Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term. At 22 years, his was the longest tenure in Chicago mayoral history, surpassing the 21-year mayoralty of his father, Richard J. Daley.
As Mayor, Daley took over the Chicago Public Schools, developed tourism, oversaw the construction of Millennium Park, increased environmental efforts and the rapid development of the city's central business district downtown and adjacent near North, South and West sides. He also approved expansion of city workers' benefits to their partners regardless of gender, and advocated for gun control.
Daley received criticism when family, personal friends, and political allies disproportionately benefited from city contracting. He took office in a city with regular annual budget surpluses and left the city with massive structural deficits. His budgets ran up the largest deficits in Chicago history. A national leader in privatization, he temporarily reduced budgetary shortfalls by leasing and selling public assets to private corporations, but this practice removed future sources of revenue, contributing to the city's near insolvency at the end of his tenure. A "tough-on-crime" politician, Daley oversaw the creation of one of the largest police surveillance systems in the nation, but police brutality was also a recurring issue during his mayorship.
Early and personal life
Richard M. Daley is the fourth of seven children and eldest son of Richard J. and Eleanor Daley, who later became Mayor and First Lady of Chicago in 1955. Born on April 24, 1942, he grew up in Bridgeport, a historically Irish-American neighborhood located on Chicago's South Side. Daley is a brother of William M. Daley, former White House Chief of Staff and former United States Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton; John P. Daley, a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and chairman of the Board's Finance Committee; and Michael Daley, an attorney with Daley & Georges, a law firm founded by their father Richard J. Daley, that specializes in zoning law and is often hired by developers to help get zoning changes through city hall. Daley was married to Margaret "Maggie" Corbett until her death on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011 after a decade-long battle with metastatic breast cancer, which had spread to her bones and liver. Maggie Daley Park in the Chicago Loop commemorates her, and her nonprofit After School Matters continues to serve Chicago's young people. They have four children: Nora, Patrick, Elizabeth and Kevin, all born at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Their second son, Kevin, died at age two of complications from spina bifida in 1981. Daley was raised Roman Catholic.Daley graduated from De La Salle Institute high school in Chicago and obtained his bachelor's degree from DePaul University in 1964, having transferred from Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island after two years. In 1962, at age 19, home on Christmas break, Daley was ticketed for running a stop sign at Huron and Rush, and the Chicago Sun-Times headline was "Mayor's Son Gets Ticket, Uses No Clout," with a subhead reading "Quiet Boy."
Sources conflict on Daley's military record. The only book-length biography of Daley makes no mention of military service. A 1995 profile in the Chicago Sun-Times stated that Daley served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1961 to 1967, while a 1996 profile in People Magazine cited 1960 to 1964. A civilian website for Marines and their families found no military record for Daley.
Daley earned a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University. He passed the Illinois Bar Examination on his third try. Daley later reflected, "I flunked the bar exam twice. I had to keep studying harder and harder and harder. I passed it the third time." Daley never tried a case.
Early political career
Daley was elected to his first office as a delegate to the 1969 Illinois Constitutional Convention, which created the current Constitution of Illinois. According to journalist Rick Perlstein, in June 1972, Daley led a mob on behalf of his father's Democratic Party regulars against pro-McGovern reformers meeting in a church in Illinois' Fifth Congressional District. The action was unsuccessful and the reformers' slate replaced the Daley slate at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida.After his father died in 1976, Daley succeeded his father as the 11th Ward Democratic committeeman, a party post, until succeeded in the post by his brother John P. Daley in 1980. With John P. Daley holding the post from 1980 to the present, a Daley has held the post of 11th Ward Committeeman for 60 years.
Illinois State Senate (1972–1980)
After Edward Nihill stepped down, Daley, with the support of the Democratic political organization, was elected to the Illinois Senate, serving from 1972 to 1980. State Senator Daley rarely spoke to reporters and didn't hold a news conference for six years. Daley chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. Daley was named one of Illinois' ten worst state legislators by Chicago Magazine "for arrogance, for sharklike qualities, for living off his father's name, and for pulling puppet strings attached to some of the worst members of the Senate." He was considered "too shrewd to be one of the worst, but he controls so many of the worst senators that he belongs on the list to represent all of them." After the Spring 1975 state legislative session, Chicago Democrat Dawn Clark Netsch, who served with Daley as Illinois Constitutional Convention delegates and as State Senators, blamed "dirty little Richie" for frustrating her good government legislative agenda in the state legislature.Cook County State's Attorney (1981–1989)
, Daley challenged incumbent Republican Bernard Carey for Cook County State's Attorney. Democratic Mayor Jane Byrne endorsed Alderman Edward M. Burke in the Democratic primary, and after Daley prevailed in the primary, endorsed Carey in the general election. Daley prevailed and served from 1981 to 1989. His election over Carey saw him win by merely sixteen thousand votes, one of the narrowest wins for the Cook County State's Attorney election.Police torture reported to Daley, 1982
In February 1982, Andrew Wilson was arrested for the murder of two Chicago police officers. Wilson was taken to Area 2 detective headquarters on the South Side for interrogation under Chicago Police Detective Jon Burge. Dr. John Raba, Medical Director of Cermak Health Services, the prison hospital in the Cook County Hospital system, examined Wilson, determined Wilson had been tortured, and complained in writing to then Chicago Police Superintendent Richard J. Brzeczek:I examined Mr. Andrew Wilson on February 15 & 16, 1982. He had multiple bruises, swellings and abrasions on his face and head. His right eye was battered and had a superficial laceration. Andrew Wilson had several linear blisters on his right thigh, right cheek and anterior chest which were consistent with radiator burns. He stated he'd been cuffed to a radiator and pushed into it. He also stated that electrical shocks had been administered to his gums, lips and genitals. All these injuries occurred prior to his arrival at the Jail. There must be a thorough investigation of this alleged brutality.
Brzeczek forwarded the letter to State's Attorney Daley. Daley never replied, and charges were never brought against any officers. Daley's prosecutors convicted Wilson and his brother Jackie of murder, and Andrew Wilson was sentenced to death. On April 2, 1987, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the convictions, ruling that Wilson was forced to confess involuntarily after being beaten by police.
First campaign for mayor: 1983 challenge to Jane Byrne
In November 1982, Daley announced his first campaign for mayor. The candidates in the three-way Democratic primary, which included incumbent Mayor Jane Byrne, a former protégée of his father, and Congressman Harold Washington, held a series of four televised debates. Daley finished third. Many of Richard J.'s political allies blamed Richard M. for splitting the white vote, enabling Washington to become Chicago's first black mayor.Second campaign for mayor: 1989 victory over Eugene Sawyer
On November 25, 1987, Mayor Washington died in office of a heart attack. On December 2, 1987, the Chicago City Council appointed Alderman Eugene Sawyer as mayor until a special election for the remaining two years of the term could be held in 1989. Daley announced his candidacy on December 6, 1988, sayingLet's face it: we have a problem in Chicago. The name-calling and politics at City Hall are keeping us from tackling the real issues ... I may not be the best speaker in town, but I know how to run a government and how to bring people together.
Rahm Emanuel worked for the Daley campaign as a fundraiser, David Axelrod as campaign strategist, William Daley as chief strategist, and Forrest Claypool as a campaign aide. Among four Daley campaign appearances on a Sunday shortly before the primary was a rally of Polish Highlanders at 4808 S. Archer Ave. In a videotaped television newscast, it appeared that Daley said, "You want a white mayor to sit down with everybody." Sawyer said he was "shocked." Daley explained, "It was my standard stump speech. I'm not maybe the best speaker in town, but I have never used the word ." That Friday, the campaign watchdog group CONDUCT censured Daley and commended Sawyer for his "rejection of racially inflammatory comments."
Daley defeated Sawyer in the primary. In the 1989 general election, Daley faced Republican candidate Edward Vrdolyak, a former Democratic alderman who had opposed Mayor Washington, and Alderman Timothy C. Evans, the candidate of the newly created Harold Washington Party. Daley won the general election on April 4, 1989. Daley was inaugurated as Mayor of Chicago on April 24, 1989, his 47th birthday, at a ceremony in Orchestra Hall.