POLITICS: Sons of the Fathers
Fund, John H.
( POLITICS John I ] . Fund Sons of the Fathers - • A R L SANDBURG CHRISTENED CHICAGO"City of the Big Shoulders." These days the nation's third largest metropolis might merit a new moniker:...
...B UT NONE OF THESE HELPING FATHERS has done as much for their ambitious children as William 'Lipinski, a former congressman from the city's ethnic Polish and Italian wards, has done for his boy...
...A July poll by the Tarrance Group shows Republican Tony Peraica, one of the few Republicans on SO THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 2006 JOHN H. FUND the Cook County Board, leading Stroger 42 to 38 percent...
...With Republicans both scarce and compliant in the district, Dan Lipinski cruised into Congress...
...Evan Bayh and Rep...
...Republican, but as hack vs...
...Madigan to investigate how a California company that employs the sister of one of Governor Blagoj evich's top political aides ended up with a multimillion-dollar state contract...
...Another city power broker is Michael Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House and the state's Democratic Party chairman...
...reformer...
...But in Chicago, 1960 is still viewed as a kind of Golden Age--a time when the local machine was running on all cylinders and the late Mayor Daley had just installed John F. Kennedy in the White House by means of the creative vote-counting math he had honed to perfection...
...All right...
...In large part he was catapulted into office through the efforts of his father-in-law, Dick Mell, an influential power broker in Chicago...
...John H. Fund, The American Spectator's Politics columnist, is author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy (Encounter Books...
...These days the nation's third largest metropolis might merit a new moniker: "City of the Big Nepotists...
...The prevailing attitude was best expressed by the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, who responded to charges of nepotism by saying, "If a father can't help his sons, who can he help...
...The Cook County Board is no mere plaything--it has a $3 billion budget and oversees 4,000 patronage employees...
...We have Democrats who run things like the family business and we have Republicans who help them...
...That's partly because the local Republican Party is often incapable or unwilling to challenge the scandalous behavior of the leaders of the local establishment, a group reformers have dubbed LOOT (Leaders of Our Town...
...Just this summer, Chicago witnessed a bizarre switcheroo with the decision of local ward bosses to replace John Stroger, president of the powerful Cook County Board, with his son Todd after four months of waiting for the 77-year-old father to recover from a stroke...
...A rubber-stamp meeting of local party bosses handed the Democratic nomination to the just-arrived Lipinski the Younger...
...The fact is that the political game in Chicago is rigged...
...Lipinski misled everyone into believing he was running for re-election and then dropped out like the family business and we have Republicans who help them...
...white or Democrat vs...
...House by Jesse Jackson Jr., the son of the famous civil-rights poseur...
...At the time, his son Dan was a professor of political science 700 miles away in Tennessee...
...The son will now run this fall to try to win the board presidency in his own right...
...John Daley, another son, is on the Cook County Board that Stroger now heads...
...Nationally, we've made some progress from the time in 1960 when a Scripps-Howard reporter shocked the country and won a Pulitzer Prize with the revelation that one in five members of Congress had relatives on the official payroll...
...In 2004, Rep...
...Harold Ford demonstrates...
...Outsiders and political newcomers are discouraged, and the signal is subtly sent that you have no future if you don't play along with politics as a family business...
...I would prefer today's modern nepotism have bright lines separating the natural impulse of human nature to care for one's kin and the blatant creation of a political dynasty...
...Instead, another Democrat, Rod Blagojevich, won...
...This summer, several state legislators asked Ms...
...SEPTEMBER 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 51...
...That gives the GOP its best chance in 40 years to win the county board's presidency...
...I'd run out of space ifI detailed all of the nepotism rampant in Chicago politics...
...Young Stroger, an undistinguished city alderman, is avoiding all discussion of how he would close the county's looming deficit, saying he thinks the current board should address it...
...Some would label that political caution, but one alderman told me it's because "you could walk through Todd's deepest thoughts and not get your ankles wet...
...But Dad convinced Son to move home, holding out the promise t h a t - a s the Chicago SunTimes put it--"he would be handed his seat with the help of political sleight of hand...
...That wariness can certainly be overcome, as the electoral success of political workhorses Sen...
...Columnist Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune says voters don't see the race "as black vs...
...There's no two parties here...
...That said, Cook County gave after the Democratic primary...
...It's no accident that his daughter, Lisa Madigan, is attorney general of Illinois...
...Another son, Bill Daley, almost ran for governor of Illinois in 2002...
...But standards may be falling...
...Lipinski the Elder announced two years ago he was leaving officeafter the filing deadline for the seat had closed...
...All right...
...Today, his son Richard M. Daley is the four-term mayor of the city...
...But even he would be impressed with how far his old machine has extended the art of nepotism...
...The city may now have fewer patronage employees through the efforts of reformers, but the sons and daughters of the political elite have never had it so good...
...Born out of a revolution against hereditary monarchy, America has long been suspicious of those who gain public office through artificial privilege...
...John Kerry more than 70 percent of its vote in "We 2004, so anyDemocratic candidate from anyblood- have Democrats who ru n things line has to be viewed as the favorite...
...It seems the only way to get J ahead in politics there is to have had the right father or mother...
...There's no two parties here," Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass told Fox News...
...Of course, voters have some responsibility for Chicago's turning into a reasonable facsimile of a feudal dynasty, but only some...
...He can't answer those questions...
...That's exactly how it happened...
...Consider how nepotism is reaching new, scary heights in Illinois...
...The sudden handoff of the Democratic nomination along with sizable chunks of the elder Stroger's campaign treasury to his son has sparked some voter outrage...
...The south side of Chicago is represented in the U.S...
...Leadership in the civil rights community is desired, but it seems the family DNA helps remove a lot of obstacles...
Vol. 39 • September 2006 • No. 7
