‘COURAGEOUS, DIFFICULT DECISION’ | The private Rich Daley exits stage on his own terms

After his 21 years as mayor, we think we know Richard M. Daley.

But his brother Bill suggests we really don’t. By phone an hour after the mayor’s stunning announcement that he won’t run for a seventh term, Bill Daley told me there are two Rich Daleys. The one we see in public and the private one, about whom most of us know very little.


Still, some things can be gleaned from two decades in office.

Mayor Daley recognized early on that as a white guy from Bridgeport who had once been defeated by the historic candidacy of Harold Washington, he needed to build strong alliances with the African-American community. As a result, he never faced a significant challenge in the black wards.

Similarly, he recognized the need to mobilize in the Hispanic wards and so the controversial Hispanic Democratic Organization was born.

For those who believed that this Mayor Daley would be a duplicate of his father, Mayor Richard J. Daley, Richard M. Daley proved them wrong as he not only challenged but utterly infuriated city unions that once formed the bedrock of Chicago’s Democratic support.

He showed himself to be a Democrat who was cozier with Republican President George W. Bush than he ever was with Bill Clinton, a president of his own party.

And as Tuesday proved once again — as if his imperious midnight bulldozing of Meigs Field was not sufficient — Richard M. Daley once again surprised those of us who think we know him.

And so his hastily called news conference to make an unspecified but “major cabinet announcement” left some news organizations flat-footed. Only seven reporters filled the normally packed fifth floor press conference room.

When those of us in attendance saw the door open and Maggie and the kids walk out with the mayor, it was a jaw-dropper.

I didn’t see it coming. I believed he would, like his dad, die with his boots on in an office he couldn’t leave. Proof, if it was needed, that the private Rich Daley is not someone we really know.

Bill Daley argues that leaving is a “more courageous and difficult decision” than staying.

I agree. But it’s also more satisfying to exit the stage on your own terms.

Instead of a bruising, bloody election that he would in all probability win to — at 69— tackle seemingly insoluble budget shortfalls, Mayor Daley has controlled the arc of his exit from office.

The valedictories have begun.

And also the battle plans.

Potential candidates already have petitions in the field. They have from Nov. 15-22 to file.

There are alliances being formed.

Deals being made.

Lies being told.

Secrets shared.

Backs stabbed.

Fronts stabbed, too.

And there is, after 21 years, an opportunity for an open debate about the future of the city.

To borrow from the mayor’s goodbye, it’s time.

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