Right-wing activists seized on Emanuel’s involvement with Freddie Mac to bolster their narrative of widespread “Chicago-style” corruption within the Obama administration. But it was really just another example of Emanuel’s longstanding ties to the financial sector, and of how his career had been built in part upon leveraging those ties for political and personal gain.
The ultimate takeaway of Emanuel’s time in the private sector may be this: although he had the political savvy and financial smarts to earn some $18 million in investment banking in a few years, those same qualities didn’t prevent him from standing by while people purportedly under his watch took a big gamble involving billions in taxpayer money and the homes of millions of Americans.
Photo by the Office of U.S. Congressman Rahm Emanuel.
Congressman Rahm Emanuel met constituents at a Chicago supermarket. Emanuel’s congressional campaign cast him as a Chicagoan like his police officer Uncle Les.
4
Rahm Goes to Congress
Emanuel’s brief career in investment banking was clearly a great success. But he studiously avoided talking about his foray into the private sector when he made his next career move: running for Congress in Illinois’s Fifth District.
The district represents more than half a million people, and stretches from lakefront high-rises on the east to unassuming blocks of typical Chicago bungalows further west, including several suburbs. It includes neighborhoods full of nightlife, such as the Boystown gay district; Wrigleyville, home to the Cubs’ ball field; as well as quiet upscale residential enclaves like Emanuel’s Ravenswood neighborhood. The median household income in 2000 was about $50,000.1 The district was about three-quarters white and about a quarter Latino, with small African American and Asian populations.2 The population logged as white by the Census was actually a prime example of ethnic Chicago, including a large number of Polish immigrants and Polish Americans, German Americans, numerous Bosnians and Russians, and a significant Jewish community.3
Emanuel reportedly decided to run for Congress almost on a whim after a certain Illinois politician jogged by while Emanuel was in the yard playing with his kids. Rod Blagojevich, who was then serving as congressman of the Fifth District, stopped his workout long enough to tell Emanuel he was thinking of running for governor.4
Two significant Democratic candidates had thrown their hats in the ring for Blagojevich’s seat before Emanuel entered the race. They were Bernie Hansen, an alderman who’d been in City Council since 1983 and was a longstanding member of the famous Chicago Democratic “Machine”; and Nancy Kaszak, a state representative and lawyer of Polish descent.
Hansen dropped out of the race abruptly after Emanuel declared his candidacy; insiders speculated that Mayor Daley had pushed him to quit.5 Such machinations are common in politics, but in Chicago they happen in the special context of the Machine. By the turn of the twenty-first century, many experts considered the Machine defunct, yet its legacy and dynamics certainly played a role in Emanuel’s political career—including in his congressional bid.
“The Machine” refers to the powerful Democratic Party organization that has controlled many of Chicago’s political posts and other power structures since it was launched in the 1930s by Bohemian immigrant mayor Anton Cermak, who accumulated and maintained power in part by doling out thousands of patronage jobs with city agencies and appointments to political posts, demanding loyalty and legwork in return. Deciding which candidates will get party backing or even run at all was a hallowed Machine function. Machine support was long considered key to winning Chicago elections, because the Machine turned out patronage workers to campaign for and donate to chosen candidates while undermining opponents.
The Machine’s grip on Chicago has loosened and tightened at various points over the years, with a defining figure being legendary Mayor Richard J. Daley, “the Boss,” who served from 1955 to 1976. The 1983 election of African American mayor Harold Washington broke the Machine’s traditional hold and launched the “Council Wars,” with City Council split between aldermen loyal to Washington and powerful ethnic white South Side alderman Ed Vrdolyak. One of Vrdolyak’s top lieutenants in the anti-Washington bloc was Irish American Alderman Ed Burke, who was still on the City Council when Emanuel took over.
Washington died in office after being reelected in 1987, and Daley’s son Richard M. Daley was elected mayor in 1989. Although the Machine changed in structure and diminished in power from the days of the Boss, some saw its traces in the multiracial, multiethnic yet top-down coalitions that the younger Daley assembled. Rather than outright racial conflict, as had been seen during past decades, Daley’s Machine formed mutually beneficial alliances with powerful African American and Latino leaders and groups including the Hispanic Democratic Organization. Patronage jobs were reduced by economic factors and a federal consent decree, but a modern if less omnipotent version of the Machine continued to deal in political clout, including in the awarding of city contracts to private businesses. So while many considered the Machine dead by the time Emanuel took office, others saw it in an altered state—still a formidable foe, and now with Emanuel very much a part of it.
A Chicago Girl
Nancy Kaszak was a well-known and well-liked figure in the community, a populist and liberal who had grown up in the blue-collar south suburbs. Her father worked two jobs, at an oil refinery in northwest Indiana by day and at Sears by night. Kaszak was the first in her family to graduate from college, with a business degree from Northern Illinois University.6
She had worked as a consultant, fundraiser, and official for universities and nonprofit organizations, including chief attorney for the Chicago Park District during Harold Washington’s term as mayor.7 She had a history of running as an independent against Machine candidates, including an unsuccessful bid for alderman in 1987, and the 1992 race where she unseated the Machine-linked incumbent to become a state representative.8 In that campaign her co-chair was Abner Mikva—the congressman and future federal judge for whom both she and Emanuel had campaigned in the past.9 In 1996 Kaszak ran against Blagojevich—also a state representative at the time—in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat then held by a Republican. Kaszak lost in a close race, with Blagojevich receiving an endorsement from Mayor Daley and help from his father-in-law, Richard Mell, a powerful alderman.10 Blagojevich went on to beat incumbent Michael Flanagan with two-thirds of the vote in the general election.11
As a state representative, Kaszak gained attention for her campaigns against night baseball games at Wrigley Field, in which she argued that they were a disruption and a hassle for nearby residents. She generally compiled a liberal voting record, earning high marks from unions, women’s groups, and community advocates.12
Kaszak was the granddaughter of Polish immigrants, and she worked her Polish roots. The Polish-language media and community leaders embraced her during her campaigns. She announced her Fifth District candidacy at the Copernicus Center, “surrounded by portraits of Polish kings,” as reporter Chris Hayes noted in a profile.13
A Machine Guy
Emanuel announced his candidacy in November 2001. In a rare move, Mayor Daley—who usually didn’t intervene in congressional races—gave his endorsement. He also helped Emanuel secure the backing of the all-important “ward bosses,” who are key in Chicago elections because they use their clout and influence to turn out scores of volunteers and voters for Machine candidates. Former mayor Jane Byrne, a native of the area, supported Kaszak, saying, “I think it would be wonderful for the Fifth District and for the city of Chicago if Nancy beat the political machine. It would also be a breath of fresh air for the Democratic Party.”14
So the Fifth District congressional Democratic primary matchup between Emanuel and Kaszak was a classic Chicago race pitting a Machine candidate against an independent with grassroots bona fides.
Kaszak was