The logistical problems faced Tuesday by aides of Richard Daley on his first trip here as mayor weren’t limited to how to get 52 busloads of demonstrators to the Capitol steps to push for his anti-crime legislation.
They wanted to get the politicians out of the way so that Daley could get his picture taken the way they wanted: a crimefighter framed by a host of uniformed police officers, the kind of picture that fits neatly on campaign literature.
So, after Chicago aldermen and Statehouse politicians who sought to stand by the mayor were squeezed aside in favor of the cops, former state Sen. Daley stood for his photographs in the city he has avoided since becoming mayor in 1989.
Afterward, in a day that was as much about campaign imagery as about a pilgrimage to seek accommodation with the new Republican order that will run state government after January, the mayor’s vaunted yet watered-down anti-crime package progressed through the Illinois House.
While Daley talked about his anti-crime bill, hundreds of senior citizens from Chicago, ready to reboard the buses for the trip back home, raised their hands and clapped. Mayoral aides, armed with walkie-talkies worked the crowd, exhorted them and others who had gathered to wave signs, cheer, or otherwise be spontaneous.
“It cost a lot of money,” Daley said of the bus caravan and rally that cost his political campaign fund more than $50,000.
“I paid for it,” he said. “It cost a lot of money. You people say I should get down here. Well, I came down here. And you’re right, you have to pay for those buses. The city doesn’t pay for them. The suburban areas don’t pay for them. We had to pay for them.”
Many Democratic politicians showed for the rally, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to talk tough about crime and take a chance on being pictured next to a mayor who is a favorite going into a re-election campaign.
But there were notable exceptions, including Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Southwest Sider brought into politics by the mayor’s late father but often ignored by the son. A Madigan aide, taciturn over Democratic losses in last week’s election, said the speaker was unable to attend the event due to other business.
And so after years of avoiding the place where he and his father, the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, each cut their political teeth, Daley came back to Springfield to push for his current favorite legislation and his re-election as well.
He spent the day paying courtesy calls on some Republicans, who joked that a Chicago mayor sounding a more conservative tone in recent times should think about switching parties, as well as some minority Democrats who oppose his anti-crime package.
Republican Senate President James “Pate” Philip recalled that in the past when Daley had sent aides to work on legislative matters in Springfield, they often borrowed space in his office, not Madigan’s.
“I know in my heart that he probably voted for Jim Edgar, and I don’t blame him” Philip said. “Serving with him the way I did for eight years, he is generally speaking, more conservative than the average Democrat. We will take him tomorrow. Should I send him an application?”
Daley, however, has no plans to change parties, although his Tuesday visit did reflect a change in political tactics.
Included among the programs that Daley has not lobbied for personally in the past are his failed hope to build a third metropolitan airport at Lake Calumet; his so-far failed attempts at getting casino gambling and a theme park in his city; and his hopes to increase state funding for the Chicago Public Schools.
At a news conference after the Statehouse rally, Daley said that he had previously resisted making the trek down Interstate Highway 55 because his legislative positions on most issues are well known before any bill is offered.
But he said he felt this trip to push his anti-crime bill was necessary. “There was a lot of rhetoric before,” Daley said, “and everybody said wait until after the election. . . . And we did.”
Daley’s proposal once known as the Safe Neighborhoods Plan, targeting Chicago, has now taken a new form as the Illinois Safe Neighborhoods Bill in recognition of the new politics of the day.
Much of the original plan has been stripped of controversial issues in deference to Republicans: an assault weapons ban; a costly truth-in-sentencing provision. Also gone was the measure under which gun manufacturers and gun shop owners could be liable in civil court for damages, something opponents said would have effectively halted legal gun sales in the state.
Still remaining in the revised plan are new powers for local prosecutors to use wiretaps on gang affiliated crime; tougher penalties for those who illegally sell guns; and a mandated 10- to 45-year prison term for anyone convicted of firing a gun at a peace officer.
Three minor bills in a four-bill package were approved overwhelmingly by the House and sent to the desk of a vacationing Republican Gov. Jim Edgar. But the fourth bill-containing the bulk of the mayor’s initiative-was sent to the Senate where Philip plans to put his own imprimatur on the measure.
Dozens of anti-crime measures had been proposed in the spring session of the legislature and then stalled because of pre-election gridlock with members of each major political party wanting credit as being the toughest on crime.
Republicans and Democrats alike seemed to view Daley’s Tuesday visit to Springfield as part diplomacy and part re-election public relations given that his only announced Democratic opponent, Metropolitan Water Reclamation Commissioner Joseph Gardner, started his campaign by standing next to political activists with ties to street gangs.
But there were those who took the joking references about Daley’s political leanings in a more serious vein.
“All of this is just re-election politics,” said Daley critic Sen. William Shaw (D-Chicago). “He’s full of Republican ideas. He wants to privatize the schools and offer vouchers. He wants to privatize City Hall. It’s hard to tell who is more Republican, Daley or Pate.”
