May 25, 2005
FOR DICK MELL, WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND
ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART
In swaggeringly proclaiming that he has the "testicular virility" to resist those who "threaten and bluster and bully to get their way," Governor Rod Blagojevich has firmly solidified his position as "Ingrate Number One" in Chicago and Illinois politics.
And he also demonstrated anew the political immaturity and convenient forgetfulness that explains why many state legislators and Chicago Democratic politicians still derisively refer to the 48-year-old governor as "The Kid."
Blagojevich said that his "hard decision" to order a January shutdown of a landfill that was "operating illegally," and in which his father-in-law, Alderman Dick Mell (33rd), "was involved," is what "separates the men from the boys." The governor said that Mell had conveyed "threats" to him prior to his shutdown order, and the governor's press spokeswoman accused Mell of "pathological behavior."
This latest installment of Illinois' "First-Family Feud" has Chicago politicians snickering. From their perspective, it takes a lot more guts to be grateful and loyal to one's benefactors or family than it does to demean and repudiate them. And it was Mell's threatening, blustering and bullying -- the "method of operation" so roundly disparaged by Blagojevich -- which elevated Blagojevich, with the help of luck, from obscurity to the governorship.
Why is he "Ingrate Number One"? Throughout his political career, Blagojevich has always been in the right place at the right time, due almost entirely to the machinations of Mell, who put him in a position to advance and then facilitated his advancement. It was Richard J. Daley who stated, back in the early 1970s that there's nothing wrong with a father helping his sons. Mell probably is uttering a variant thereon: If a father-in-law helps his son-in-law, how dumb is he?
According to a source close to Mell, the alderman feels more shame than anger over his son-in-law's comportment as governor. During 2001 and 2002, it was Mell who repeatedly vouched for Blagojevich, assuring the mayor, as well as his fellow Chicago ward bosses and Downstate county chairmen, that "The Kid" would be a team player as governor, namely, that he would cooperate with a Democratic legislature and that he would open the spigot of state patronage and supply jobs to worthy Democrats. Blagojevich has done neither, and Mell has been humiliated.
But perhaps "The Kid" learned lessons well from the "Old Man." Perhaps loyalty is not necessarily a family trait.
The great irony of the Mell-Blagojevich spat is that the alderman spent almost 15 years feuding with state Representative Al Ronan, an ambitious Democrat who represented the House district encompassing Mell's 33rd Ward from 1979 to 1992. When, after the 1991 legislative redistricting, Ronan chose to run for re-election in the newly created 34th Illinois House district centered on Lakeview, which was to the north and east of Mell's 33rd Ward, Mell was handed a golden opportunity to hand-pick the nominee in the new 33rd Illinois House district, which was centered on his ward. And he chose his son-in-law.
Mell and Ronan had a long history, which evolved from bitter rivalry to tenuous accommodation. Ronan was a political organizer for Dan Walker in 1972, and he was rewarded with a high-level post in the state Department of Transportation. His job there was to develop a patronage army of workers that would help Walker, the so-called "reform governor" elected in 1972, get re-elected in 1976. But Ronan's ambition surpassed his loyalty, and instead of focusing on saving the embattled (and increasingly unpopular) Walker, he focused on advancing himself. In 1976, at the age of 28, he ran for state representative as an "independent" in the Democratic primary in the old 14th Illinois House district, which consisted mainly of the 33rd and 47th wards. The incumbents were John Brandt, the 33rd Ward Democratic committeeman, and Bruce Farley, out of Committeeman Ed Kelly's 47th Ward.
Mell, a manufacturer of steel springs and coils, had been a precinct captain for Brandt. In 1972 Mell broke with Brandt, who had been an alderman from 1939 to 1959, and ran for committeeman, losing narrowly. In 1975, after Brandt dumped 33rd Ward Alderman Rex Sande, the 35-year old Mell ran for the spot. Brandt backed John Galvin, his ward secretary, and the hard-campaigning, free-spending Mell, who was endorsed by Sande, upset him by 246 votes.
Mell then began plotting to unseat Brandt as committeeman in 1976. So, as they say, what goes around, comes around. Mell's loyalty to Brandt evaporated when ambition called. Does this sound familiar?
The 1976 primary was a Machiavellian wonder to behold. Mell was running against Brandt for committeeman, but his workers were backing Brandt for state representative because Mell didn't want Ronan to win, and Ronan's army of state workers were backing Brandt for committeeman because Ronan didn't want Mell to win. Under the old multi-member district system, each district elected three state representatives, and each party nominated two candidates. Due to the efforts of Mell and Kelly, Farley got 33,070 votes, Brandt got 27,940 votes, and Ronan was the loser with 25,319. And Mell, of course, as the sitting alderman, easily beat Brandt for committeeman.
So the stage was set for a titanic battle in 1978 between Mell and Ronan to replace Brandt, who clearly was washed up. Mell was a Daley-Bilandic Administration loyalist who was getting city jobs and building a potent ward organization, and he wanted a loyal state representative from his ward. With Walker's loss to Republican Jim Thompson, Ronan's power base at IDOT diminished. But then the potential combatants stunned the political world by making a deal. Erstwhile independent Ronan joined Mell's 33rd Ward organization, and he became the Mell-backed candidate for Brandt's House seat in 1978.
Thus, when Blagojevich is accused of being calculating, opportunistic or inconsistent, it should be remembered that Mell is no paragon of consistency. He has made deals and shifted alliances whenever expediency requires.
After Ronan won his House seat in 1978, he quickly became one of Springfield's shrewdest insiders, emerging as the unofficial "czar of IDOT." Working with Thompson, Chicago Democrats and Republicans, and Downstate Democratic chairmen, Ronan helped deliver votes for the governor on key bills. And Ronan, on the committee that regulated transportation funding, re-established his dominance at the Department of Transportation and seized control of the department's thousands of jobs.
Ronan had many allies, including the late Roger McAuliffe, a Northwest Side Republican state representative and a strong Thompson supporter. Ronan helped McAuliffe put his people into dozens of IDOT jobs (one of whom, incidentally, was Brian Doherty, now the 41st Ward alderman), he made sure Downstate chairmen got patronage, and he amassed a roving precinct army, which he deployed into other wards and suburban townships on behalf of his chosen candidates. Ronan was cautiously planning for what he believed was his ultimate ascension to Illinois' governorship. He was making allies throughout the state, working with the Republicans when needed, and building a massive patronage operation.
Meanwhile, back in the 33rd Ward, the Mell-Ronan tandem had political matters well under control. Mell had allied himself with Jane Byrne, kept his army of city jobs, which were supplemented by Ronan's workers when needed, and delivered a hefty 61 percent of the vote for Byrne in the 1983 primary against Harold Washington and Rich Daley.
Mell should have been on top of the world, but his ego got in the way. According to 33rd Ward sources, he resented Ronan's growing influence, he feared that Ronan could oppose him for committeeman or alderman, and he feared being eclipsed by Ronan should he move into statewide office.
But then, in 1992, fate smiled on Mell. Ronan was planning to run for secretary of state against incumbent Republican George Ryan or for some other statewide office in 1994, and he decided that he wanted to broaden his political base. So instead of seeking certain re-election from the 33rd House district, he ran in the 34th District, was opposed by Nancy Kaszak, who had made a name for herself as an opponent of night Cubs games, and, in a Democratic primary when women were sweeping to victory, lost by 2,719 votes, getting just 41.6 percent of the vote. Ronan's career was over.
But in the 33rd District, Blagojevich's career was just beginning. The incumbent was Democrat Myron Kulas, out of the 32nd Ward, but Mell wanted a safe and submissive legislator, and who better than his son-in-law? Even though Ronan's precinct army was deployed elsewhere, Mell had more than enough workers to carry the 33rd Ward overwhelmingly for Blagojevich, who beat Kulas 11,771-6,968, with 62.8 percent of the vote.
So "Hot Rod" went to Springfield, where he failed to distinguish himself. In 1994 26-year Democratic incumbent U.S. Representative Dan Rostenkowski lost his bid for re-election, and in 1996 Mell's "threatening, blustering and bullying" enabled Blagojevich to get nominated for Congress. He narrowly defeated Kaszak, 33,907-26,115, getting 49.8 percent of the vote. It was Mell who whipped his fellow committeemen into line, and it was the committeemen (especially the 36th Ward's Bill Banks) who produced sufficient Blagojevich margins in their wards for him to prevail. So "Hot Rod" went to Washington, where he failed to distinguish himself.
And in 2002 Mell promised everybody that "The Kid" would be a great governor. Suffice it to say that Al Ronan, were he now governor, would be less of an irritant to Mell than the present governor. The next time Mell has a chance to pick his state representative, he'd be better off nominating his loyal, obedient dog.