Richard M. Daley

Richard Michael Daley
File:Richardmdaleyportrait.jpg 45th Mayor of Chicago
Mayor of the City of Chicago
In office 1989–Present
Preceded by	Eugene Sawyer
Personal details
Born	April 24, 1942 Chicago, Illinois
Political party	Democrat
Height	250px
Spouse	Margaret Daley
Residence(s)	Chicago, Illinois

Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is a United States politician, powerful member of the national and local Democratic Party and current mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003. If he is re-elected, Mayor Daley will break his father's record as longest-serving Chicago mayor on December 25, 2010.

Chosen by Time Magazine in its April 25, 2005 issue as the best out of five mayors of large cities in the United States, Mayor Daley often inspires a love/hate reaction. He has presided over such successes as the resurgence in tourism, the modernization of the Chicago Transit Authority, the building of Millennium Park, increased environmental efforts and the rapid development of the city's North Side. At the same time, critics decry what they see as the machine politics keeping Daley in office, the rampant poverty and crime in the city's South and West sides, and the corruption scandals that have surfaced during his time as mayor.

Biography

Daley is the fourth of seven children and eldest son of Richard J. Daley and Eleanor Daley, former mayor and first lady of Chicago. Originally from Bridgeport, a traditionally Irish-American neighborhood located southwest of the Chicago Loop, Daley graduated from De La Salle Institute and obtained his bachelor's degree and Juris Doctor from DePaul University.

Mayor Daley is married to Margaret Daley, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 and is still undergoing treatment. They have four children: Nora, Patrick, Elizabeth and Kevin (who died in 1981 at the age of two from spina bifida). Mayor Daley is brother to William M. Daley, former United States Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, and John P. Daley, a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Commissioners on which he serves as the finance chairman.

Political Beginnings

Daley first started his political career at the Illinois Capitol as delegate to the 1969 constitutional convention. He stayed to become an Illinois Senator from 1972 to 1980.

Daley was elected to his first public office as delegate to the 1969 Illinois Constitutional Convention. On the strength of his father's political machine, Daley next ran for and won a seat in the Illinois Senate, serving from 1972 to 1980. He left Springfield to become Cook County State's Attorney, serving from 1980 to 1989. Daley's tenure as county prosecutor was interrupted in 1983 with his first mayoral campaign, losing in the three three-way primary to Congressman Harold Washington. Incumbent Jane Byrne, Daley's father's former protege, was also defeated.

Four years later, on November 25, 1987, Washington died in office of a heart attack. The Chicago City Council elected an interim mayor, David Orr, who served from the day of Washington's death to December 2, 1987. As Orr stepped down, Eugene Sawyer won a special election to permanently fill the two-year remainder of Washington's second term.

In 1989, Sawyer faced voters for the first time, and Daley challenged him in the primary. After defeating Sawyer handily, Daley moved on to the April 4, 1989 general election against Aldermen Timothy C. Evans and Edward Vrdolyak, a white former Democrat who had antagonized Washington on the city council while Washington served as mayor. After winning the general election, Daley took office as Mayor of Chicago on April 24, 1989.

Current events

Despite an opposition to the War in Iraq, Daley's only surviving son Patrick enlisted in the U.S. Army and announced the decision publicly on November 30, 2004. Daley's second son, Kevin, was thirty-three months old when he died of complications of spina bifida in 1981. Kevin's death still weighs heavily upon Daley; he typically refers to Kevin in the present tense, as if he were still alive.

Daley has been a supporter of gun control, with a de facto ban on handguns in Chicago .

Daley is also a supporter of LGBT rights and Chicago's gay community. Chicago hosted the Gay Games VII, with Mayor Daley officially opening the games at opening ceremonies.

Daley is helping create initiatives to increase green roof usage within the city. Chicago City Hall's own rooftop, completed in 2001, being a pilot of that program.

He appointed Lori Healey to direct the Department of Planning and Development in 2005, to encourage the revitalization of emerging neighborhoods.

Daley has also been an advocate for Chicago 2016 Olympic bid.

Election 2007

Daley announced his intentions to seek another term on December 11, 2006 . The other candidates for Mayor in the 2007 election are Dorothy Brown and Bill "Dock" Walls.

Criticism

Meigs Field

One of Daley's first major acts upon re-election on February 25, 2003 was the demolition of Meigs Field on March 30, 2003. A small lakefront airport adjacent to Soldier Field, it was utilized by general aviation aircraft and helicopters. Its single runway was demolished overnight, with work starting just as local news was going off the air, and with high powered lights being shone towards Lake Shore Drive to prevent photography of the destruction. A unilateral decision by the mayor without approval from the Chicago City Council or Federal Aviation Administration, the act resulted in public uproar. Aviation interest groups unsuccessfully attempted to sue the city into reopening the airport, claiming Daley had been trying to close Meigs Field with non-safety-related reasons since 1995 to create a park. However, the only citation handed over to the city concerned a failure to notify the federal agency of the plans within a thirty day time period as required by law. The city was fined $33,000, the maximum then allowed by law. Other citations were not handed; the courts noted it was well within Daley's executive powers and jurisdiction to make the decision he made. The city has since agreed to a settlement with the FAA, the terms of which include both the $33,000 fine and the repayment of $1 million from taxes to federal airport development grants. The city admits no wrongdoing under this settlement.

Daley and his supporters argued that the airport was a threat to Chicago's high-rise cityscape and its high profile skyscrapers, Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center. Daley defended his decision with the now-infamous quote "Mickey Mouse has a no-fly zone", referring to the restrictions in place over Orlando and Washington, D.C. and his longstanding conviction that Chicago should have similar restrictions. He also argued that the lakefront needs to be opened to all residents of Chicago, not just the relatively small portion of the population who have the necessary resources to operate an aircraft. This led to the development of current Northerly Island park venues, including a concert staging area.

Hired Truck Program

The "Hired Truck Program" involved hiring private trucks to do city work. A six-month investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times resulted in a three-day series of articles in January 2004 that revealed that some participating companies were being paid for doing little or no work, had mob connections or were tied to city employees. City employees were supposedly barred from the program. Truck owners also paid bribes in order to get into the program. The program was overhauled in 2004 (and phased out beginning in 2005).

In February 2005, Daley denied complicity in the unfolding scandal saying, "Anyone who believes that my interest in public life is in enriching my family, friends or political supporters doesn't know or understand me at all. My reputation and the well-being of this city are more important to me than any election."

The Sun-Times special report showed that 25 percent of all Hired Truck money went to companies from Daley's 11th Ward power base and $108,575 in campaign contributions flowed to the mayor from companies in the program beginning in 1996. Additional reporting by the Sun-Times revealed that the Mayor's brother, Cook County Commissioner John Daley, sold insurance to three major trucking companies.

In February 2006, John Briatta, whose sister is married to John Daley, pleaded guilty to taking at least $5,400 in bribes to steer Hired Truck work to a trucking company.

The litany of cases of bribery grew to include former City Clerk James Laski, who pleaded guilty to taking bribes in return for steering Hired Truck business to friends.

It was also revealed that tons of asphalt paid for by the city were stolen by truck drivers in the Hired Truck program. The asphalt was then used on private jobs.

Patronage

The hired truck scandal eventually sparked a Federal investigation into hiring practices at Chicago City Hall, with Robert Sorich, Mayor Daley's former patronage chief, facing mail fraud charges for allegedly rigging city hiring to favor people with political connections. On July 5, 2006, Sorich was convicted on two counts of mail fraud for rigging city jobs and promotions. Daley said that "It is fair criticism to say I should have exercised greater oversight to ensure that every worker the city hired, regardless of who recommended them, was qualified and that proper procedures were always followed."

Stroger crisis

In the spring and summer of 2006, Richard Daley aggressively defended John Stroger, President of the Cook County Board, who suffered a stroke on March 14, 2006, just days before voters went to the polls. Stroger was facing a tough challenge from a reform oriented challenger in the Democratic Party, Forrest Claypool, who had previously served as Daley's chief of staff and his CEO of the Chicago Park District. Daley, who had endorsed his longtime ally Stroger, sparred with journalists seeking information on Stroger's health condition, serving as a bulwark while Stroger stayed out of public view and went through rehabilitation. Stroger was narrowly re-elected despite the stroke.

Doubts about Stroger's health persisted for weeks after the primary election, with Stroger's son, Todd Stroger, an alderman in Chicago, alternately staking his family's claim to a right to privacy and jockeying to succeed his father as County Board President. On June 30, 2006, John Stroger's family released a letter that allegedly was signed by Stroger announcing the Board President would resign on July 31, 2006. On July 5, 2006, John Daley, who had been a candidate to become interim Board President, said he would not seek the position because a racial controversy had erupted. John Stroger was the first African-American to hold the position. The Cook County Democratic Party chose Todd Stroger, the son of the longtime president, to replace his father on the November ballot, upsetting many voters who had voted for Forrest Claypool. Stroger defeated the Republican opposition in heavily Democratic Cook County.

External links

• Official Webportal of Chicago
• CityMayors profile