From The Chicago Tribune
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A grass-roots campaign (without the grass or roots)
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By Dan Mihalopoulos and Laurie Cohen, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Erika Slife and Gary Washburn contributed to this report
September 15, 2005
When Janet Murphy and her friends gave out "Support Our Mayor" buttons along the Magnificent Mile recently, they said they had no ties to Mayor Richard Daley.
Their $1,500 investment in 5,000 buttons, they said, was nothing more than a simple show of support for an embattled mayor who has made Chicago a world-class city.
But in a town where back-scratching is a way of life, it's no surprise that this grass-roots, pro-Daley movement sprang practically from the mayor's front lawn.
It turns out Murphy and Daley are quite well-acquainted. Her husband, Thomas J. Murphy, is a City Hall lobbyist and an owner of a company that has city contracts worth millions.
It also turns out that Daley has dined with the Murphys, visited their home, even met with them while traveling in India. The Daleys and Murphys have daughters who are friends. The mayor appointed Janet Murphy to the board of directors of the city's Sister Cities International program.
Janet Murphy said none of that is political, and her motivation in buying the buttons was purely a reaction to all the negative publicity focused on the Daley administration.
She dismissed the allegations of federal prosecutors, who accuse Daley's office of "massive fraud" involving patronage hiring. Authorities last month questioned Daley, who denies wrongdoing.
"I just think it's exaggerated," she said. "The city is working. That's it."
City Hall said it knew of the Murphys, but it was not acquainted with the button campaign until it was mentioned in the Tribune.
"No one in the mayor's office or in the mayor's family or the mayor's campaign knew anything about this," said Jacquelyn Heard, the mayor's spokeswoman.
The idea for the buttons emerged on the weekend before Labor Day as Murphy, 62, a real estate agent, and her friend Randy Jonas, 58, were sitting on the beach in Indiana near their vacation homes at Beverly Shores.
Bemoaning the daily drumbeat of negative media coverage, they decided to strike back with campaign-style lapel buttons.
"This was my idea, and she jumped on it," Jonas said.
Murphy and Jonas split the cost of the buttons with a like-minded friend, Diane Ciral, 70.
On Sept. 2, the three started near the Water Tower and marched south on Michigan Avenue, handing out the buttons to anybody who would take them and talking up the mayor to anybody who would listen.
Approached by reporters near Tribune Tower, Murphy praised the mayor for turning Chicago into a "gorgeous" city. The three said they thought the mayor was unaware of the alleged corruption. And they said they had no connection to Daley or to any political group.
What they did not say was that Murphy's husband heads All-Circo Inc., a lobbying firm with offices across the street from City Hall.
Thomas Murphy lobbies the Daley administration, including the mayor's office and many other city departments, for a long list of clients that have included the Chicago White Sox, Miller Brewing Co., Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Walgreen Co. and Caremark RX Inc.
Murphy and his partner, John J. Kelly, received more than $600,000 in lobbying fees last year, according to disclosure reports filed with the city's Board of Ethics.
Thomas Murphy also owns a stake in the parent company of a city contractor, Knight E/A Inc. Knight's engineering and architectural contracts in the last five years have been worth more than $10 million.
Thomas Murphy donated $1,000 to Daley's campaign in 2002. He said he had nothing to do with his wife's recent activities on behalf of the mayor: "That's her deal."
Janet Murphy said her daughter and Daley's younger daughter were studying in India at the same time in 2003. The mayor and his wife visited the country while the Murphys were also there to see their daughter. The two couples met up in Delhi.
"We sat together for a couple of dinners," Janet Murphy said this week when reminded of some of her social ties to the mayor.
In Daley's Sister Cities International program, she serves as a co-chair of the Casablanca Committee, which coordinates exchanges with the Moroccan city. She said she has paid for all of her travel related to Sister Cities.
Ciral, one of the three who distributed the buttons, also is involved with Sister Cities. She could not be reached for comment, but Janet Murphy pointed out that Ciral is a director of Friends of the Parks, a group often at odds with Daley.
The third button-passer, Jonas, said he has "absolutely no connection" to Daley except that he met the mayor once--at a party hosted by Janet Murphy about a year ago.
The three donated 1,000 of the buttons to other supporters of the mayor who plan to hold a rally for Daley at the Daley Center this fall.
The mayor is under fire as prosecutors allege fraudulent political hiring at city departments such as Streets and Sanitation.
But Murphy said there is nothing wrong with a little patronage hiring in a city where the proverbial wisdom includes the famous witticism, "Don't send nobody nobody sent."
"I want someone someone sent for a baby-sitter," she said. "Whoever is doing Streets and San and planting, I think they're doing a fabulous job. If somebody has loyalty or whatever, it doesn't upset me."
Asked if her husband would not be considered a City Hall insider, Janet Murphy said, "When you dig down, there's always a connection between everybody."