When I first came to Chicago, I was 26 years old, but the city was already very much in my mind. I was out of college and had worked for a couple of years in Washington, D.C. That was 1983.
I grew up in Athens, Ohio, where we did not have radio stations worthy of the name. My friends and I would always listen to WCFL and WLS. Even as kids, our focus was on the big city of Chicago-the capital of the Midwest. Chicago was always a big deal in our family, too, and I was very happy to be headed this way.
My first impression of the city was that it had incredible energy. I had always grown up in small towns, but even Washington can’t hold a candle to Chicago in terms of being a big city with energy and diversity and excitement. I’m a Chicagoan by choice, and it’s a strong choice-and an easy one.
I think one of the reasons Chicago has such a natural appeal for me is that I’m the son of an immigrant, a German-and this is a town of neighborhoods and ethnic, cultural and racial diversity. I remember when I came back for Rich Daley’s campaign in 1989, Eugene Schulter, the German alderman of the 47th Ward, called me up and said, “We’re so proud of you.”
At first, I didn’t know whom he meant by “we.” He meant Germans. And that struck me: I knew I wasn’t in Iowa or Ohio anymore. I knew I was in a city of neighborhoods. I knew I was in Chicago.
When I first came to Chicago, I worked briefly for Pat Quinn, who’s now the state treasurer. Then I went to work for Paul Simon’s campaign, first as the field director and then as the executive director. I left Chicago for a few years after Simon’s victory, but came back for Rich Daley’s campaign, and I was thrilled to be back in Chicago. And my hope is to come back again when I’m done with my current job, because there’s no place like it. I like to say that after having worked a national campaign, I’m probably finally prepared to really work in Chicago.
I think it’s true of politics that if you can make it in Chicago, you can make it anywhere. For starters, the very diversity that makes Chicago so much fun and such an interesting place is also an enormous challenge politically. It’s a challenge to make that diversity a source of energy and inspiration rather than a source of division and feuding.
I learned in Chicago that the Democratic Party, a party of tremendous diversity, truly is a party where people will respond honestly and fairly to you if you treat them honestly and fairly and with respect. That, I learned, is the only way you can succeed in politics in the long run and the only way it’s worth succeeding.
I have so many memories of my work in Chicago it’s hard to pick a favorite. It’s the whole collage of experiences in the city. It’s going from an event like a St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the South Side to something totally different on the lake. It’s an event in the 26th Ward with Luis Gutierrez, or the German Oompah Band event that we had in the 47th Ward, or the day late in the Daley campaign in 1989 when I was made an honorary Irishman by Rich Daley and some others. This is the extraordinary and colorful breadth of life that really stands out when you think about Chicago.
Despite all the diversity, it was fascinating to me just how similar people’s aspirations were, regardless of where they lived in the city. How people defined the most important problems facing the city or the goals they had for themselves. The hopes and the dreams are very similar all over this city. The politician who can tap that unity in goals and purpose is the politician who will succeed.
Another thing I love about this city is the joy and fervor that Chicagoans bring to politics. We’d do focus groups, the moderator would ask the people where they live, and people would respond by saying, “I live in the 47th Ward,” or, “I live in the 8th Ward.” I don’t think there’s another city in the country where people still identify themselves with their political jurisdiction like that.
And Chicago is a city filled with political consultants. The average person knows his or her alderman, has an opinion about the alderman and about what the alderman and the mayor ought to be doing, what strategy might be better. It’s fascinating; here, politics is the best sport in town.
For somebody in politics, Chicago is an extraordinary training ground. You have such balance and give-and-take among groups. And the city is representative of the rest of the nation because the concerns of the people here are the same as those of urban and rural citizens anywhere else in the United States: They want an educational system that works, a health care system that works, a government that is on their side and actively seeking to help them reach their full potential. I think this is just as true in the city of Chicago as anywhere else. That was something I needed to learn, and something I did learn here.
Chicago teaches what the party has to learn, too, because the way the party operates in Chicago is the way it should operate in the nation. We need to understand that our power and our energy come from the grass roots. We need to shift our financing away from big donors to a much broader base of small donors. We have to make the party relevant to the things that matter in people’s everyday lives. I’d like to think that many of the plans we’re making at the national level these days come out of my experience here in Chicago.
I come back to Chicago as often as I can. My friends are here. The Cubs are here. The Bears are here. The best food is here. Try to find a place like Zum Deutschen Eck in Washington. You can’t do it; it doesn’t exist. When we lived in the 44th Ward, we could hear Harry Caray sing, from our deck. Stuff like that just doesn’t happen in Washington-or anywhere else. This is our home, and it’s hard to leave. Food, sports and politics-that’s Chicago. I’ll be back.
