Politics & People: The Son Also Rises in Chicago

The Wall Street Journal

June 12, 1997 Thursday

Copyright 1997 Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 1997, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

Section: Pg. A19

Length: 1110 words
Byline: By Albert R. Hunt

Body

CHICAGO -- There are two pictures on Mayor Richard M. Daley's huge desk, one of his late father and legendary
predecessor, the other of his infant son who died. The tough and the soft sides of this mayor.

A Richard Daley has run this most political of cities for almost 30 of the past 42 years. Like his father, Mayor Daley
is a domineering figure, especially with his innovative overhaul of the city's schools, guided by his hand-picked
man, Paul Vallas. There are similarities between father and son: a portly physique, butchered syntax, shrewd
political instincts, and an abiding devotion to this city. But the differences are more interesting.

Today the legendary Daley political machine is a pale shadow of its former self. "It's a completely different system,"
the mayor noted in an interview this week. "People today are much more independent." Indeed, for all his father's
renowned acumen, it takes more skill -- and sensitivity -- to govern Chicago today.

From 1955 to 1976, Richard J. Daley commanded the allegiance of Chicago's white ethnic majorities and its
business community. His son retains that base: "I hope he never stops being mayor," says Richard Notebaert, CEO
of Ameritech.

But this is a smaller slice of Chicago today. The current Mayor Daley also has the support of the lakefront liberals;
the Latino community, increasingly the city's swing vote; a growing if minority share of African-Americans, who now
comprise 40% of the electorate; and the gay and lesbian community -- last month he signed legislation extending
spousal health and insurance benefits to same-sex partners of all city employees.

"Richie has turned out to be an incredible coalitionist," says Abner J. Mikva, a frequent target of the mayor's father
when he was a lawmaker here decades ago. Mr. Mikva returned to teach at the University of Chicago Law School
after a distinguished stint as a congressman, a federal judge and White House counsel. "He may be the most
successful big-city mayor in America," he says. "This city looks great and it feels great."

There are critics, however, who say the new Mayor Daley's success is more show than substance. They charge he
avoids risks and thus the bold strokes this city needs, even while touching all the political bases.
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Politics & People: The Son Also Rises in Chicago

An afternoon tour in the South Side district of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. underscores Chicago's uneven buoyancy.
Inadequate housing, insufficient jobs and mediocre infrastructure pervade these neighborhoods. A striking
metaphor is the district's 570 acres of lakefront property, which used to house a huge U.S. steel operation, and now
sit vacant.

But Rep. Jackson, opposed by the mayor when he first ran, offers guarded praise now. He says that unlike his late
father, Mr. Daley reaches out to the African-American community and, even when they don't agree, is accessible.
Indeed, unlike many other top Chicago politicians in recent years, he has avoided playing the race card. "Whenever
there is racial tension, Rich does what he can to smother it," says Bill Daley, the mayor's brother, his most astute
adviser and now U.S. commerce secretary.

And when it comes to Paul Vallas, the chief executive officer of the Chicago public school system, Jesse Jackson
Jr. is effusive. "This is the best decision the mayor has ever made," he says. "Paul Vallas almost single-handedly is
turning the Chicago school system around."

The Republican state legislature turned over the city's public schools to the mayor in 1995. Many viewed this gift as
an albatross; 10 years ago William Bennett called Chicago schools the worst in the nation. Inefficiency and
corruption were rampant; the last president of the school board under the old system is now in the slammer.

Mayor Daley insists he knew schools were the key to his city's future: "The city can't work and keep a middle class
without decent schools."

So he seized the near-dictatorial powers given him and inserted Mr. Vallas, then the city's budget chief, and his
chief of staff, Gery Chico, to be chairman of the school board. In only two years, the changes have been nothing
short of remarkable. Mr. Vallas has adopted a tough back-to-basics approach while reaching out to the
predominant minority groups that populate the schools. He has eliminated thousands of dead-wood jobs, forced
major reforms on scores of schools, replaced several dozen principals, upgraded the curriculum, eliminated
automatic grade promotions and established, for the first time, a genuine sense of accountability. He has also put
the system on a sound financial footing by issuing general obligation bonds, and had the resources to give the
teachers a four-year contract.

Mr. Vallas literally is a human whirlwind. A few days ago, during an interview, an aide came in to report that for the
second consecutive day a student had been assaulted at a certain school. "Get rid of her [the principal]," he orders.
"I want someone else running that school this afternoon."

Mayor Daley's response to the school quagmire is a testament to his political instincts. He realized not only the
importance of the schools but also how tough action would appeal to a broad cross-section of Chicagoans. "Nobody
I ever met, other than my dad, has as good a sense of what normal people are thinking as my brother," says Bill
Daley.

The conventional wisdom that the 55-year-old Mayor Daley was the crown prince who inherited the throne is belied
by reality: He was a lackluster state legislator with a chip on his shoulder when his father died in 1976. In less than
a decade, he had to confront his father's death, the desertion of some top Daley operatives as the political
landscape changed, a loss in his first race for mayor, and the death of a two-year-old son who had spina bifida.

These experiences, friends say, softened him personally and hardened him politically. He grew from the shadow of
his father, was elected mayor in 1989 and easily won re-election in 1991 and 1995.

Today he is enormously popular, and not just in the city. Last fall, Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin found that the
mayor's standing in the suburbs rivaled his strong showing in the city. Even in downstate Illinois, which traditionally
despises Chicago politicians, Mr. Daley's positives outweigh his negatives. Some Democrats even talk about him
running for governor.
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Politics & People: The Son Also Rises in Chicago

But Mayor Daley, whether he is planting thousands of trees, visiting the city's diverse neighborhoods or overhauling
the school system, truly seems to revel in his job. He insists he has absolutely no interest in any other political
position: "I like what I'm doing now. The day I lose interest, I'll quit politics." That's not likely to occur anytime soon.

Notes

PUBLISHER: Dow Jones & Company

Classification
Language: ENGLISH

Publication-Type: Newspaper

Journal Code: J

Subject: ELECTIONS & POLITICS (90%); POLITICS (90%); LGBTQ+ PERSONS (89%); MAYORS (89%);
AFRICAN AMERICANS (79%); CITIES (78%); DEATH & DYING (78%); INFANTS & TODDLERS (78%);
LEGISLATIVE BODIES (78%); CIVIL SERVICES (77%); URBAN SCHOOLS (77%); EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
(73%); HISPANIC AMERICANS (73%); INTERVIEWS (73%); LIBERALISM (73%); LAW SCHOOLS (71%);
LEGISLATION (69%); LAWYERS (64%); DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS (63%); JUDGES (63%); COLLEGE &
UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS (61%); GRADUATE & PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS (61%); GCAT Political/General
News (%); GPOL Domestic Politics (%); NCAT Content Types (%); NEDC Commentary/Opinion (%)

Company: AT&T INC (55%)

Ticker: T (NYSE) (55%)

Industry: NAICS517312 WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS (EXCEPT SATELLITE) (55%);

NAICS517311 WIRED TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS (55%); NAICS511140 DIRECTORY & MAILING
LIST PUBLISHERS (55%); EDUCATIONAL SERVICES (77%); URBAN SCHOOLS (77%); LAW SCHOOLS (71%);
LAWYERS (64%); COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS (61%); GRADUATE & PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS
(61%)

Person: JESSE L JACKSON JR (79%); RICHARD C NOTEBAERT (79%)

Geographic: CHICAGO, IL, USA (95%); ILLINOIS, USA (92%); MIDWEST USA (92%); UNITED STATES (95%);
NORTH AMERICA (92%); NAMZ North American Countries; USA United States; USC Central U.S.; USIL United
States - Illinois
DJI Codes: EDC, LOC, IL, NME, US, USC, OED, PLP
DJI Descriptors: Editorials and Columns, Local Government, U.S., Illinois, North America, United States, Central
U.S., Op-Ed Articles, Politics & People
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Politics & People: The Son Also Rises in Chicago

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