#2 I'm glad it was me instead of you
Welcome to my second newsletter!
Molly and I have decided to postpone our move to Phoenix until late September. If you’re in, near, or driving through Chicago, let us know. We’ll be here the rest of summer. 😎
Feedback from last week’s newsletter:
From my future father-in-law David Simon on the Chicago of his childhood — corrupt but effective:
I urge you to also consider that Chicago was always the city that works. . . .although graft was rampant it was “equitable”. For example my father paid “window money” for protection at $1 a window because he was across from a housing project but my uncle paid $5 a window on Van Buren in a manufacturing district and downtown was more costly. Everyone in business knew the rules, even a 12 year old me. Things got done even if the squeaky wheel needed to be greased.
From Larry Liu, who graduated from Stanford Law during a pandemic (mazel tov!), on Robert Caro:
Would love to get more Daley content . . . I've been working through some of Robert Caro's books these past few weeks
Larry, thanks for writing, but shouldn’t you be studying for the bar exam?
Robert Caro is the G.O.A.T. of examining how absolute power corrupts absolutely. If you want to read Caro, start with “Master of the Senate” on Lyndon B. Johnson’s time as Senate Majority Leader.
Multiple readers requested Michael Madigan, speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. Coincidentally, Madigan got his first City job when he introduced himself to then-third term Mayor Richard J. Daley at the Lake Shore Club in 1965.
From Naseem Malik, founder of Vitalize Talent, concerning the on-going Federal corruption probe into Madigan’s dealings:
Was thinking of your newsletter as I read the story in yesterday's Chicago Tribune about the imminent takedown of Speaker Madigan. ComEd just got slapped with fines and Madigan's cronies have been indicted or under investigation. Could be some good fodder for you. The Trib called on him to resign.
One day, history will probably equate Madigan to Capone when it comes to influence and corruption. Just not as bloodied, though. :)
Naseem, don't worry, we'll definitely address Mike Madigan, but just not yet. Also, shoutout Al Capone!
And, finally, from Josh Altman, 2L at Yale Law School and ex-policy analyst to Former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner:
How did Daley get elected [in 1954]?
Great question, Josh.
I’ll spend the rest of this newsletter addressing how Daley, who took at least seven years to finish law school, was able to become Mayor of the second most powerful city in the US.
The short answer is that he got extraordinarily lucky. Whenever it appeared as if Daley would need to wait his turn, the senior Democrat in front of him would die or resign. Usually die*.
But the long answer requires careful examination of the identities & ethnicities that made up Chicago’s Democratic Party in the 1930s and 1940s. The cleavages, weaved together by Bohemian Mayor Anton Cermak**, an immigrant from Austria-Hungary, were on the verge of collapse 21 years after Cermak’s death. But Daley, a master of details, saved Cermak’s coalition. By combining the Irish vote along with the Italians, Jews, Germans, Poles, Bohemians, and African Americans, Daley cobbled together 55% of the vote in 1954.
*Next week, I’ll illustrate just how many deaths.
Be kind to each other.
Ari
**P.S. Incredibly, in 1933, Mayor Cermak was assassinated while speaking to President Franklin D. Roosevelt face to face. Historians dispute whether Al Capone’s crime syndicate executed the hit and whether the shooter was supposed to murder FDR, too.
"I'm glad it was me instead of you"
Cermak's alleged final words to FDR. The words are inscribed on Cermak's tomb in Bohemian National Cemetery: