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Spitzer Scandal: A New York Story

Ben Joravsky — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:16:52 GMT

Every city has its own variation of political scandal.

In Los Angeles, it’s usually about complicated land grabs and water. Many people view "Chinatown" as a civic history lesson.

In Chicago, it involves basic machine corruption -- fixing parking tickets, paying off building inspectors, or putting family or friends or dead people on the payroll.

In New York, it seems, the favorite scandal is sex.

How else to explain why Gov. Eliot Spitzer has thrown away his political career by hiring a woman from a high-priced prostitution ring? The former attorney general, a crime-fighter known for taking on powerful and influential figures, announced he will resign from his post, effective Monday. (Here is how the Associated Press is reporting it.) Spitzer probably thought he could get away with it since New York has a long history of overlooking the sexual escapades of its elected officials.

For example, Jimmy Walker, the city’s legendary Jazz Age mayor, was well known for late-night carousing with showgirls. In fact, he left his wife for a showgirl. The story goes that at one point Walker, an Irish Catholic was visiting a synagogue where a Jewish woman teased him for wearing a yarmulke. “What’s next, Mr. Mayor, a circumcision?” the woman said to him.

Whereupon, Walker supposedly wisecracked: “Madam, I prefer to wear mine off.”

The sex stuff continues down the decades. In 1979, former Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller died of a heart attack while engaged in extramarital hanky-panky with a 26-year-old female aide. He had gone to meet her at her apartment to work on a book. She was wearing a black evening gown for the editing session.

Just a few years ago, former police commissioner Bernard Kerik was using a two-bedroom apartment, intended to lodge weary Ground Zero rescue workers, for trysts with his lover, Judith Regan, the book publisher. At the time, Kerik was the married father of two children.

Kerik’s patron, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, was also quite the swinger. He was carrying on with his girlfriend, Judith Nathan, while still married to his second wife, Donna Hanover, the mother of his two children. The affair was an open secret around New York – city police were providing protection for Nathan while Giuliani and Hanover were still married.

In his ill-fated campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Giuliani and Nathan – now married – were forced to talk about their relationship, probably because the rank-and-file GOP is not as permissive as, oh, the average voter in New York City. “They met at Club Macanudo, a cigar bar on east 63rd street in May 1999,” according to an article in the New York Times. “After chatting for an hour, mostly about her working the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Giuliani asked for her phone number, [the couple] said. `She gave me a piece of paper to write it on,’ he recalled. `One of our romantic little secrets is I’ve kept it all these years in my wallet.’”

The article went on to report that after they began dating, Giuliani tried to talk Nathan out of taking a vacation in Hawaii. “`He said, “please, don’t go,’ [Nathan] recalled. `You’ve already become too important to me.””

In a million years, I can’t imagine my own mayor – Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago – making such confessions to a woman he had just met.. He’s known as a straight-laced, almost prudish, man, who’s steadfastly loyal to his wife of over 30 years.

In this, he is a lot like the city he runs -- Midwestern and square. As Frank Sinatra sang in that old standard, "Chicago," it's the sort of town where a man can be caught dancing with his wife.

A few years ago, the local press broke a story about the city’s park district awarding a sweetheart contract to a well-connected restaurateur to run an eatery in Millennium Park, Chicago’s hottest downtown tourist attraction. It came out that the restaurateur was carrying on with one of the park district officials -- who awarded him the contract. Inside deals are standard fare in our town, but Daley was particularly furious over this one. I always figured it was because the restaurant owner had fathered an out-of-wedlock child with the park district official.

In fact, I think the whole state of Illinois is a little prudish when it comes to sex. The 2004 senatorial campaign of Jack Ryan was torpedoed when the papers reported he wanted his wife, Jeri Ryan, to go to sex clubs with him and have public sex. He was not going with a mistress or a girlfriend, mind you, he wanted to take his wife.

Apparently, we’re too uptight to approve of elected officials swinging with their own wives because the “scandal” eventually forced Ryan out of the election. This was when a young, relatively unknown state senator named Barack Obama suddenly had an easy race for a U.S. Senate seat.

If Ryan had been running in New York, that sex-club revelation probably would have been enough to clinch his election.

Ben Joravsky is a staff writer for Chicago "Reader" newspaper, where he writes a weekly column about politics.

The Man and The Machine

Ben Joravsky — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:05:04 GMT

Geraldine A. Ferraro missed the point by concentrating on Sen. Barack Obama’s race to explain his rapid rise in politics. If you want to understand Obama, think Harry S. Truman.

On the surface, they don’t seem to have much in common. Truman was old and crusty when he came on the national scene -- Obama is new and fresh.

But in a way you could look at them both as a couple of machine politicians working to overcome their provincial roots as they move to the national stage.

In Truman’s case, he rose to prominence thanks to his ties to Mayor Thomas J. Pendergast’s infamously corrupt political machine in Kansas City, Mo.

Obama comes from the reform wing of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s machine -- which means he’s not really a reformer in the classic sense of that word at all.

It’s hard to explain Daley’s machine to people who don’t come from Chicago. It’s not like the model run by his father Mayor Richard J. Daley, who ruled the city from 1955 until 1976. The old man Daley headed the local Democratic Party and the city bureaucracy – there was no distinction. He distributed jobs and favors and contracts to acolytes in the local party, ward committeemen like himself, who sent out patronage workers to stump for Democratic candidates on Election Day.

Young Daley is not a Democratic ward committeemen – he’s barely a Democrat. In the 2004 presidential race, he made it clear that he had more of an affinity for President George W. Bush – apparently one of his pals – than Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic nominee.

His rule is something like a benign cult of personality. Since being elected in 1989, Daley’s taken control of all aspects of local government. His appointees control the boards governing schools, parks, public transportation and economic development.

It’s true, Chicago has a 50-member city council, but it largely acts as the mayor’s rubber stamp. If reformers dare to run against one of the mayor’s aldermanic backers, they can expect a decidedly uphill fight. They may not even make the ballot, since their nominating petitions will be challenged by the incumbent’s backers for violating one of a multitude of bizarre rules in the Byzantine rulebook governing the process. The case will eventually come before hearing officers who owe their positions to Daley allies. Even if they survive this challenge – which will cost them time and money – they can expect to be vastly outspent in the election by the incumbents, whose campaign chests overflow with contributions from developers, lawyers and contractors doing business with the city.

Daley’s control extends far beyond the ballot. Want a zoning change? Hire the right lawyer – like Daley’s younger brother, who runs one of the top zoning law firms in town. Want a handout from the city to subsidize your development deal? Hire any number of former Daley appointees who works as city council lobbyists.

Traditionally, urban reformers are supposed to be against all of this, waging the good fight for open, clean government and against injustice, corruption and waste. But in Chicago, Daley reformers look the other way while the machine holds sway.

You can’t really blame them – there’s clearly no percentage in going against Daley. In the four years between his re-election campaigns in 2003 and 2007, Daley’s administration awarded about $100 million in affirmative action contracts to the Duffs, a white family with close ties to the mayor. His top city hall patronage chief, Robert Sorich, got sentenced to four years in prison for overseeing a hiring operation in which tests and interviews were rigged so the well connected got jobs over the well qualified. His transportation and streets and sanitation departments ran the notorious Hired Truck program, in which about $40 million in contracts were awarded to truck drivers who basically did nothing but campaign for the machine on Election Day. And a seemingly endless string of lower level city workers were nailed for taking bribes, sleeping on the jobs or, in one notorious case, selling heroin on the job at a city water filtration plant.

And what did the electorate do? They re-elected Daley to a sixth term as mayor with more than 71 percent of the vote.

The standard explanation is that we Chicagoans view nepotism, graft and waste as the price we pay to Daley’s machine for plowing the snow and collecting the garbage. It’s no wonder prominent liberals like Rep. Rahm Emanual, Rep. Jan D. Schakowsky and Obama want no part of this local fight. Their attitude is if you can’t beat them – at least look the other way.

You might think the city’s black political leaders would be critical -- since their communities routinely get the shaft in these deals. But the servitude of black elected officials to the machine goes back to the 1960s, when the City Council’s black aldermen were known as the “Silent Six,” for never opening their mouths to criticize the first Mayor Daley. In 1966, they even sided with that Daley over Martin Luther King Jr. when the civil-rights leader brought his open-housing campaign to town.

There was, of course, the blip on the radar in 1983, when Rep. Harold L. Washington, a champion of black political independence, defeated the machine and got elected mayor. But after Washington died in 1987, it was back to business as usual.

Obama settled in Chicago a couple of years after Washington died and this is the political universe he knows. His wife, Michelle Obama, used to work for the Daley administration. His campaign strategist, David Axelrod, ran some of Daley’s campaigns. Many of Obama’s closest advisers, like Valerie B. Jarrett, are Daley appointees and insiders -- it would be hard to find big players in Chicago who aren't. And last year, Obama mustered his oratorical powers to endorse Daley with a speech so reverential it made some of the senator’s fans cringe in embarrassment.

His local backers tell me Obama was only making a strategic choice when he backed Daley -- it's a purely political move by a guy who, in this campaign, has proved to be a remarkably sure-footed politician. It’s not that he likes the way Daley runs Chicago. It’s just that by supporting the mayor, Obama got Daley’s endorsement for his presidential run. That helps with fund-raising.

What everyone is hoping is that once in the White House, Obama, like Truman, will have the courage to stand up for what he believes. Presumably, his alliance with Daley is the price Obama paid for the right to be in a position to achieve national health care. Something even Truman couldn't pull off.

Ben Joravsky is a staff writer for Chicago Reader newspaper, where he writes a weekly column about politics.

A National Media Product

Ben Joravsky — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:08:17 GMT

CHICAGO -- When it comes to politics in Chicago, Rev. Jeremiah A.Wright Jr. is a big fish in his small pond.

His parishioners at Trinity Church of Christ obviously revere him, and with their support he’s built a large and thriving South Side church whose 8,000 or so members include several influential black leaders -- including, as we all know now, Sen. Barack Obama.

The very traits that have apparently thrown so many white people into a tizzy are what make Wright so popular with his flock.

They love his passion, his worldview, his sense of humor and his powerful and passionate delivery. They get a kick out of the ways in which he uses his mastery of the Bible, music and history to devastate his targets with zingers, wise cracks and mimicry. They embrace his liberation theology and they think he’s absolutely right when he says that America is hypocritical in its foreign policy.

If you’re going to take on bullies – if you’re going to wage battle against the Goliaths – it’s prudent not to fight those who live in your back yard. But all of this adulation does not make Wright a player in Chicago politics. Quite the contrary. Until the last few months he was largely unknown to most Chicagoans outside of the black community. For better or worse, his current prominence is a result of the national media.

For all of his outspokenness on national issues, Wright largely stays out of the local fray. He’s not been a leader in crusades against police brutality, skyrocketing property taxes, controversial public school promotion policies, affirmative action scandals, the continuing redistribution of anti-poverty money from relatively poor neighborhoods to wealthier ones or any of the other major local issues affecting black Chicago over the last few years. He didn’t endorse anyone in the last mayoral election, even though the incumbent, Mayor Richard M. Daley, had two black challengers.

In this respect, Wright is like most of the other ministers, priests, rabbis, imams and monks in this town. Like Wright, our religious leaders – and you can put Rev. Jesse Jackson in this camp as well – have clearly taken to heart to the New Testament teaching: “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

For centuries, theologians have debated exactly what Jesus was saying here. But in Chicago, the local application is clear: Don’t mess with Mayor Daley, and he won’t mess with you.

If you’re going to take on bullies – if you’re going to wage battle against the Goliaths – it’s prudent not to fight those who live in your back yard.

President George W. Bush, as powerful as he is, isn’t going to care much about what a preacher like Wright says – Trinity’s members are not about to vote Republican. But a mayor like Daley has many ways to make life difficult for a preacher -- no matter how eloquent. He can send over the building inspectors, pull permits, take away city contracts or do any of the other nasty things the local machine does to keep people in line.

So whether out of convenience or indifference, Wright’s never had much to say about Daley. In this regard, he’s an ideal pastor for a young politician like Obama, who moved up the ranks in part because he also knew enough to stay out of fights with the mayor.

Ben Joravsky is a staff writer for Chicago Reader newspaper, where he writes a weekly column about politics.

Chicago Machine Tips

Ben Joravsky — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:57:06 GMT

Despite all the brouhaha about Sen. Barack Obama's ties to Chicago’s legendary political machine, and how his campaign displayed the efficiency of machine politics, he played it wimpy in his primary race against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Just consider, he took her by surprise by out-organizing her in Iowa, grabbed an early lead and basically ran out the clock. She, on the other hand, mercilessly pummeled him in the final weeks of the primary election.

To watch it unfold, you would think that Clinton had been schooled in the hardball tactics of Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley, not the other way around.

But, to beat the Republicans, Obama’s going to have to follow the ABC's of Chicago politics. In other words, he’s going to have to return to his political roots.

1.) Lie. Make the stuff up as you go along. Say nasty things about your opponent. So what if they’re not true? Half the press corps will run with it anyway. Even if they don’t write it, they’ll probably believe it -- and that’s almost as good. Besides, if you keep repeating it, someone will put it on the Internet and then it might as well be true.

Have your operatives go off-the-record with the press. Reporters love it when they think they’re getting the inside scoop. Tell them it’s just between you and me – even though you’ve already told just about every other reporter in town.

Don’t settle for nickel-and-dime accusations – swing for the fences. Tell them you have a secret video of your opponent doing something really embarrassing. Then stall when they ask to see it. Remember: a good lie is like a barnacle -- once it’s on someone’s mind, they can’t scrape it off.

2.) Intimidate.

A) Campaign: Tear down or deface your opponents campaign signs. Put a rock through his campaign headquarters. When the press calls, accuse him of having broken his window to pick up sympathy.

Threaten senior citizens who support your opponent with eviction from federally subsidized housing. Threaten vendors with loss of business. Call the Dept. of Health or building inspectors to report obscure health code or building code violations involving your opponent's backers. Sic the IRS on your opponent's leading campaign contributors.

B) Election Day: Send out big guys with thick necks to stand on the corner and leer at the voters. Figure out which voters are likely to vote for your opponent and then try to keep them from voting. Remember, if they can’t vote, he can’t win.

Have your election judges challenge their right to vote. Make them show some sort of identification. If they pull out an driver’s license, tell them that under section 14.3 (b-2.3) of the Illinois Election Code driver’s licenses are not suitable identification. So what if it’s not true. You think anyone knows the election code?

In fact, most folks believe anything anyone in a position of authority tells them. We had a recent case where an election judge was giving voters the wrong kind of stylus. When voters complained that the stylus made no mark on the ballot, he told them it was a special kind of pen that used “invisible ink.” Was it true? Of course not, but at least a dozen or so voters walked away, thus losing their votes. Remember, you’ll never lose underestimating the gullibility of voters. Just look at who we keep electing.

3.) Sue. Candidates in Chicago are always suing each other when it comes to elections. Usually, the lawsuits are filed before the elections, as incumbents, try to take advantage of technicalities in our incredibly convoluted election code to get their opponents knocked off the ballot.

If you don’t have a good case, file suit anyway. You win even if you lose. Your opposition will have to spend hours in court, wasting thousands of dollars in legal fees as he and his supporters are drained of spirit and momentum. Best of all it serves as a message to other would-be challengers: Don’t even try.

You’d be amazed at what you can get away with if you get the right judge. We had one candidate challenge the veracity of signatures on his opponents nominating petitions. He accused the signers of fraud – said they didn’t live at the addresses on the petition. To defend himself, the challenger had to retrace his steps, going door-to-door, getting sworn, and notarized affidavits from the petition signers. The judge threw the petitions out anyway. How could he do that? What difference does it make? All that matters is that he did.

One recent losing aldermanic candidate even asked the judge to throw out all the ballots in precincts his opponent won. Of course, that would have made the loser the winner. Did it work? No, in this case the judge ruled against him. But so what – you won’t get it if you don’t ask.

Keep in mind: most local judges in Chicago now owe their jobs to Mayor Richard M. Daley. In Chicago, justice may be blind, but she ain’t stupid.

4.) Be a Bad Loser. Even when it’s over, it’s not over. Never make a gracious concession – always accuse the other side of stealing the election, even if you did more cheating than he did. We had one guy two years ago lead a march of several dozen supporters up Michigan Avenue and over to the county building in order to have his followers count the vote. Did it work? No. He got trounced. But it got him on TV and now everyone knows his name. Which can’t hurt in his next election.

Actually, as I re-read this list it sounds like it's from the GOP play book -- certainly as shown in "Recount," the HBO movie. In that film, this is how the Republicans snatched Florida from Vice President Al Gore back in 2000. No wonder President George Bush loves our Mayor Daley so much.

Of course, Florida wouldn’t have happened if Gore and his key advisors hadn’t been such wimps. So the ultimate lesson is this: Only saps play fair.

Remember the not-so-Golden Rule of Chicago politics: Do to the other guy what he would do to you – only make sure you do it first.

Ben Joravsky is a staff writer for Chicago Reader newspaper, where he writes a weekly column about politics.