Chicago Mayoral Election in less than Two Weeks!

2/14/07

There will be an election for Mayor of Chicago within two weeks. I would wager that, even if you live in Chicago, you didn’t realize that unless you are a political junkie of the type that reads blogs like this one. So maybe you knew. But the average citizen, even the average citizen of Chicago, is blissfully unaware that Mayor Richard II is facing the voters for the sixth time on February 27.

Why the inattention to the mayor’s race in Chicago, the most political of cities? Simple. The outcome is as certain as snow in February in our fair city, and has been for months, if not years. Yes, there was talk by political neophyte reporters and self-appointed experts armed with political science degrees from dweeby east coast universities that the Mayor might be in trouble due to the endemic corruption that has surrounded his administration. Unlike most of the experts, however, I grew up in a Machine ward and have been following Chicago politics since I could pronounce “Mayor Daley,” which was probably just before Richard I ran for his second term in 1959. I can remember no candidate for any office in the state of Illinois, let alone the city of Chicago, who was denied reelection because of corruption. I defy anyone to name such an officeholder in Chicago or in Illinois. And don’t try Mike Bilandic, Richard I’s handpicked successor. He lost because he couldn’t handle the snow and seemed not to care, as long as his (and Daley’s) native Bridgeport had transit service and plowed streets. It was arrogance and incompetence, not corruption, that felled Bilandic the Bland. Jane Byrne, certainly no candidate for the Statesman of the Year award from the Better Government Association or any of the other goo-goo groups that buzz around our politicians like annoying house flies, did not lose because of the stench of corruption that permeated her administration. She lost because the Daley faction of the local Democratic party, feeling shut out of its share of the spoils, ran Richie Daley against her, splitting the white vote and allowing Harold Washington, a stalwart of the old Dawson Machine, to win by a plurality with overwhelming support from his Black constituency and slightly less enthusiastic support from the independently minded 43rd and 44th (near north side) and 5th (Hyde Park/U of Chicago, and, coincidentally, Washington’s home ward) wards.

No, corruption doesn’t lose elections in Chicago. Why? Because in Chicago we revel in corruption. The expression “the best politicians that money can buy” originated here. We brag about having to support our precinct captains and aldermen in order to receive services that we have already paid for with our tax dollars. We proudly tell the story of our alderman’s or ward committeeman’s fixing our tickets or “doing something” about the tax assessments on our homes. We chortle when we tell people that the motto of our city council should rightly be “Ubi Est Mea?” (“Where is mine?”) The great Mike Royko earned his place in the pantheon of newspaper journalists by using the, er, ethical shortcomings of our pols as grist for his columns in the Daily News, Sun-Times, and Tribune. His two most notable successors, John Kass in the Tribune and Mark Brown in the Sun-Times, do much the same, though they seem to take the taint of corruption much more seriously than did Mr. Royko.

So Daley was never going to lose this election because of a trifle like the corruption that has haunted his administration like some horrifying combination of Resurrection Mary and the Monks of St. James of the Sag. The city looks good. The business environment is healthy. The streets are clean, well-plowed, and at least perceived to be safe. The demographics of the city are “improving” as yuppies and empty nesters from the north shore move into the city for what they consider the “urban experience,” which apparently includes a lot of “upscale experiences” and many of the same chain stores they left behind in Winnetka and Lake Forest. Now that whole portions of the city have been completely stripped of character, the newly arrived dazzling urbanites can walk the streets of the city without cowering in fear of the plebeians who used to occupy their newly gentrified neighborhoods, and they think they have Daley to thank. But I digress.

Back to the election. The Mayor’s most serious opponent is Dorothy Brown, clerk of the (Cook County) Circuit Court. Ms. Brown is an accomplished financial professional, possessing an advanced degree and a resume that includes responsible positions in both the private and public sectors. On paper, she is a great candidate. However, she is a hapless candidate for Mayor of Chicago because, despite all her experience, and her currently occupying one of the truly plum positions in Chicago politics, she appears to be completely naïve about the way things work in Chicago. This point was aptly illustrated by a story in yesterday’s (i.e., 2/13/07’s) Sun-Times.

The article by Sun-Times ace political reporter Fran Spielman, entitled “Gutierrez Joins Daley Bandwagon” told the story of the endorsement of Daley by Congressman Luis Gutierrez, a former potential challenger to the Mayor. Ms. Spielman reported that Ms. Brown “reacted angrily to the Gutierrez endorsement. ‘I find it disconcerting that he can say what he said nine months ago in disparaging the record of Mayor Daley and (now) be siding with him. What has changed in the last nine months?’”

Can Ms. Brown really be that naïve? Doesn’t she know that people change their minds depending on what is in it for them? Doesn’t she realize that politicians, and Mr. Gutierrez is a very good one, are especially susceptible to this malady? Could it be that Ms. Brown does not realize that people, especially politicians, and most especially politicians from the Windy City, lie? Hasn’t she been around Chicago long enough to realize that ideas about how the city is run or should be run or can be run are only so much philosophical mumbo-jumbo? Doesn’t she realize that politics, especially in Chicago, is a business?

C’mon, Ms. Brown. A deal was cut, pure and simple. That is what has changed in the last nine months. What was the nature of the deal? Who knows? But Mayor Daley is the most powerful politician in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois. He is one of the most influential kingmakers in the country. Luis Gutierrez is one of the most senior and influential members of the Illinois Congressional delegation. He would like to make his mark in the new Democratic Congress, which includes many friends of the Daley family. He remains ambitious locally, and still counts among his options succeeding Mayor Daley on the Fifth Floor of City Hall. He is a Chicago politician, pretty much of the old school. The possibilities for the nature of the Daley/Gutierrez deal are limitless. But the existence of a deal is a certainty.

Is Dorothy Brown being disingenuous or is she really that naïve? If the latter, she has no business becoming mayor of Chicago. If the former, she still has no chance.

The Insightful Pontificator