From the Sun-Times:

Dem or GOP, election night a party for Daley

November 8, 2006
BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist
Mayor Richard M. Daley won by a landslide yesterday. He wasn't on the ballot, you say?
Oh, sure he was. His name was written in invisible ink right next to Todd Stroger.

In giving the nod to Todd, it didn't make a dime's bit of difference whether Todd was going to win or lose. Daley was sending his own strong signal to African-American voters -- and a warning to one specific African-American politician, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.

Daley the Unannounced launched his ground war against Jackson the Impertinent.

In September's Big Box battle to bring Wal-Mart stores to poor neighborhoods, Daley was masterful. He railed against racism, argued a low-paying job is better than no job at all, but left himself wiggle room by saying the Legislature could raise the minimum wage. In doing so, Daley has been a flawless Republocrat, Republican enough for big business and Democrat enough for the African-American community.

The mayor then pledged to put an Olympic stadium on the South Side, to reorganize the Police Department's Office of Professional Standards, which is despised in the black community, and managed to gush over Oprah, P. Diddy and Beyonce.

Hispanics? He chose state Sen. Miguel del Valle as his city clerk ballot-mate and partner in a fight against assault weapons.

The mayor can't always talk, but can he count.

In the March primary, of the 10 highest-turnout wards, six were middle-class and black. In the 4th, 6th, 8th, 18th, 21st, and 34th, nearly 79,000 votes were cast. Meanwhile, only three of the vaunted white ethnic wards -- the 13th, 19th and 23rd -- made it into the top 10. Daley's home 11th Ward couldn't deliver 10,000 votes, and Dick Mell's 33rd managed only half of that.

Power is slowly shifting away from those white ethnic bastions. And three of the four biggest losers in registered voters from 2002 to 2006 were political powerhouses -- Mike Madigan (13th), Ed Burke (14th), and Tom Hynes (19th).

And so Daley, the Dempublican, has managed a brilliant political blend. Republican House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is his ally and Congressman Rahm Emanuel, architect of Tuesday's Democratic run on the House, is his loyalist.

Though the mayor still can't tell us who hired the now-imprisoned Angelo Torres in his Hired Truck scandal or who authorized his convicted patronage chief, Robert Sorich, to violate federal hiring decrees, Daley has shaken off the taint of all that corruption and is marching confidently into his next election.

Tonight he holds his first fund-raiser in two years at Manny's corned beef palace with $2 million already parked in the bank as of June.

Who won yesterday?

Daley did.