ANTAGONISM BETWEEN THE DALEYS AND THE MADIGANS?

6/9/13

Now that Bill Daley looks like he might be making a run for Illinois governor (See my already seminal 6/6/13 piece, “GOVERNOR BILL DALEY…SENATOR BILL DALEY.   THERE JUST WASN’T THE TIME…”), bollixing up the plans of House Speaker Mike Madigan and his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who both assumed the governor’s mansion was Lisa’s for the asking, much is being made among the punditocracy about the “antagonism” between the Daley and Madigan families.  

Hmm…

I’ve followed Chicago politics for a long time, longer than most of the punditocracy has been alive, and, until the last few months, I had never heard of a Daley/Madigan family feud.   Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention, being distracted by other things, but it always seemed to me that the Rich Daley worked well with Mike Madigan.   If there is any personal antagonism between the two, or between any members of the family, it is news to me, though I’m not in a position to know of such things; I know neither man, have met Rich Daley only once, and have never met Mike Madigan.

But even if there exists between the families some personal animosity, or simply professional rivalry beyond that which normally exists between ambitious families, it doesn’t matter.  Mr. Madigan and all four Daley brothers who hold or held power in one form or another in this town know how to put personal feelings aside when there is business to be done, as evidenced by the sterling, one might even say warm, professional relationship between Mr. Madigan and Rich, Bill, John, and Mike Daley.

Speaking of being able to put personal antagonism aside, it is said by elements of the media, including Monique Garcia in this morning’s (i.e., Sunday, 6/9/13’s, page 1) Chicago Tribune, that the “Daley-Madigan family antagonism,” as she puts it, dates back to the 1980 State’s Attorney’s race in which Mike Madigan backed Ed Burke in the primary against Rich Daley.  

Hmm…

The famous rivalry (antagonism might, and only might, be too strong a word) between the Burkes and the Daleys goes back to at least 1953, when Ed Burke’s father, Joe Burke, was part of the 14^th Ward cabal, that included Clarence Wagner and James McDermott, that teamed with the 19^th Ward cabal, that included John Duffy and Tom Nash, to try to deny Richard J. Daley the post of Chairman of the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization, which Dick Daley assumed was his when placeholder Joe Gill stepped down.  When Mr. Wagner died in a car crash in Minnesota, the 14^th and 19^th Ward forces faded and Dick Daley took his rightful place at the head of the Party.   Mr. Daley, like most of his fellow Irishmen, including yours truly, suffered from Irish amnesia…we forgive, but we don’t forget.   Still, Dick Daley worked well with Joe Burke, who succeeded Wagner as 14^th Ward Alderman, and served as alderman and committeeman until his death in 1968, when he was replaced by his son, Ed. 

When the Burke/Daley rivalry came to a boil again in 1980 with the State’s Attorney’s race between scions Ed and Rich, the Daleys came out on top.   Richard II  shared Richard I’s case of Irish amnesia, and probably harbored some lingering bitterness toward Ed Burke, and vice-versa (again, I’m not in a position to know; I’ve met Rich Daley only once and know Ed Burke only to say “Hi,” if that well any more).   But that didn’t stop the younger Mr. Daley and Mr. Burke from working very well together as, respectively, Mayor and Council Finance Committee Chairman and all around uber-alderman and committeeman.

Pros know how to put aside whatever personal piques that may exist.  And if the Daleys and the Burkes were able to put aside anything that may have been between them, the Daleys and the Madigans would surely be able to do the same, especially if the origins of the Daley/Madigan feud lay in the Daley/Burke feud, as Ms. Garcia suggests in today’s Tribune.

Further, the suggestion is that the Daley/Madigan “antagonism” that exists today has its roots in the Daley/Burke 1980 race for State’s Attorney.   This makes very little sense.  If the Daleys were antagonistic toward everyone who opposed Rich in the 1980 State’s Attorney primary, they’d be antagonistic toward a lot of people.  As I recall, of the 50 Democratic ward organizations in Chicago, only two, the 11^th Ward and 19^th Ward Organizations, backed Rich Daley for State’s Attorney.   If the Daleys really despised the pols that backed Ed Burke over Rich Daley for State’s Attorney, they harbored 48 grudges for a long, long time.  That’s a lot of grudges for a long time, even for an Irish clan.

I don’t know how the Daleys feel about the Madigans.  But I do know that, even if there were some “antagonism” arising out the 1980 State’s Attorney’s race, or anything else, Rich Daley, John Daley, Bill Daley, Mike Daley, and Mike Madigan were able to put it aside in the interest of doing business for a long, long time.  If both Bill Daley and Lisa Madigan run in the Democratic primary for governor in 2014, which I doubt (See, again, my seminal 6/6/13 post.), the professional rivalry between the families will arise or be resurrected.   But one, or neither, of the families’ representatives will win the primary, and both families will go back to doing business.

We Irish have our faults, but a distorted sense of priorities generally isn’t one of them, especially when money and/or power is at stake.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics.