CHICAGO REPUBLICANS GO ON THE ATTACK
By Robert Klein Engler (07/27/05)
(CHICAGO--27 July '05) In a move that amused some and worried others, the Cook County Republican Party announced yesterday a $10,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to the indictment and conviction of Chicago's Mayor Daley for political corruption.
Writing in the Chicago Tribune, Jim Walsh reports that Gary Sokien, the Cook County GOP chairman said in a statement, "The arrogance of Richard Daley is appalling...The corruption (in Chicago) is so pervasive, so extensive and has been going on so long that most of these insiders don't even have a clue that their actions are illegal. We hope that this reward will inspire someone with critical knowledge to come forward."
The mayor's office called the reward "ridiculous, politically motivated and undeserving of further comment," according to a statement by Mayor Daley's press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard.
All this back and forth is the result of an ongoing investigation of bribes by federal prosecutors. This investigation has lead to twenty-one people pleading guilty, including former high-ranking city officials. Others have fled to Mexico or gone into hiding. Nevertheless, more arrests and indictments are expected.
"What's new?" many Chicagoans ask. "Isn't this business as usual? If you live here, then you know what's going on." In Chicago, to get ahead it's not what you know but who you know. There is a culture of "who do you know" politics that radiates from city hall, and for too long has been the trademark of city government. Richard M. Daley epitomizes the "who do you know" culture of Chicago.
Because of this "who do you know" culture, it sometimes seems there are two kinds of men here, self-made men and father-made men. The self-made men may move to the suburbs, while the father-made men get ahead in Democratic politics and bring their Oedipal conflicts to the public arena.
Even with all the glitter of the lake front and the Chicago-as-theme-park propaganda that many tourist take away from the city, it is an obvious assumption to most who visit of live here that "da mayor" is who he is because his father was mayor before him and carried on the same way. This relationship makes the long needed reform in Chicago government more of a hope than a reality.
Just look at the political facts--in Chicago, a job working for the city means votes for the mayor. It was that way under Daley the Elder and continues that way under Daley the Younger. Today, there are about 40,000 people who work for the city. When you add to that figure relatives and friends, we are talking about 125,000 votes for the present mayor, no matter what. All these workers and relatives have a vested interest in business as usual and continuing the "who do you know" culture.
In the last mayoral election only about 35% of the registered voters went to the poles. Any candidate who hopes to win a mayoral race in Chicago, begins his campaign 125,000 votes in the hole. Even though it's a good start, it's going to take more than a $10,000 reward or a few scandals to change these voting habits. As it stands now, neither ability nor character nor skills at public speaking make for much success in Chicago politics. It's who you know that counts.
Maybe the new voters who are buying the quarter-million dollar condos in the South Loop will join with others and actually vote Republican in the '07 election. They could bring a breath of fresh air to city hall. Yet even then, for both historian and Chicagoan alike, there remains always in the back of everyone's mind the itch of a question we ask about father-made men: Who would Mayor Daley be if his name were Jones?
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