By Steve Boulton -
Ten years ago, on July 27, 2005, Cook County Republican Chairman Gary Skoien announced a $10,000 reward for evidence leading to the conviction of Mayor Richard J. Daley on corruption charges. The idea of the reward did not originate with me, but I was quite involved as General Counsel of the County Party, with knowledge of the emerging federal probes of Chicago corruption.
In 2005, the Department of Justice employed specialized anti-corruption strike teams, each made up of a score of FBI agents and prosecutors. Only a select few cities had a strike team, but Chicago had three.
The reward was issued days after the indictment of Robert Sorich, head of the Office of Governmental Affairs, as federal prosecutors slowly revealed a massive, illegal scheme to unlawfully award jobs to Democrat campaign workers without regard to qualification and ahead of legitimate aspirants. Sorich, a Daley stalwart, had an office just steps from the Mayor’s in City Hall.
That fateful afternoon the Chicago political reporter corps was assembled in the offices of the Cook GOP in the Loop. In a side office with the door shut, Gary Skoien sat with Executive Director Tom Swiss and me, still weighing whether to issue the reward. Gary looked me in the eye and quietly asked “Will they get Daley?”
I replied that I did not know, but was confident that it would go higher than Sorich, as political higher ups had to know. Gary stared out the window for a full minute, then turned and softly said “Let’s go do this.”
I was very proud to stand next to him at the podium, which caused my then-girlfriend’s mother to call her in a panic after seeing me on TV, suggesting that I was out of my mind. That night, Channel 7 news anchor Mary Ann Childers could not keep a straight face as she announced the story on the air.
The reward created a sensation locally and eventually made Time magazine. The next day, Gary lost one of three positions he held in the real estate industry, rumored to be on the basis of a late night phone call from agents of the Mayor to Gary’s boss. I got off light: I only had my water meter replaced four times over the next year for no reason, each requiring a vacation day from work.
But then Robert Sorich was convicted. Then Al Sanchez, Commissioner for Streets and Sanitation was indicted, then convicted. The investigation resulted in over 30 indictments and 20 convictions, and the laughing stopped.
Eventually, the reward fund topped $100,000, but they never did indict Mayor Daley. Was he complicit? To this day I have no evidence, but I have no doubts.
The reward was but part of an active Cook County Republican Party effort under Gary Skoien, Pat Sutarik and Tom Swiss in 2004-7, challenging the Machine every way it could. It included commencing a lawsuit against Democrat Committeemen and Aldermen (which I was proud to lead all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, where the GOP won); recruiting 10,000 new election judges; conducting downtown protests; re-instituting the Cook County Convention; representing GOP candidates for free against Democrat ballot challenges; maintaining a public profile though press releases, and acting to fill all Republican ballot slots.
The effort culminated in Tony Peraica’s run for Cook County Board President which, while falling short, was the most successful GOP countywide campaign in 15 years.
The Cook GOP can be strong and relevant again if we demand it. It will require voting out those “Republican” leaders who are in politics for themselves or are “friends” of Democrat Machine masters.
Real Republicans have controlled the Chicago Party leadership since 2004, and change is now needed at the County level. With Democrat spending and pension policies hitting the wall, a true Republican voice is needed now more than ever.
But the effort will take all of us.
