Getting in the ‘last’ word

MADIGAN: Still Mr. Speaker

It will be intriguing to see if soon-to-be former Gov. Bruce Rauner manages to figure out a way to take one final pot shot at Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, before he departs his role come Monday.

For it was quite obvious that Rauner is going to forevermore think that Madigan was the one who spoiled any chance that he could be successful during the one term he got to be Illinois government’s chief executive.

RAUNER: Soon to ride off into sunset

OF COURSE, MADIGAN seems equally determined to think ill of “The Rauner Years” and just how little managed to be accomplished in our state between 2015-18.

For what it’s worth, Rauner engaged in his final official public act as governor by giving a speech summarizing what he thinks he accomplished for Illinois during his gubernatorial term. While also using other moments to make comments that clearly can be interpreted as political pot shots.

The recent criminal complaint filed against long-time Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke is “long overdue,” with Rauner insisting that Burke is not alone.

“I’m ecstatic they finally indicted him,” Rauner said, even though they didn’t really. “There are others that do the same, and worse. They haven’t been indicted yet. I hope they are.”

BURKE: Rauner pleased w/ predicament

AFTER GOING THROUGH four years of governing and a campaign cycle of constant complaints claiming that Madigan himself is worthy of criminal charges because he would not meekly cooperate with all of Rauner’s anti-organized labor initiatives, it’s disappointing to see that he’s determined to go down to defeat with the same stubborn attitude.

Not that Madigan will meekly let such rhetoric go by without a vociferous response. He used the beginning of the newly-elected General Assembly’s session to dismiss Rauner’s gubernatorial term as one of, “four long years of character assassination, personal vilification and strident negotiation positions.”

PRITZKER: Favorable Lege

He also said he sees the coming of a new Legislature (one with majorities large enough in both chambers for Democrats to overrule the governor’s veto power) as being the chance for government to learn from the errors of its ways.

Or, as Madigan put it, let’s, “take lessons, so we can move on to a new chapter where people work with people.” Rather than thinking they can impose their will on ever-so-many issues upon the masses.

WHICH MEANS THAT Madigan is figuring the truth in the old cliché, “history is written by the winners.” He gets to be the noble creature who fought off the potential tyranny of “The Rauner Years.” Anybody who tries to defend Bruce is going to find themselves seriously diminished – if not outright ridiculed.

It will work, mostly because many of us just won’t care to hear from Rauner any longer. We’d just as soon see him fade off into the sunset.

Which he’ll do as of Monday at Noon. We’ll be more focused on the future success of incoming Gov. J.B, Pritzker – who will have the advantage of a sympathetic Legislature that will have an interest in seeing the governor succeed in overcoming the problems of the state.

Many of which were exasperated by that two-plus year time period during which our state government was on hold because of a lack of a budget – which Rauner tried to defend as being a worthy hit for the state to take if some of his anti-union initiatives could become reality in Illinois.

MOST OF US just remember it as a political headache that made us all seem stupid – similar to how the current federal government shutdown motivated by a partisan battle over immigration policy and border security measures is threatening to make the nation look equally ridiculous.

STAVA-MURRAY: Lone vote of 'present'

It may well be that the national Democrats will take their lead from Madigan when it comes to dealing with Trump. There is a majority of our nation that would love to see the current president fade away in as much ignominy as the current governor.

But then again, there will be those who will turn to new state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, D-Naperville, who insisted on voting “present” instead of “yes” for Madigan to once again be the Illinois House speaker. She was amongst the few who were swayed by all that anti-Madigan trash talk of campaign seasons past.

So who gets the last word? No matter whether it’s Rauner or Madigan, there’s bound to be somebody more than willing to respond, “bull----!”

  -30-

EXTRA: From Donald Trump down to Burger King, the deals that exist in Chi

If you think about it too long, it becomes pathetically laughable.

BURKE: An ultimate petty political scam

Edward M. Burke, who is about to hit the 50-year mark in terms of his service on the City Council, faces criminal indictment because of deals his law firm did connected to a Burger King franchise that wanted to operate in his neighborhood.

THAT'S RIGHT, BURGER King. As in the makers of the Whopper who used to challenge McDonald's by giving us the chance to "have it your way" when eating a hamburger. Most definitely NOT Donald Trump.

It seems the operators of a Burger King franchise at 4060 S. Pulaski Rd. had plans for remodeling the place, and that effort was going to require permits issued by City Hall. Those people were advised to hire their legal counsel from Burke's law firm to ensure the process was done correctly.

Then, it is alleged that a company executive was advised how it would be advantageous to their interests to make a campaign contribution that Burke would then pass along to other political people. News reports on Thursday indicated that mayoral hopeful Toni Preckwinkle was meant to be the recipient of the money.

The U.S. Attorney's office, however, is viewing all this behavior as criminal; hence the criminal complaint made public Thursday that files one count of attempted extortion. Although I can easily envision how political operatives will argue this charge is an attempt to criminalize the political process.

TRUMP: So much for taking down president

REMEMBER HOW SOME people were getting all hyped up over the idea that Burke was somehow under investigation because of his ties to Donald Trump in pre-presidential days, back when he was trying to get City Hall to approve the construction of his monstrosity of a namesake building along the Chicago River? Which even Trump himself has complained about.

We had some seriously drooling at the very thought of a political scandal connecting da Hall to the White House -- and one that could take down Trump as well! Not quite. Not even close.

The new preferred 'fast food' of the City Hall set?

Instead, it seems that all that really was at stake was someone trying to do a remodeling so that you could eat a Whopper in slightly-less-grungy conditions the next time you happened to be in that particular neighborhood.

And that Burger King franchise now gets a further bit of notoriety, as early news reports noted it was the same place where Laquan McDonald was walking past on that date in 2014 when he was shot dead by police for ignoring their demand that he stop his erratic behavior.

  -30-

EXTRA: Dumping Madigan may be a matter of thinking small (y en Español)

There are those people out there who are convinced that Michael Madigan is the root of all evil in our politics, and many of them waste far too much time trying to concoct schemes by which they depose the long-time Illinois House speaker and chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party.

MADIGAN: Does neighboring race worry him

Could it be that the real key to ending Madigan’s political reign (which goes back to the early 1970s and his days as part of the state Constitutional Convention) is to think small? And also to find someone who’s the 13rd Ward equivalent to Aaron Ortiz?

AARON IS THE political newcomer who Tuesday night defeated state Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, for his post in the state Legislature.

Burke is the brother of Ald. Ed Burke, D-14^th, and it was generally seen as evidence of Ed’s overall political influence that Dan served in the Illinois House of Representatives for the past 28 years with virtually no opposition.

Until now. The fact that much of the old white ethnic Southwest Side neighborhood structure is now Latino in composition meant that the local voters finally decided they wanted “one of our own” to be in government.

Hence, we now have a 26-year-old high school counselor who will be serving in his first political post once he wins the Nov. 6 general election – in which he’ll be running unopposed.

ORTIZ: Is someone like Aaron the key?

MANY POLITICAL OBSERVERS have used this election as evidence of Ed Burke’s declining influence on the local political scene.

But as it was pointed out to me by a mangy-old reporter-type (a group of us gathered for lunch Wednesday to hash out the electoral happenings of the night before), Madigan may be the one who ought to be more scared.

Burke is the powerbroker of the city’s 14^th Ward, while Madigan is the bigwig from the neighboring 13^th Ward. They’re both Southwest Side pols who represent areas that have turned Latino – in fact, heavily Mexican, in composition.

There was that election cycle of Jason Gonzales in 2016 where he challenged Madigan for the 22^nd Illinois House district seat; and the Madigan-types played the power politics to let it be known of the criminal offenses Gonzales had as a teenager – offenses for which he had formally been pardoned by now-former Gov. Pat Quinn.

GONZALES: Couldn't win in '16

ONE CAN ARGUE that was ugly and mean and downright dirty, but it can also be argued that a better candidate might have been able to run a viable campaign against the speaker – thereby eliminating him as a representative and requiring that someone else be picked as speaker.

And also, likely, as state Democratic chairman.

Madigan himself was unopposed in Tuesday’s primary. But could the search be starting up for someone to take Madigan on come the 2020 election cycle?

Consider that Aaron Ortiz was put up to running for office by Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who on Tuesday won his own primary to represent the Latino neighborhoods of Chicago and the suburbs in Congress.

GARCIA ACTUALLY BACKED about a half-dozen people for various political posts, and all of them actually won!

GARCIA: Moving on up in so many ways

Causing that aforementioned mangy-old reporter-type to speculate that Garcia is “the new Madigan” and a political power-broker in his own right.

That likely is an overstatement. But could Garcia be the key to finding a replacement for Madigan some day?

Or will “Mr. Speaker” himself figure out ways to gain a sixth decade in Illinois politics by appeasing Chuy so that he doesn’t dig up a not-yet-known Latino to challenge Madigan.

  -30-

Byrne gains glory after she’s gone

If ever there was a case of somebody having to wait until after death to gain praise for what they achieved during life, it is that of former Mayor Jane Byrne.
         

The first, and thus far only, woman to get elected as chief executive of Chicago city government died Friday at age 81 – some 31 years after she lost her re-election bid to Harold Washington.

MUCH HAS BEEN made about the fact that any kind of official recognition for Byrne didn’t come until this year, when the Circle Interchange was officially renamed in her honor. I found it amusing to read in the newspapers this weekend that Byrne’s daughter, Kathy, said Jane used to get a kick out of listening to radio traffic reports telling of rush-hour traffic “backed up at the Byrne,” so to speak.

But let’s be honest. She could easily have passed with relative anonymity, and her funeral service to be held Monday could have wound up a low-key affair that nobody paid attention to.

Is it really the desire of the Daley family to downplay anything involving city government that they can’t take credit for? Or are we Chicagoans just so short-memoried when it comes to our public personas?

Of course, Byrne used to get so much criticism from all factions in Chicago while she was mayor that it probably has taken the passage of so much time before people could think pleasant thoughts about her.

SOMETHING TO KEEP in mind when one keeps hearing over and over about the low approval ratings for President Barack Obama or soon-to-be former Gov. Pat Quinn.

But back to Byrne, who included amongst her achievements during her four years as mayor a stint living in the now-demolished Cabrini-Green public housing complex.

Her time living there stretched anywhere from one to three weeks – and was a response to a rising level of gang-related violence at the complex. It gained attention because the complex was so close to the Gold Coast neighborhood and Near North Side that Chicago likes to think of as being amongst its jewels.

Byrne herself said she was amazed she could look out her Cabrini apartment window and see her high-rise condo and Holy Name Cathedral, yet feel so isolated at the same time.

BYRNE CLAIMED SHE wanted to offer Cabrini-Green residents hope and a sense that the outside world cared about their predicament.

But I also have known many black people who viewed Byrne’s stint as a stunt and they say that she and husband Jay McMullen never really “lived” there – even though in her book “My Chicago,” she recounts a tale of her husband frightening security when he tried to cook dinner in a Cabrini kitchen; only to trigger the fire alarms.

Personally, I’m shocked to learn the complex’ fire alarms worked. But that’s another tale.

Many of the obituaries I have read recall how she “beat” the Machine – only to make deals with the “Evil Cabal” of aldermen including the Eddies; Burke of the 14^th Ward and former 10^th Ward boss Vrdolyak.

ANYBODY WHO THOUGHT she was friendly with either doesn’t understand the nature of political people – who tend to be envious of each other when the cameras aren’t running.

I recall a moment from my City News Bureau days when, on primary Election Day in 1988, I had to go see Vrdolyak vote. He was already past what turned out to be his glory days, but had hopes he could stage a political comeback by being the Republican candidate for Cook County court clerk.

It was a possibility that Vrdolyak could wind up running against Byrne herself, and “Fast Eddie” arrogantly said he wanted to run against her instead of Aurelia Pucinski because he thought Jane would do something self-destructive. “It’ll be more fun that way,” he said of the former mayor.

Not exactly the feelings of a friend.

ALTHOUGH I ALSO recall a moment talking to a Chicago cop who didn’t think much of the mayor. But when he tried to come up with the line that summarized her, he said, “she’s ugly, but she’s tough.”

Somehow, I suspect Byrne herself would have taken that line as the ultimate compliment.

  -30-

Add Tobolski to list including Madigan, Burkes of white pols from Latino areas

A part of me wonders if the Cook County Board is on to something when it comes to dealing with the growing Latino population – which accounts for 29 percent of Chicago’s official population and about one-fifth of the metropolitan area’s people.

TOBOLSKI: The new "Latino" pol



For when the City Council and the Illinois General Assembly went through their redistricting processes to draw boundaries for their wards and districts for the upcoming decade, the end result were maps that left Latino activists feeling that the population growth was not reflected.

YET THE COOK County Board is set to approve a map when they meet Tuesday that adds another district meant to elect a Latino public official – potentially boosting the number of Latinos on the 17-member county board from two to three.

Commissioners Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Edwin Reyes could soon have another of their ethnic brethren as a colleague on the board. Or maybe not.

To achieve that goal, the people who spent the past few months reviewing population trends in Cook County altered the district meant to represent the inner western suburbs (the ones right along the Chicago/suburban border).

There are growing numbers of Latino residents just about everywhere, but the town of Cicero that once was considered the home of the offspring of Al Capone is now overwhelmingly a Mexican-American town. Some 84 percent of its population falls into that category.

SO COUNTY OFFICIALS drew a map that centered the district around Cicero, using its overwhelming ethnic population as an anchor to create a district rigged to bolster the chances of another Latino official getting picked – some 56 percent of its people of voting age are Latino.

That is an increase from the old district that will cease to exist after Tuesday. Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski of suburban McCook got elected in 2010 in a district that was 41 percent Latino people of voting age.

Tobolski himself admits his district has changed substantially, although he has been smart enough not to complain about it in public. Because he likely plans to seek re-election, and doesn’t have plans to move (since he is a lifelong McCook resident whose parents had their own local political ties).

Tobolski is going to have to show that he can appeal to Latinos, as well as other people. If he can, then more power to him. Because nowhere in electoral politics are there any guarantees.

NOT EVEN THAT a district with a majority Latino population will get a Latino official to represent them, even though Garcia – a former alderman and state senator – says of the proposed county map, “the creation of new Latino-majority districts in this case provides new opportunities for the community to exert itself.”

But Tobolski still has the benefits of incumbency, bolstered by the tendencies of the Latino voter bloc to not turn out in as strong of numbers as other segments of the electorate.

The county board is going to boast on Tuesday how they boosted the number of Latinos who will serve amongst them. But they may have done more for incumbent preservation than anything else.

It could be more like the City Council or the state Legislature, where officials such as 14^th Ward Alderman Edward Burke or Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, were given safe districts on the city’s Southwest Side – even though they have large numbers of Latino voters living within them.

THAT CERTAINLY WOULD put Tobolski in an exclusive club, if he manages to get re-elected when his current term ends following the 2014 election cycle.

Perhaps Tobolski could be like Burke’s brother, Dan, a state representative, who has gone out of his way during his time in the Illinois House of Representatives to include himself in Latino Caucus activities so that he has a clue about what is happening “back home” in his district. Even though some activists view Burke’s activities as laughable and inadequate, I’ll acknowledge it as an effort.

The trick will be to see which officials will be willing to make the effort, and which ones will merely think that it is the “duty” of the new residents to adapt to the way that the old (and now, often, former) residents wanted things done.

Because if that turns out to be the case, then the political story of the 2010s is going to be the number of long-time politicos who got dumped by a growing Latino electorate interested in the new way of doing things – rather than hearing political stories about the “glory” days of the Daleys.

  -30-

White guys in the Latino caucus?

It always amused me that state Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, went out of his way to include himself in the Illinois House’s Latino caucus – making a point of sitting in with other Latino state legislators whenever they would meet privately to derive their stance on certain issues.

Burke said he felt that since his legislative district on the Southwest Side had such a significant Latino population, it was his obligation to try to understand his constituents.

BECAUSE NOT COMPREHENDING them would be a sure-fire way toward having them turn on him and vote someone else into office.

Some people ridiculed his gesture as nothing more than a token effort to understand Latinos, and that just because he sat in on a few meetings did not make him suddenly aware of what his constituents were thinking.

But on the whole, I always saw his gesture as being more than most political people were willing to do – since the usual reaction of a political person representing an area with a growing Latino population is to somehow cling to the declining white population in the area and try to figure out ways to maximize its political power!

In short, political denial.

SO IT IS with a feeling of amusement that I will be observing the City Council in coming months, where the head of the council’s Latino caucus (25^th Ward Alderman Danny Solis) said this week that the caucus is now willing to include aldermen who represent neighborhoods with significant Latino populations.

Solis said he wants to increase the influence of Latino politicos, and figures that this is one way to boost the total numbers – which will go up after the 2015 municipal elections when new aldermen are elected under the new ward map that has 13 Latino-based wards and two more wards that are Latino-influenced.

Now whether that tactic will work is questionable. Because the real factor is whether the white aldermen will want to alter their view of the world to include their Latino constituents more thoroughly.

If they don’t want to, it won’t matter if Solis is able to include their names on his “list” of Latino-leaning aldermen. Latinos might not gain much from this move.

BUT I WILL say that if these aldermen have any sense whatsoever, they will reach out to their growing numbers of Latino constituents (29 percent of the city’s overall 2.7 million population is Latino, according to the 2010 census).

If they have any sense, they will accept this invitation as the least of gestures they can make to representing the people who live within their wards. They ought to be jumping at the chance to make this move. If they’re not willing to do so, then perhaps they deserve to get dumped come the ’15 election cycle.

So 14^th Ward Alderman Edward Burke (Dan’s brother) will get the chance to show some understanding, as will 10^th Ward Alderman John Pope (whose ward includes some of the oldest Spanish-speaking enclaves in Chicago and will now be 63 percent Latino).

Other aldermen who got un invitado include Marty Quinn (13^th Ward), Toni Foulkes (15^th Ward), Michael Zalewski (23^rd Ward), Nick Sposato (36^th Ward) and Richard Mell of the 33^rd Ward, who was in charge of the recently-completed redistricting effort for the Chicago City Council and whose daughter, Deb Mell, serves in the Latino Caucus in her role as a state representative from the Northwest Side.

SO WHILE CANDIDATES such as Pope have been successful at defeating Latino challengers (claiming he can appeal to Latino voters) and people like Sposato had approached the Latino Caucus leadership in the past about being included (only to be rebuffed), we’re going to get a better picture of how interested they are in the growing segment of their wards.

This is one case where a politician acting in their own self-interest would also be beneficial to the people of Chicago as a whole.

  -30-

One-fifth of Illinois Legislature in Havana? What if they got trapped!

Call it my wildest fantasy come true – the 33 state legislators who on Wednesday arrived in Havana for a six-day journey through Cuba somehow get stuck on the Caribbean island nation.

How would Dan Burke ...

They are unable to return to the United States. Should we consider Fidel Castro a hero for helping us to do away with legislators who (had they been permitted to return to their political playground in Springfield) probably would have caused significant governmental mischief?

YOU HAVE TO to admit the thought is worth a chuckle. Because if we try to look at this trip on a rational level, the first (and only) question that comes to our minds is “What are you doing going to Havana?!?”

It may be one of the few logical statements made by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich when he tried to mock the actions of his gubernatorial predecessor – George Ryan – by saying that any action by Illinois officials to expand business with Cuba was a waste of time.

That trade embargo wasn’t going to disappear anytime soon, so significant business opportunities would continue to be thwarted in the name of ideology and trying to embarrass the Castro regime (which has shown throughout the years that it has no shame whatsoever).

But this week’s trip by 33 legislators is reminiscent of that journey that Ryan took to Havana back in 1999. It may be one of his finest moments as governor – or it may be further evidence that he was craven in character. It all depends on your own ideological hang-ups.

I'LL CONFESS TO believing the former stance, and saying that I think the people who want to bash Ryan for his Cuban sojourn do little more than show how small-minded they truly are.

One of the results of that first Cuban trip (Ryan later made a smaller-scale trip to Havana later in his gubernatorial term) is that Illinois companies worked out a deal by which they can sell foodstuffs and medical supplies to companies providing direct aid to Cuba.

... and brother Edward compare ...



Of course, that was only permissible because of some changes made back during the Bill Clinton years that allowed for some humanitarian aid.

Now, the legislators who went to Havana have hopes to build upon what can be sold, so that Illinois companies can make even more money off of Cuba when it eventually goes through a rebuilding period (which won’t truly start until the demise of the Castro brothers).

AND QUITE FRANKLY, Fidel and Raul aren’t showing any signs of dying off soon – even though the ideologues have had us thinking of the pair as decrepit old men on their death beds for decades.

What we really have happening this week is the same thing that George Ryan tried to do a dozen years ago – put the name of Illinois in the mindset of Cubans so that when they need precious goods, they will come to our companies.

Cuba is already Illinois’ fifth largest trading partner, with most of those items being agricultural products. There are a lot of business people who would like the figure to go up significantly.

That is what makes state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, think it worthy of  paying for this trip out of his own pocket, while state Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, and brother of almighty 13^th Ward Alderman Ed Burke, and all the other legislators who went along for the journey decided to use the money in their campaign funds.

AS AN ASIDE, I can’t help but wish that Eddie Burke could have gone along on this particular trip with younger brother Dan. What would los hermanos Castro make of the brothers Burke?

Would the two brother pairings meet, exchange pleasantries, then depart, while exchanging snide comments about how the other was a couple of power-hungry, political animals?

And if they did, who would be more correct. Eddie and Dan Burke on the Castros? Or Fidel and Raul on those lovable Irish-American politicos who manage to survive each Election Day, despite the fact that their ward/legislative district is turning increasingly Latino?

Although not Cubano. We’re talking about a Mexican-American mix that the Burkes will represent both in the City Council and in the Illinois House of Representatives.

I COULDN'T HELP but note Dan Burke pointed out that fact in some of the news coverage written in advance of the trip – as though he thinks people who come from places like Guanajuato or Guerrero are going to be swayed because he took a propaganda trip to the land where Che Guevara is a real icon – and not just some hairy dude who turns up on t-shirts!

... to the Castro brothers when it comes to tough politics?

So if it seems like I’m being disrespectful of this trip, I’m really not. I think it is a noble goal – because the day will come (no matter how many aging Miami exiles rant and rage against it) when Cuba becomes a part of the real world again.

Heck, beginning next month there will be direct flights from O’Hare International Airport to Havana’s Josè Martì International Airport. No more having to catch a flight to Montreal or Mexico City in order to get to Havana.

I’m just wondering how much our sometimes-bumbling state legislators (this is the governmental body with a member who this year tried to give a full tuition waiver to the kid of an organized crime figure, then tried to rescind it rather clumsily) are up to this trip.

  -30-

Bodyguards a relic of what we once were

Perhaps it is all too appropriate that the issue of Fourteenth Ward Alderman Edward Burke and his bodyguards lingers over us.

BURKE: A Council Wars remnant?

The fact that he has a four-person security detail full-time is a remnant of the “Council Wars” of old, when racial tensions turned our local politics into a verbal brawl that some feared could get physical.

SOME PEOPLE SEEM a little too eager to claim that this latest municipal election cycle is one where we no longer care about race – as though such considerations are irrelevant. Almost like they never mattered.

But they did.

Burke got those bodyguards for as long as he serves as finance chairman of the City Council because he was able to convince a judge back in the mid-1980s that HIS life would be at risk because of all those baaad people who would do him harm.

Not that anyone ever tried to do anything to “Flashy Eddie.” But what cracks me up about the idea of Burke needing bodyguards is that the reason there was tension back in the mid-1980s was largely BECAUSE of Burke, who along with “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak led the open revolt of a 29-member Council majority against then-Mayor Harold Washington.

THEY WERE ABLE to do so because they sensed the hostility much of Chicago felt toward the idea of an African-American person being elected mayor was so intense that many people would not object to their behavior.

If anything, the person who was the target of hostility was Washington himself, NOT Burke. Not that anyone ever went so far as to try to harm the mayor back then.

WASHINGTON: He really needed them



But if they had, it likely would have been because they felt motivated by the rancid rhetoric that used to come from the mouth of people like Burke. I’m not saying that Burke went so far as to call for bodily harm to befall Harold Washington.

But there would have been many Burke supporters back then who would not have been the least bit upset if something bad had happened to Harold.

NOW I AM not writing this commentary to engage in a two-and-a-half decades after the fact attack on Burke. I realize that time passes, and we all have to move on. I also realize that Burke himself throughout the years has made statements acknowledging how out-of-line much of his own political behavior was back in those years when Aaron Freeman turned our municipal government into a Star Wars parody that was all-too-accurate in its humor.

But to read from the court order that demanded that Burke have his own security detail, similar to that of the mayor himself, is just too bizarre if one does not have the proper historic context in their minds.

And the sad part of Richard M. Daley managing to serve as mayor for as long as he did is that there are too many otherwise-knowledgeable political people who came of age AFTER the Washington/Sawyer years.

They think the Daley way is the ONLY way that Chicago operates.

THEY HAVE FALLEN into this image of Burke as an elder statesman; the guy who likes to make long, rambling statements that manage to incorporate obscure details of Chicago history on just about every issue.

Perhaps they go along with the mentality that somehow, Burke is as important as any mayor and ought to have the same security detail. A part of me seriously wonders if the reason he wanted it back in the mid-1980s was to create the impression that he was a Washington equal – instead of just one of 50 alderman, compared to a single chief executive, for city government.

Then again, when that court order was signed that requires Burke to have the security detail so long  as he remains finance chairman, who would have thought that he’d still be going strong this deep into the 21^st Century.

For that fact, who’d have thought he’d still be an elected official for many years beyond the 1980s?

THIS COURT ORDER is one of those legal documents with aftereffects that linger well beyond the period of time when they might have been necessary.

So would it be nice if Burke were to have enough decency to realize the time in which he might have been able to justify city expense to maintain his security detail has come and gone?

It would be. Not that I expect he will.

For Burke is an elected official. He has just as much of an ego as any other. I’m sure that after nearly 25 years, having four men who otherwise would be patrolling the streets as police officers on hand feels like second nature.

MAYBE THOSE OFFICERS even feel like part of the extended family to Burke and his wife, Anne, the Illinois Supreme Court justice (who, if you want to know the truth, strikes me as needing a security detail far more than any alderman does).

He’s not about to give up a “family” member any time soon. Which means we, the people of Chicago, will be stuck with this remnant of Council Wars for the immediate future.

  -30-

EXTRA: Election Daze; Rahm wins again

What must it feel like to be Ed Burke these days?

Will we get Emanuel ...



First, his own wife (who sits on the Illinois Supreme Court) won’t bump off the mayoral candidacy of Rahm Emanuel, to the benefit of Flashy Eddie’s preference – Gery Chico.

THEN, EMANUEL GOES on to win the mayoral campaign so convincingly that we now wonder why we ever thought the election to replace Richard M. Daley would be competitive at all.

And now, Burke’s backing wasn’t enough to help long-time Alderman Bernard Stone hang onto his seat representing the far northern tip of Chicago.

Stone was one of the  incumbent aldermen who didn’t get enough votes to claim victory in the Feb. 22 municipal elections. So his ward was one of 14 across the city (out of 50 overall) that had to resort to a run-off.

In that run-off election held Tuesday, Stone (whom I recall from my City Hall reporting experience in the late 1980s as the press room companion of 1^st Ward Alderman Fred Roti – it took a federal indictment against Roti to break their attachment at the hip) got only 38 percent of the vote.

HIS OPPONENT, DEBRA Silverstein (the wife of state Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago), got the other 62 percent. She also had the backing of mayor-elect Emanuel, which made the 50^th Ward the latest battleground between new mayor Emanuel and old council Finance Chair Burke.

Which makes me wonder if there will be battle after battle between the two once Emanuel starts governing in mid-May.

... versus Burke in coming years?



That’s certainly the way Stone – who had been in the council since the latter days of Richard J. Daley as mayor – sees it. Noting that he lost his committeeman position a few years ago because of Richard M.’s influence, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Stone said, “instead of King Richard, he’s now Emperor Emanuel.

“If guys like Eddie Burke are pushed around by Rahm Emanuel, then this city is in for some rough times,” Stone said.

OUCH!!!

Of course, Stone isn’t the only incumbent City Council member on his way out. Sixth Ward Alderman Freddrenna Lyle was unable to get re-elected, losing to Roderick Sawyer – the son of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, who himself was once the alderman of that South Side ward.

Aldermen Denise Dixon of the 24^th Ward and 36^th Ward Alderman John Rice also managed to lose to challengers on Tuesday.

But it seems that we are being spared/denied the sight of a rapper in the City Council. Che “Rhymefest” Smith’s bid to represent the 20^th Ward is lagging behind that of incumbent Alderman Willie Cochran.

OF COURSE, I am enough of a political geek/observer to find elections and campaigning intriguing regardless of where it takes place.

Hence, I find my interest in the municipal elections of south suburban Chicago Heights, where voters apparently chose “unity” over “integrity” for mayor.

Those were the names of the slates created by the two mayoral hopefuls running for the post left vacant when the interim mayor, Vince Zaranti, decided he didn’t want to run for his own term.

So Unity Party candidate David Gonzalez, the candidate who had to cope with allegations that he was a drug dealer (the reality is that his brother has an arrest record for drug-related offenses), managed to prevail over Integrity Party candidate Joe Faso.

TO LISTEN TO Faso, he’s the candidate who was being viciously attacked and whose supporters were being intimidated by Gonzalez backers into keeping their mouths shut.

In short, this was an ugly political brawl – one so vicious that at one point, local religious leaders suggested that the Cook County clerk’s office close the early voting center they maintained in the south suburb (which was one of the busiest this year in all of Cook County).

Local voters wound up picking the candidate who was a political ally of the man who likely would have run for mayor. But Alex Lopez – who became mayor when state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, gave up the post to become a legislator – died last year at age 44 due to complications caused by diabetes.

Will Chicago Heights, a city who for many decades had a government that was heavily influenced by elements of what we politely call organized crime, finally gain stability? Who’s to say!

I HAD ONE other election I was watching – even though it didn’t take place anywhere in the Chicago metro area. In downstate Normal, Ill., voters picked the three incumbents seeking re-election to serve again on their Town Council.

Which means that Gary Ohler, who is a fellow Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus (we both graduated the same year), finished fourth (of five candidates) and is NOT about to begin his career as a government official.

That is too bad. Because the Gary I remember was diligent and serious, even if one time he tried to get me involved in a scheme selling Amway products – telling me I could potentially become so wealthy I could retire early and enjoy my life.

I forgive him for that effort, and am kind of glad he will not be exposed to the whiny geeks that all too many political people become once they get elected to office. He deserves better in life.

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EXTRA: Burke says "no" to recusal

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke told Crain's Chicago Business on Wednesday she has no intent of recusing herself from the high court's actions relating to Rahm Emanuel's worthiness to be on the mayoral ballot come the Feb. 22 elections.

Burke said that only does she have a mind of her own apart from her husband (implying that demands she recuse herself are sexist), I got a kick out of her comments recalling that  her husband (who is a Gery Chico backer) did not like it much when she worked for Illinois state government under then-Gov. Jim Edgar -- a Republican.

BUT SHE DID it anyway.

And now, that's one less element for the conspiracy theorists to take into account. Then again, those people are going to concoct a wild theory no matter what the state Supreme Court does with regard to the mayoral elections.

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Will she recuse herself? Anne Burke the focus of political observer attention

The Illinois Supreme Court, a legal body we’d  like to think of as august and impartial, is inherently a political animal. Now, they’re being put in a position to make a blatantly political ruling.

BURKE: What does she hear at home?



And, they’re being asked to issue it on the fly. A rush-job ruling that will impact our city for years, if not decades, to come.

THAT IS THE case with regards to the mayoral aspirations of Rahm Emanuel, who asked the state’s high court to hear his mayoral campaign's appeal that says an Illinois appellate court panel was wrong to remove him from the list of candidates running in the Feb. 22 municipal elections. The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a stay that restored him to the ballot -- at least until the high court decides what it wants to do.

The Chicago Tribune reported how two of the three judges on that panel got their original appointments due to the work of Alderman Edward Burke – who has made it clear in this election that he is a Gery Chico backer.

The implication being that those two judges repaid a political favor by issuing a ruling that supported Burke’s electoral desires. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they would have ruled the same regardless of Burke ties, but I wonder if the fact they waited five full days to issue their ruling (they heard arguments last week) was meant to reduce the amount of time that Emanuel could try to appeal.

There’s going to be an even bigger connection for Burke when the appeal goes to the state Supreme Court, where Burke’s wife, Anne, is one of the high court’s justices. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that she in the past has sat out cases involving Chicago election law, and already is hearing pleas from various legal groups that she should recuse herself – literally sit out this particular case, on the grounds that she is too biased to issue a fair ruling.

HALL: The reality of our system is ...

NOW I’M GOING to give judges some credit when it comes to court cases involving electoral politics. I do believe all except the most blatantly incompetent are capable of viewing the law above partisan political concerns. It is simple-minded to look at the letter (“D” or “R”) that follows a judge’s name and make knee-jerk predictions about how he/she will rule on Rahm Emanuel.



Except for when it happens, such as the once-a-decade ruling when maps creating political boundaries for legislative and judicial districts are reviewed by the high court. Those always seem to come down along partisan lines. 

Which is why I think it is naïve to believe the backers of Shelvin Louise Marie Hall – one of the two judges who on Monday gave Rahm Emanuel the Election Day boot – who say they couldn’t even remember if Burke, the alderman, did anything on her behalf to get her elected as a judge.



HOFFMAN: ... judges have political ties

Then again, one has to wonder what Burke has been hearing at home from her husband about this election cycle, and how much of that rhetoric comprises her thought process these days.

JUDGES ARE JUST as much creatures of the political system we have in this state as the people who are now demanding recusal. We all want a certain outcome and want the court conditions best likely to create it.



Insofar as those people who are now demanding that Burke step aside and let her six other colleagues on the state Supreme Court decide this case, I’m not sure it makes much of a difference. 

Because Rahm Emanuel is still going to have to convince four Supreme Court justices (out of seven) that the appellate court goofed on Monday. Eliminating Burke means four out of six. That may turn out to be very difficult.

The reality of the Illinois Supreme Court is that it is broken up regionally – and Chicago is dominant enough over the other regions of Illinois that we get the 4-3 Democrat/Republican partisan split.

THREE OF THE judges are from Cook County, actually all from the city proper. The other four are either from suburban areas or the other parts of the state that are probably sitting back and watching with bemusement the antics taking place in Chicago this week.

For all I know, they may well follow the whims of their own home regions that wouldn’t mind mucking things up in this electoral process. Which means I suspect the three judges from suburban DuPage, along with Danville and Nashville in Southern Illinois, aren’t going to be terribly sympathetic to the Election Day desires of the former White House chief of staff.

Now there is one Democrat on the Supreme Court from outside of Chicago. That would be Thomas Kilbride, the man who endured a serious challenge by GOP partisans in the last election cycle to dump him to shift the state Supreme Court to the Republicans.

He managed to keep his seat (for a 10-year term) in large part due to the work of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, who also has attorneys allied with him filing Emanuel’s appeal to the state Supreme Court. Combine them with the other two Chicago justices (Charles Freeman and Mary Jane Theis), and we get the potential for a “nice” 3-3 split.

THAT IS IF Anne Burke decides to recuse herself.

Personally, I’d just as soon have her sit in and take part in the high court’s decision. At least then she’d be on the record.

If we’re going to start concocting conspiracy theories about how Eddie Burke used the courts to kick his political opposition off the ballot, it would be better if we had something resembling a paper trail – rather than just our political paranoia – as evidence. Then, we can complain/rant/rage all we want for years to come.

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