If Lawrence Bloom’s indictment on federal corruption charges Tuesday was shocking, it was because of his reputation as the pillar of independence and integrity on the Chicago City Council, a goody-two-shoes in a rack of mud-splattered brogans.
Over his 16-year career in politics, the retired 5th Ward alderman delivered a virtual clinic on righteousness.
“The issues of corruption, discrimination, patronage abuses– these must be forcefully raised and reraised,” declared Bloom in 1979 as a starry-eyed 35-year-old reformer on his way to election for the first time.
His message was much the same when Bloom briefly took a run at Richard Daley in a 1989 Democratic mayoral primary.
“Winking at corruption or apparent corruption was an acceptable practice in the old days,” Bloom observed, suggesting the future mayor was a winker at heart.
Over the years, Bloom established himself as one of the smartest and certainly the most experienced of the dwindling independent bloc.
But unlike his independent brethren who throughout the years have ranted and raved and rarely accomplished much, Bloom had been careful to temper his criticism enough to not burn bridges with city power brokers. As such, he got things done for his ward and had a down-to-earth grasp of how things really worked in the city.
Even when his worst foes were down and out, Bloom could feel a touch of empathy, one that eventually would seem prescient.
Once, after another in a seemingly endless round of City Hall indictments, then-Ald. Bloom was moved to reflect on the cold reception that inevitably awaited colleagues under a cloud.
“Perhaps the most devastating thing is how polite people are,” he explained. “It’s a formal politeness. It’s not politic to be seen with them. You become more circumspect, especially when a person’s alleged to be taking bribes.”
Now, it is Bloom’s turn to feel the sting of that edgy politeness, the cold shoulders, the suddenly truncated conversations.
In truth, he has likely endured all that since early 1996, when Operation Silver Shovel prosecutors first acknowledged they had secretly recorded Bloom–while still in office–taking money from a con man who was a government mole.
Suddenly, the always-available-for-comment-on-whatever-subject Bloom wasn’t available anymore.
But Tuesday, he briefly emerged from self-imposed public hibernation to deny the federal government’s allegations and bristle with indignation.
As he spoke in his lawyer’s Loop office, Bloom was surrounded by his wife, their two teenaged children and a knot of friends. The scene resembled a campaign appearance. In a way, it was, as Bloom sought to portray himself as a victim set up by an out-of-control U.S. attorney.
“I know who I am, and I know how I served,” Bloom declared, reading a prepared statement minutes after his indictment was announced. “When all the evidence is in, ask yourself this question: Which public official violated the public trust–the alderman or the prosecutor?”
Blocks away at City Hall, even council veterans who have seen it all were scratching their heads over Bloom’s troubles.
“I can’t believe he would have it in him,” said Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th). “Bottom line, it doesn’t fit.”
While Bloom has kept a low public profile in the last 18 months, he hasn’t been invisible.
Former Ald. Martin Oberman, another onetime council independent, said Bloom has been putting in regular hours at Bloom’s Loop law practice.
“He hasn’t broken down, he’s functioning,” said Oberman, who nevertheless has noticed a change. “Larry’s a very funny guy and he’s always had a cheery mood about him. But you can tell there’s definitely a strain. He doesn’t joke about this.”
Bloom’s fellow worshipers at KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation in Hyde Park also seemed to rally around him. Even with the federal investigation, synagogue members elected Bloom to a one-year term as congregation president last year.
“He was a very effective president, in some ways maybe more so than he otherwise might have been,” said Arnold Wolf, Bloom’s rabbi. “When he spoke to the congregation on the High Holidays, he spoke movingly. It was mostly about what counts and what doesn’t. What counts most, he said, is family and community.”
The indictment of Bloom, 53, comes only two years after he opted not to seek a fifth term as alderman, a decision that was a bow to political reality. A white alderman representing a predominantly African-American ward, Bloom had always had a tenuous hold on office. Ward boundary shifts had rendered his re-election chances a long shot.
At the time, his retirement seemed merely to mark the end of the public career of another dedicated Hyde Park liberal in the tradition of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Douglas and alderman-emeritus Leon Despres.
Born in the Hollywood Park neighborhood on the city’s Northwest Side, Bloom moved to Highland Park as a youth. It wasn’t until the 1960s, when he was a student at the University of Chicago and later its law school, that he adopted Hyde Park as his home.
Bloom took to politics quickly. In 1979, he adopted an “independenter-than-thou” platform to topple then-Ald. Ross Lathrop.
When newly elected Mayor Jane Byrne quickly turned her back on her liberal and independent claims, Bloom maintained his and emerged as one of her chief critics. In 1983, he endorsed Harold Washington to replace her. It was an act of political courage and political survival.
While a bastion of University of Chicago liberalism, the 5th Ward also was three-fourths black in population. Bloom was just the latest in a line of white aldermen representing the predominantly minority area.
Washington won, and Bloom stepped forward as one of his few white supporters during the chaotic Council Wars days. Even then, Bloom would occasionally step forward to gently scold Washington if he felt the mayor was falling into the wheeling-and-dealing ways of his predecessors.
When Richard M. Daley reclaimed his clan’s title to the mayor’s office in 1989, Bloom, unsuccessful in his mayoral bid, once again became the voice of liberalism and the dean of City Council independents. But Daley quickly maneuvered to subdue his critics, including Bloom, who more often than not voted to support Daley initiatives.
Bloom later came to rationalize it this way:
“I have always acted independently while working harmoniously with the executive branch,” he said during his swan song political campaign in 1995 against city Treasurer Miriam Santos. His candidacy was widely viewed as having the blessing of Daley, who was feuding with Santos.
It was an older, more experienced and more cooperative Bloom who made those remarks, no longer a liberal firebrand but still the image of integrity as he bowed out of City Hall.
But with months of speculation culminating in Tuesday’s indictment, the image of Bloom has been indelibly changed, no matter what the courts final say.
