If Daley opts out of a re-election bid, I would not be shocked if Rahm Emanuel ran for mayor. Remember, you read it here first. He is very ambitious, though any Senatorial bid is blocked by Durbin and Obama. Most importantly, he is an old-time (though young in body) Democratic politician that might be acceptable to all factions.
A couple of weeks ago, the Tribune ran an excellent article on one of the factors that has contributed to Daley's problems: the fact that he built up organizations that were independent of the traditional Democratic machine.
Smell of scandal challenges Daley re-election
With groups that back the mayor in the federal spotlight, who will be his foot soldiers in another campaign?
By Gary Washburn
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 21, 2005
If Mayor Richard Daley performs a gut check that shows he still has "fire in the belly"--something he says is a prerequisite to run again--he nevertheless will face some challenging questions in his next re-election campaign.
Like, who will register voters for him? Who will ring doorbells? Who will make sure that seniors get rides to their polling places?
And, with the federal spotlight shining on pro-Daley political groups whose members have won city jobs under questionable circumstances, who will hammer those campaign signs into people's front lawns?
For years, Chicago's Democratic mayors depended on Regular Democratic ward organizations citywide to give them vital support at election time.
But after he was elected mayor in 1989, Daley took a much different approach. Because few of the organizations had backed him before that, "he never wanted to be dependent" on them for future support and believed he needed to have his own political operation, according to a former senior mayoral aide.
Timothy Degnan and Victor Reyes, former top officials in Daley's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, helped nurture an array of organizations with no formal ties to the regular party that pledged to support the mayor and candidates whom Daley backed for other offices.
But now, the carefully crafted strategy could be coming apart.
Charges filed against two city officials contend that at least some of the groups have been rewarded illegally with city jobs and promotions for troops who have done the boots-on-the-ground work for the mayor.
A recent Tribune investigation found that more than 1,200 city employees, most of whom are in positions bound by a federal court decree that bans political hiring, belong to a handful of groups whose members have worked for Daley.
Now a city hiring freeze is in effect even as federal agents continue to investigate test rigging and other wrongdoing designed to advance the city careers of the politically connected. And, citing blatant violations of the Shakman decree, Federal District Judge Wayne Andersen recently appointed a special monitor to ensure that patronage never again raises its illegal head at City Hall.
If the political soldiers who worked elections for Daley no longer have job-related incentives to do so, will they toil for him in a 2007 re-election run?
David Axelrod, a Daley political consultant, said he expects no problem, even if they don't. The mayor over the years has attracted thousands of walk-in volunteers at election time, and the political organizations have produced votes "only at the margins" as Daley has rolled up victories with as many as 79 percent of the ballots cast, he said.
"You don't get [79 percent] through field work," Axelrod said. "You get it because people of the city feel positively about what you have done."
But that was before City Hall was rocked by scandal and a federal corruption probe.
Some Democratic regulars have watched happily as the independent organizations and the political rewards they've received have been "outed" by FBI agents. And in a related vein, the regulars have taken a degree of satisfaction in the embarrassment the groups have caused the mayor.
The Daley-backed street crews "are not accountable to anybody," complained one Chicago alderman. "They are wild cowboys."
Under the old system, by contrast, a precinct captain who lived in a neighborhood and was answerable to the ward committeeman "was less likely to embarrass himself," he asserted.
"That is why it broke down and you have all this corruption," the alderman said.
Some may attribute complaints to sour grapes from those frozen out of the jobs bonanza. But there's no question that the smell of scandal hangs over pro-Daley groups.
They include:
- The Hispanic Democratic Organization, co-founded by Reyes. Its roster has included Angelo Torres, who was sentenced to prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to shaking down at least 10 trucking companies as head of the Hired Truck Program.
- The Coalition for Better Government, whose members at one time included John "Quarters" Boyle, a former city Transportation Department employee. Boyle, who served time for stealing $4 million from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority before he landed on the city payroll, pleaded guilty in April to taking trucking bribes.
- A group headed by Donald Tomczak, once the No. 2 official in the city's Department of Water Management. He recently pleaded guilty to taking nearly $400,000 in cash, campaign contributions and gifts in return for steering trucking business to favored firms, also admitting that he participated in illegal hiring practices at City Hall.
- A group headed by Daniel Katalinic, a former Streets and Sanitation Department official who allegedly won promotions for his organization's members, including a candidate who aced an interview that supposedly was held at a time he was in Iraq on active military duty. Katalinic, who has not been charged with wrongdoing, wore a hidden recorder for the FBI shortly before criminal charges were lodged recently against Robert Sorich, then a Daley aide, in connection with alleged illegal hirings and promotions.
- A group headed by Michael Harjung, a former city Water Department employee who allegedly arranged to pay bribes to Tomczak to ensure steady business to a trucking company. Harjung, who has been cooperating with the government, has not been charged.
- A group headed by Anthony Pucillo, formerly the second in command in the city's Transportation Department, to whom two former city contractors publicly have said they've paid bribes. Pucillo has not been charged with wrongdoing and his lawyer has said he has committed no crimes.
For Daley, "there is no doubt the politics has become a little more complicated of late," Axelrod conceded. "But the reality remains that his is a record of enormous achievement in the city, and the city is a shining example in many ways for the entire country and world. People value his leadership, and that hasn't changed."
To that, the mayor's critics would reply, "But it could."
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