Daley for governor? I guess it’s time in the election cycle to spew this tale

DALEY: All talk for governor

I deliberately held off on considering William Daley for a day.

For I’m not swayed by the idea that the one-time Commerce secretary and White House chief of staff is actually going to run for governor of Illinois.

EVEN THOUGH HE told a business gathering this week that he’s “thinking about it seriously,” all I can help but think is that Bill Daley ALWAYS says he’s thinking about running for governor.

He lets the idea fester about for a bit. Then, he backs away. Between the son and brother of long-time Chicago mayors and Chris Kennedy (the JFK nephew who used to run the Merchandise Mart), I’m not sure which one gets his name tossed about more in the rumor mill as a prospective candidate for high political office.

It may well be Daley, since it always seems to be political operatives who drag Kennedy’s name into such discussions – as though we need to have the Kennedy “aura” in our local political scene.

Either that, or we want to cover up the fact that Rod Blagojevich came close to starting up a familial political dynasty of sorts. Ugh!!!

THE BOTTOM LINE is that I have lost count of the number of times that I have heard Bill Daley’s name tossed into the mix for Illinois governor. I remember hearing it back when I was a part of the Illinois Statehouse scene – and I made my return from “Springpatch” more than a decade ago.

At the time, the idea had an intriguing twist. Richard M. was Chicago mayor, and John had just returned to Chicago from an Illinois Senate stint of his own to serve on the Cook County Board.

What if John were to run for county board President, and William were to become governor? We’d have Daleys all over the place.

 

Patrick Daley Thompson (left) is more likely to be the next "Daley" to rise to high political office. Photograph provided by Metropolitan Water Reclamation District

More direct political control than old man Richard J. could ever have dreamed of having! It would be the ultimate fantasy for political geeks whose view of the world doesn’t venture any further south than Beverly.

ALTHOUGH I’M SURE there would have been those politically active people in other parts of the state who would have found the concept of a Daley-fest to be atrocious.

Heck, I’m sure Michael J. Madigan would have been equally repulsed. Because the long-time Illinois House speaker’s role in the Chicago political universe is to be the guy who keeps state government in line with the city’s needs.

And having so many Daleys would have interfered with the dreams of daughter Lisa to rise to a new level of political status. Although I have to admit the idea of a Daley versus Madigan primary for governor (if both of them actually went for it in 2014 would be intriguing.

A lot of political people would be forced to take sides in a way they never envisioned. The idea of having to pick between Obama and Hillary (like they had to in 2008) would be minor by comparison.

BUT IT’S NOT going to come to that. I’m pretty sure of it. Those of you who are desperate to have a “Daley” in a position of political authority probably should be following the governmental life of Patrick Daley Thompson – he of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District who may well rise to unheard of heights.

For the key is that we’re just a month past the 2012 election cycle. We’re as far away from 2014 as we can get. Which is why it is appropriate for Bill Daley to talk this fantasy. It’s the right time.

Once things get to the point where he’d have to actually do something real to achieve the goal, he’ll come to the same realization he always does – that he has bigger priorities than hustling for a political post that may come with a mansion.

But a nice house to live in just isn’t enough to entice him into the minutia of Illinois state government. I honestly believe Lisa Madigan is a more likely person to challenge Pat Quinn for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination come the ’14 election cycle – and even she may not want to tackle a primary fight that would definitely get ugly.

SO WHERE WILL Bill Daley be come Election Day 2014?

Probably tossing out hints about how he’s “seriously considering” a run for governor in 2018!

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Kennedy “mystique” to hit Illinois

It shouldn’t be a surprise. Christopher Kennedy (the son of Bobby) has made a life for himself in Chicago. And he comes from a family drenched in electoral politics.

So it was only a matter of time before he started thinking seriously of combining those factors and becoming a government official – running for a political post in a city where the magic name is “Daley,” not “Kennedy.”

FOR IT LOOKS like Kennedy, the guy who runs the Merchandise Mart (for many decades, the Kennedy family included the riverfront office building among their real estate holdings), thinks the world needs another Sen. Kennedy on Capitol Hill.

Unlike his Uncle Ted who stood in the Kennedy "homeland" of Massachusetts, Christopher would like to be the junior senator from Illinois.

In short, Christopher Kennedy has aspirations of being the guy who dumps Roland Burris from the U.S. Senate. Considering that the field is going to be crowded enough, I’m not sure what to think of the fact that a building manager with no prior elected offices on his resume wants to have one of the Big Four positions in Illinois politics.

It could be that in a crowded field, the Kennedy “mystique” will be sufficient to generate about 25 percent of the vote – which could be enough to win the Democratic party’s nomination in 2010.

WE COULD VERY well get a 21st Century sequel to the 1960 presidential campaign. That is the race where Richard J. Daley’s political organization (the dreaded Machine) turned out the vote to win Illinois’ electoral votes for John F. Kennedy.

Now, it could turn to Richard M. to get the powers that be of local politics to put aside their own elective ambitions to turn out the vote for Christopher come next November. For his part, Daley says he thinks the “Kennedy” name has a magic in Illinois.

On the one hand, it would be intriguing to see an “outsider” such as Christopher Kennedy run for office in Illinois. Next year is going to be the campaign where Republican officials at every level will scream the name “Blagojevich!” at every opportune moment (and even a few occasions where they make themselves appear gauche for doing so).

Because he has not held elective office, and hasn’t done much politically other than write out checks to make donations to favored candidates throughout the years, Kennedy might actually be able to dodge such accusations.

HOW COULD HE be just another “corrupt Blagojevich Democrat” (how many times will we hear that phrase?) when he has never been elected to anything. Yet that Kennedy name will draw national attention, which would make it easy for him to tap into sources for fundraising.

But I’m sure there will be people who will resent his presence, and will try to make him out to be some foreigner to this state – even though he has lived and worked in Chicago for decades (longer, I’m sure, than Barack Obama, who is now our ultimate “favorite son” on the national political scene).

I’m sure people like Burris, Jan Schakowsky, Alexi Giannoulias and anyone else with dreams of being in the U.S. Senate will start sniping at the Kennedy name, trying to make it seem as though some Massachusetts guy wants to steal a Senate seat from Illinois the same way Alan Keyes of Maryland tried to do in 2004.

I’m also sure that the hostility he will face will be comparable to the attacks sustained by Caroline Schlossberg. The daughter of JFK had her own dreams of being in the U.S. Senate from New York when Gov. David Patterson had the chance to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Hillary Clinton (herself a Park Ridge native).

BUT SHE GOT hit with all kinds of accusations that she was totally inexperienced and knew nothing of the ways of public policy and public life. I can guess the campaigns against Christopher Kennedy in Illinois will echo that rhetoric – only more harsh.

Personally, I’m not sure if I’d vote for Christopher Kennedy. That is assuming he does proceed with plans to seek the nomination. I’d have to hear more about what he stands for.

But you have to admit it would have been the ultimate in bizarre if Caroline had become the senator from New York, with her cousin Chris being the senator from Illinois. The kids of JFK and RFK on Capitol Hill.

I’d feel all Kennedy-ed out. For those people who used to make an issue out of the fact that a Hillary Clinton election as president would have given us at least 24 years of the U.S. presidency being controlled by two families, I’d say the spread of Kennedys across the country makes the Bushes and Clintons seem like small change.

ACTUALLY, THAT IS the ironic part of this Kennedy conspiracy. Christopher isn’t even the first Kennedy to think of running for electoral office in our city.

Remember William Smith, the son of JFK and RFK sister Jean Smith?

One of the founders of the Center for International Rehabilitation who is most remembered for a 1991 rape trial in Florida (where he was acquitted) gave some thought back in 2001 to running for a U.S. House of Representatives seat from the Northwest Side.

That’s the one Rod Blagojevich gave up to run for governor in 2002.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: A modern-day Daley thinks a modern-day Kennedy could do well politically (http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1583041,daley-kennedy-chris-caroline-052009.article) on the Chicago scene.