neighborhood are very happy that he's the mayor."
Ald. Joe Moore (49th) added, "For someone who was at the top of his game just a few years ago, it's been an extremely difficult year for the mayor. But he'll want to redeem himself and see his reputation remain intact. I wouldn't count him out at all."
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