IN AN echo of the far-fetched claims that Barack Obama is not really a US citizen, his former right-hand man Rahm Emanuel has also had to fight off, the claim that he is not a real Chicagoan or worse, not really a White Sox fan. Now, courtesy of an Illinois supreme court ruling on his Chicagoan authenticity, a $13 million war chest and endorsement by 55 per cent of the Windy City’s voters, Mayor Emanuel can take up the baton from the Daley dynasty which has run this city for 42 of the last 55 years.
But the mayoral chain is just on loan. The election of the city’s first jewish mayor also interrupts a long tradition of Irish Democratic control of the office, associated with strong machine politics, outrageous patronage and not a little corruption, despite the reality that the Irish now represent less than 6 per cent of the city’s population. From 1933 to 1976 the city was served consecutively by a Kelly, a Kennelly and a Daley, and since then by two Irish-Chicagoans, Jane Byrne and the latter’s son, Richard M Daley, for over half the intervening period.
Emanuel (51) cut his political teeth in the 2.6 million-strong city, the country’s third largest. He served as an aide to Daley, represented the city in the House of Representatives and then served as Obama’s chief of staff in Washington, leading to the questions about his Chicago residency. He brings a formidable reputation as a fixer, is known for his tough-guy negotiating style and blunt, colourful language. “Chicago is a city, as H.L. Mencken wrote, that is ‘alive from snout to tail’,” New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd observes. “Which is a pretty good description of the electrified Emanuel.”
The challenge he takes on is huge. Daley transformed the city’s look – it survived and thrived in transition from its industrial past into a booming hub of international commerce. But roughly 200,000 residents, many African Americans, left neighborhoods that didn’t share in downtown’s success. Though he tackled endemic patronage and corruption, he did not root it out – several of his aides are in jail. And he bust the budget, not least by blowing the $1.15 billion proceeds of the privatisation of the city’s parking meters. This money was supposed to last the city nearly a century. He also leaves staggering unfunded city pension liabilities and a dysfunctional school system. Students in the city’s public high schools are as likely to drop out as they are to graduate.
Emanuel faces a budget deficit of some $600 million, a challenge that may make him look back with longing at his old simple job running America at Obama’s side.