PAT QUINN VS. BILL DALEY: “THIS GUY DOESN’T THINK THIS IS A SHOW; HE THINKS IT’S A FIGHT!”

7/16/13

Now that Attorney General Lisa Madigan has opted out of the Illinois governor’s race (See today’s other post, LISA MADIGAN WON’TRUN FOR GOVERNOR:  WOULD YOU WANT THE JOB?), we are left, for now, with a one-on-one Democratic primary race featuring Governor Pat Quinn (no relation) and ex-White House Chief of Staff, ex-Commerce Secretary, ex-corporate bigshot, ex-everything Bill Daley, who also happens to be the son and brother of Chicago’s two longest serving mayors.

Mr. Daley’s chances in the upcoming primary have increased markedly, some might say infinitely (See 6/6/13’s “GOVERNOR BILL DALEY…SENATOR BILL DALEY.   THERE JUST WASN’T THE TIME…”), with Lisa Madigan’s exit, which was more or less forced by Mr. Daley’s entry into the race; again, see today’s other post.   While yours truly would certainly not argue that Bill Daley’s chances of becoming governor are a heck of lot better than they were yesterday, I would not count out Governor Quinn.  (See my 7/10/13 piece, PAT QUINN SUSPENDS  LEGISLATORS’ SALARIES:   FOUR MORE YEARS? and the posts to which it will refer you.)   Don’t misunderstand me; I am not predicting a Quinn victory.  I am simply NOT, for a number of reasons, among those who are saying the man has no chance at re-nomination or re-election.

Cousin Pat (not really, but I like saying that more of late) is the incumbent governor.  In the first quarter, he raised more money than either Bill Daley or Lisa Madigan.   Further, he is running a populist campaign that, while loaded with what some might consider silly, or irresponsible, stunts, like suspending legislative salaries, seems to be striking a chord with the typical voter.  Further, if Mr. Quinn can get the appropriate inspector general off the dime and quickly conduct a review, both of which are big “if”s, he can pull another such maneuver by firing the entire Metra board.  (See another post from yesterday, WE ARE SHOCKED…SHOCKED!...TO LEARN OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE AT METRA and the posts to which it will refer you.)   If you think the voters liked suspending legislative salaries, think how they will react to firing the legion of toadies, lackeys, hacks, has-beens, and wannabes that comprises the Metra board.   And Quinn just might to it.

Further, everyone speaks of Bill Daley’s fundraising prowess, but I wonder.  Now that his brother is no longer mayor and thus cannot deliver a near instant return on donors’ investments, is Bill Daley the “prolific fundraiser” that he is made out to be and indeed once was?   One suspects that Mr. Daley would not embark on this race unless he was confident he had the ability to raise a lot of money, so I might be wrong here, but even Mr. Daley has made miscalculations in his career.  Further, people don’t give political donations in this state, or just about anywhere, because they like the candidate or the party to whom they are giving.  They give because they expect a return on their investment, and the return here is not immediately obvious unless the donors are certain Mr. Daley will go to Springfield.  But they can’t be certain of that unless he gets a LOT of money; you can see the chicken and egg problem here.  While this problem is faced by just about all political candidates, it might be especially acute for Mr. Daley, given his background and his reputation as a “prolific fundraiser.”

One person that I have heard nothing about in regard to the governor’s race is the Mayor of Chicago, that idol of the consanguineous media, Rahm Emanuel.  Mr. Emanuel may protest publicly that he is not taking sides in the gubernatorial primary, but, c’mon, Mr. Emanuel staying on the sidelines of any political race?   And if you were Rahm Emanuel, would you want a potentially very strong Bill Daley to be governor?   Wouldn’t you prefer the weaker Pat Quinn?   Don’t try to argue that Mr. Emanuel has, or feel he owes, some sort of loyalty to the Daley family, which went a long way toward making him what he is today on a number of fronts.   Loyalty counts for little for Mr. Emanuel, unless it is to himself.  Ask the Clintons.

So suppose that Mr. Emanuel, secretly or perhaps not so secretly, puts out the word that he would rather not see Bill Daley in the governor’s office.  What will that do to Daley’s ability to raise money?

All that having been said, one can never factor out two things…the electorate’s general level of disappointment with Governor Quinn or the deal making skills of the Daley family.  On the latter, I smell what one might call a rat, or two rats, if I didn’t have some genuine admiration for what some might call underhanded political tactics.  See, for example, chapter 8 of my first book, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics.  What such seemingly malodorous tactics might one be seeing in the upcoming gubernatorial primary?

As of now, the Democratic gubernatorial primary is a two person race.  However, as soon as Lisa Madigan opted out of the race, talk of two other potential candidates started.  The first is state Senator Kwame Raoul of Chicago who is a something of an up and comer among black politicians.   The other is state Senator Dave Koehler, who is from Peoria.  

Hmm…

Pat Quinn’s strongest, most loyal constituency is black voters, primarily in Chicago.   Wouldn’t it be nice for Mr. Daley if Mr. Raoul, who has been known to play political ball, were to enter the race and take at least some, and probably more, of the black vote from Mr. Quinn?

Mr. Quinn is also expected to run well downstate in the primary, not so much because the Governor is so well liked in the “other Illinois” but, rather, because the Daley name is like a pox down there.   Wouldn’t it be nice for Mr. Daley if, say, Mr. Koehler or another downstater were to run and take some of that downstate vote from Mr. Quinn?

I am starting to smell something like current ward of the federal government Rod Blagojevich’s first run for governor in 2002.   His main opponent in the primary, Paul Vallas, had great strength in the black community, largely due to the relatively good job he had done as head of the Chicago Public Schools.   A third candidate, Roland Burris, an at times amiable hack from the south side, emerged to drain Mr. Vallas’ strength in the black community and thus hand the primary to Mr. Blagojevich, who eventually repaid Mr. Burris by appointing him to Barack Obama’s U.S. senate seat when Mr. Blagojevich’s back was against the federal wall, but that is another story.  Did Alderman Dick Mell (See my 7/7/13 and 7/6/13 posts, respectively, DICK MELL USED OUR MONEY TO PAY PEOPLE TO SLEEP: “THEY’RE GONNA SAY…WHAT A GUY!”  and FAREWELL, DICK MELL…SORT OF) have anything to do with Mr. Burris’s entry into the 2002 gubernatorial primary?   Are the White Sox a lousy baseball team?

Similarly, should Mr. Raoul, Mr. Koehler, and/or someone else who is black and/or from downstate enter this race, would Mr. Daley or his minions have had anything to do with his sudden desire to be governor?   Are the Cubs a lousy baseball team?

This is going to be a far more interesting race for governor, even without Lisa Madigan, than most people think.

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. 

HOW DID CYNTHIA BRIM GET ON THE BENCH…AND STAY THERE FOR NEARLY TWENTY YEARS?

2/5/13

Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim was found not guilty by reason of insanity of battery charges arising from an incident back in March, 2012 in which she shoved a sheriff’s deputy after tossing courtroom keys at the deputy and his cohorts working security at the Daley Center.  It was quite clear that the insanity defense would work.    On the day of the alleged battery, Judge Brim, meaning to go downtown to protest an online article criticizing a fellow judge, got off the bus at 47^th Street and apparently walked the six miles downtown and showed up at the Daley Center in hospital scrubs, a fur coat and hat.   This obviously aroused the suspicion of the Daley Center security detail, who had no idea she was a judge since she worked out of a courtroom in south suburban Markham and judges, even in Cook County, don’t normally come to work in scrubs and a fur coat.   Deputies who testified at the trial described her as “irrational” and “catatonic” that day, but, given the state of the judiciary in Cook County, one suspects that such traits did nothing to add to their suspicions that Judge Brim was not, indeed, a judge, but I digress.   At any rate, the Judge’s bizarre behavior led to the alleged battery and also to her ultimate conditional legal absolution.

The bigger question for Cook County residents and taxpayers (Judge Brim has been relived of her duties since the incident but continues to collect her $182,000 per year salary.  Hey, such stellar legal talent doesn’t come cheap, but, again, I digress.) is why Judge Brim was ever on the bench.  She has been hospitalized five times for psychotic episodes, once before and four times since her election to the bench in 1993.  At the time of her election, she was 35 years old, ten years out of law school, and had a resume bereft of private practice but featuring a series of jobs with Mayors Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley and Attorney General Roland Burris.   She was reelected in November, 2012, eight months after the alleged battery and while on the paid leave that resulted from that incident, with the support of the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization.

Judge Cynthia Brim appeared unqualified at the time of her original slating for, and perfunctory election to, the bench in 1993.   She did nothing while on the bench to dissuade anybody of that notion.   She has been a very sick person for her entire tenure as a judge.  And yet she has been on the bench for nearly twenty years.   But she was, and remains, a judge because, in Cook County, judges are elected, Chicago style.   Voters don’t pay attention to the judicial ballot; even yours truly, who follows politics more closely than does the average bear, doesn’t pay attention to the judicial ballot unless I know one of the candidates personally or through friends.   But instead of simply not voting for judges, like I do, on the theory that an uninformed vote is far worse than no vote at all, people randomly fill out their judicial ballots or simply vote for the candidate endorsed (slated) by the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization.

Given that few people vote for judge and many of those that do are politically motivated to do so, slating for the bench by the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization is tantamount to election.  That slating is, and has been for years, dominated by 14^th Ward Alderman and Committeeman Ed Burke.  Consequently, judicial candidates are not chosen based on their legal acumen or experience but, rather, based primarily on their political affiliations and loyalties, which, in most cases, must run toward the Organization, Mr. Burke, and the few other pols who have some hand in the process.

Is this any way to select a third branch of government?  

The obvious argument is for appointment, rather than election, of judges, as is done in most other jurisdictions in this country.   This course of action is also fraught with peril, given that, like everything else in and around Chicago, that selection process would be dripping with politics.  But the current system of electing, and slating, judges is tantamount to appointment with the mere façade of an election, so how much worse could actual appointment be?

Even though it is not known as one of the nation’s stellar systems, it’s a miracle that the Cook County court system works as well as it does.   But we can’t count on miracles forever.  It would seem that the system of slating, for certain election, political hacks, lackeys, toadies, and hangers-on, along with a few random and largely coincidental fine legal minds, has to come to an end.   Or would the alternative be just as scary?

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 this subject.