IN AN OFFICE cluttered with the memorabilia of five decades in politics
–the pictures, the plaques, the trophies–George Dunne leaned back and recalled the time Mayor Richard Daley asked him to run for mayor.
It was late in Daley`s fifth term. The mayor, then 72, had suffered a debilitating stroke, and many people doubted he would run for re-election.
”George,” Dunne remembers Daley saying to him, ”I think you ought to close out your career here. It would be wonderful.”
”Oh, Mr. Mayor, you stay right where you`re at,” Dunne responded.
”Well, I`d like to have you think about it,” the mayor replied.
Daley called Dunne several times to plead his case, but Dunne demurred. In the end, Daley ran for re-election in 1975 and easily won what turned out to be his last term.
”I thought,” Dunne now says with a wry chuckle, ”that that`s what he really wanted to do in the first place.”
THERE IS NO way to verify Dunne`s memory; Daley was renowned for never designating a successor. But Dunne, the 71-year-old veteran Democratic war horse in his sixth term on the Cook County Board, his third as president, now finds himself in much the same position his mentor was in a decade ago.
In the twilight of his career, with many of his accomplishments behind him, Dunne sees ambitious young politicians quietly maneuvering to succeed him if and when he steps down.
But the gray fox of Chicago politics is not leaving the scene, not just yet. He is up for re-election in 1986 and, from all indications, he intends to run again.
”If I`m feeling like I am now a year from now, I`ll be a candidate,” he said confidently.
Few believe Dunne would have much trouble winning, either in a Democratic primary or a general election.
HE IS ONE OF the more durable politicians produced by the Chicago Democratic machine. He is a man known for his charm and Irish wit, a politician with opponents but few enemies, an administrator with a reputation as a fiscal conservative, a party man now enjoying the fruits of his many years of loyalty.
”He has been a relatively noncontroversial person,” said one Democrat.
”He has labored long and hard in the vineyard, so many people have benefited in their political careers because George has been on their side.” A year ago Dunne`s future was not so bright. In 1982, Mayor Jane Byrne had dumped him as Cook County Democratic chairman because of his alliance with State`s Atty. Richard Daley, son of the late mayor, who was preparing to run against Byrne.
Shortly after his re-election as county board president in November of 1982, the Byrne forces, led by the new county chairman, Ald. Edward Vrdolyak
(10th), stripped Dunne of much of his power on the board through a coalition of suburban Republicans and Byrne Democrats.
LAST SPRING Dunne considered challenging Vrdolyak for his old job as party chairman, then pulled back when he saw he wouldn`t win.
That turned out to be a turning point. A month later, under pressure from Democratic leaders eager for unity in the presidential campaign, Vrdolyak backed a Dunne supporter, John Stroger, for chairman of the board`s important Finance Committee, signaling a truce between the two powerful Democrats.
As a result, there are no major political factions now taking aim at Dunne`s head. He embraced Mayor Harold Washington after his party primary victory in 1983, so he is one of the few Democratic regulars at peace with both sides in the ”Council Wars” struggle at City Hall.
Even among Republicans there seems to be minimal interest in taking Dunne on, given his 460,000-vote victory margin in 1982 against former State`s Atty. Bernard Carey, who was thought to be the strongest GOP foe for the job in nearly two decades.
Still, county board president is considered the second-most powerful job in Cook County–second only to mayor of Chicago–and Dunne`s popularity has not stopped rivals and friends from dreaming.
MOST PROMINENT among them is County Clerk Stanley Kusper, who has spent more than 10 years in his present job and is eager to move on. Kusper has long talked about running for board president, leading some to believe that 1986 will be the year he finally takes the plunge.
There was even speculation he would announce his plans by the end of the month. ”I might have a busy January,” he said several weeks ago.
But now he appears to have backed off, saying he is considering other options, including a possible run for statewide office. ”I love being county clerk,” he said, ”but I don`t believe one should hang on to an office too long.”
If Kusper seeks another office, that could set off a scramble for his job, which is one of numerous county offices at stake in 1986. In the other major county posts, Sheriff Richard Elrod is not expected to face serious opposition; Treasurer Edward Rosewell, who was acquitted of bank fraud charges a year ago, may not be as lucky.
AS FOR DUNNE, some politicians have speculated that he might retire if he were sure an ally such as House Speaker Michael Madigan (D., Chicago) would succeed him. But even Madigan, who harbors ambitions to be either governor or county board president, doesn`t believe in that scenario.
”Who is the last Chicago Irish politician who voluntarily retired?” he asked rhetorically.
There is even a school of thought that Daley, abandoning the idea of running for mayor, might try to force his erstwhile ally to retire so he could advance his career by running for the board presidency.
There have been strains between Dunne and Daley in recent years. Dunne is known to believe that the Daley forces were too quick to join with Vrdolyak in the City Hall feuds. And he was reportedly miffed that Daley did not support his abortive bid to regain the party chairmanship last spring.
BUT OTHERS think such a scenario is far-fetched. Moreover, people close to Daley say he is tired of the campaign trail–he has run five races in the last five years–and that he would still rather be mayor than board president. Indeed, the general consensus is that, short of a political scandal or poor health, Dunne may be able to remain as board president for as long as he wants. For a widower whose children and grandchildren live thousands of miles away, politics is more than a job; it`s his life.
”I don`t know what George would do with an abundance of free time,” a fellow board member said. ”I think George will go out with his boots on.”
And Dunne doesn`t sound like a man looking for retirement.
”If I feel good, I`m going,” he said about running for re-election.
”I`m a 71-year-old teenager. . . . I don`t think I could sit around. That`s not my cup of tea.”
