From the Tribune (Editorial):

The shrinking mayoral campaign

Published November 10, 2006

Four events Thursday conspired both to intrigue students of Chicago
politics and to delay (if not stifle) a debate that would benefit this
city:

- Mayor Richard Daley became an even stronger favorite to win another
term as mayor when his two most prominent potential challengers, U.S.
Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Luis Gutierrez, said they won't run. Who
can blame them? With Democrats set to control Congress, both House
members stand to gain decent committee or leadership assignments. That
leaves Daley with only two announced rivals, neither of whom
approaches the stature of Jackson or Gutierrez: Dorothy Brown, clerk
of the Cook County Circuit Court, and Bill "Dock" Walls, a one-time
aide to the late Mayor Harold Washington.

- The audience at a Chicago lunch sponsored by the Illinois Campaign
for Political Reform, a nonpartisan watchdog group, heard a candid,
even stirring talk titled "Fitzgerald on Fitzgerald." Former U.S. Sen.
Peter Fitzgerald recounted why and how he chose New York federal
prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald as his candidate for U.S. attorney in
Chicago. Peter Fitzgerald was determined to attack the Illinois
culture of political sleaze by recruiting a U.S. attorney who would
eviscerate public corruption here. Thus did Patrick Fitzgerald, who's
never run for office or passed out palm cards at a Chicago ward
breakfast, become the most powerful force in Illinois politics.
(Anybody want to argue with that?)

- A lawyer for Donald Tomczak, once a top City Hall operative,
suggested in federal court that his client was a product of "old
Chicago" who didn't change with the times. Tomczak had pleaded guilty
to taking some $400,000 in bribes through the city's corrupt Hired
Truck Program. He's also admitted that he helped rig city hirings and
promotions to benefit political workers. Now he's off to federal
prison for 47 months. But the "old Chicago" pleading at Tomczak's
sentencing evoked an argument that's been a consistent loser for
defense attorneys in Chicago corruption cases. Nobody wants to hear
that crimes are OK because systemic cheating is so quaint.

- After Tomczak's sentencing, federal prosecutor Patrick Collins
hinted that more depth charges will fall on City Hall. Asked for his
reaction to the "old Chicago" comment, Collins said: "I don't think
anybody--the judge, certainly not the government, the agents, I don't
think anybody with common sense buys into it as an excuse. ...
Clearly, some of Mr. Tomczak's crimes were condoned, they were
facilitated and I believe in some respects they were honored by
high-ranking portions of the City of Chicago." That reiterated, even
strengthened what Collins and Patrick Fitzgerald have said before:
They're not finished climbing the ladder at City Hall.

To connect these dots: Even as FBI agents and federal prosecutors
circle City Hall, Chicago is less likely to have the robust mayoral
debate over "waste, fraud and abuse" that Jesse Jackson Jr. had
championed. Maybe Dorothy Brown will provoke that debate.

Or maybe Chicagoans don't want to hear it. Maybe the organized City
Hall cheating of job applicants, honest contractors and city taxpayers
doesn't matter. The city looks good and for those who know how to work
it, it works. What a quiet race for mayor won't answer, though, is why
a clean city can't have a clean government.